The Chinese nation has a long history of five thousand years in that the preserved ancient engineering and construction wonders are true reflections of the ancient Chinese civilization,wisdom and ideological essence and the traditional Chinese ideas and concepts. This paper lists a number of the wonders representing the highest achievements in the history of ancient Chinese engineering and construction and expounds their engineering skills and construction (architectural) features. On this basis, the characteristics of engineering and construction in ancient China are summed up with further analyzing of the essence in ancient engineering management thoughts,that is,the "people-oriented" and "harmonization between the people and the nature". Based on the study of history and characteristics of Chinese engineering and construction the purpose is to provide the basic support for grasping the essence of engineering management and developing of modern engineering management.