Of all the wonderful things Beijing has to offer the ones that had the most lasting impression on me about the visit to Beijing were the parks, the gardens and the general use of public space. Beijing has a quite a few nice parks with various attractions to explore (see my previous posts about Chaoyang Sun Park, Zhongshan Park and Temple of Heaven Park), and Beihai Park is just as lovely. It’s close to the forbidden city, dating back to the 10th century and including a variety of Chinese gardens, temples and imperial structures.
The most recognizable of those is up on a small hill on an island – Quionghua – situated at the center of the large park lake…
The Beijing government website has the following on the park:
Beihai Park, one of the oldest and best-preserved imperial gardens, is located in the center of Beijing, and is very close to the famous Forbidden City. Beihai Park boasts a history dating back more than a millenium and existed throughout the dynasties of Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing. It was first opened to the public as a park in 1925.
Beihai Park covers an area of more than 68 hectares, more than half of which is covered by its lake. It is composed of Beihai Lake and Qionghua Island, and the White Dagoba was built on the top of Qionghua Island, the principle landmark of Beihai Park. In addition, Beihai Park is considered an ancient Chinese art form, with different features, such as artificial hills, bridges, pavilions, halls, temples and lakes. […]
After the foundation of People’s Republic of China, the government has paid great attention to restoring the old buildings, arranging the lakes and paving the roads. Beihai Park provides visitors with a unique insight into Chinese culture and legend close to the heart of Beijing.
Let’s take a walk around the park.
Temples and pagodas…
Chinese corridors…
The path up the mountain…
There’s also lots of terrific people watching.
Water Calligraphy…
Sports dancing…
Chinese marching and banging…
and then, ofcourse, there’s the lake…
Just for you to have a general idea, here’s a map of the place :
Or on a Google map :
See TravelChinaGuide for more info.