Beihai Park – Classical imperial garden with 1000-year-old history

After my visit to the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park, I stopped for a few minutes to watch some locals play some kind of old Chinese board game. I then continued to China’s oldest and most impressive classical imperial garden, Beihai Park. As you walk between the parks, there are a number of bicycle taxis (I would say “rickshaws” but I’m sure the Chinese have their own word for it) offering you a sightseeing tour in the old parts of Beijing located to the east/north of Beihai Park. It was however already getting late in the day for me, so I prioritized taking a stroll in Beihai Park and digest all that I had seen at Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park.


Street area between Jingshan and Beihai Parks


Men hanging around and playing a Chinese board game

Beihai Park is located west of Jingshan Park and has a history of nearly 1000 years. It has existed throughout the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Beihai was first built in 938 A.D. during the Emperor Huitong of Liao Dynasty and in the 12th century improved into an imperial summer palace. In the second half of the 13th century, Kublai Kahn – a name recognized by most Westerners thanks to the Marco Polo travels – took Beihai as its center to establish the capital of the Yuan Dynasty in Beijing. Beihai means “the north sea” in Chinese and the park actually contains a large, artificial lake with Qionghua Island in the center of it. In1267, Kublai Khan had an imperial city called Dadu built around the Qionghua Island. He called the island Longevity Hill, and the lake around it Taiyechi.

The park is huge and there are many walkways through it. There’s a path next to the water around the whole lake, so I strolled around it for a while, passing tourist boats for rental and some restaurant or teahouse overlooking the lake. It was getting windy and cloudy and the big lake really behaved like the North Sea, with big waves rippling the surface and making the tiny, colorful tourist dinghies pull their mooring ropes.

By the northern shore of Qiong Island, at the foot of Longevity Hill, there is a palace-like, lake-side building with a curved walkway “corridor” along the waterfront with colorful pillars, beautiful wall paintings and red lanterns lighting up the evening stroll.



There is also a very elaborately decorated restaurant with a big, golden, imperial chest at the entrance and various artifacts displayed outside, like imperial China vases and an ancient imperial sedan chair. Waiters and waitresses in traditional costumes dashed in and out of various side doors to the restaurant and kitchen areas, with plates of food that were exquisitely adorned with vegetables and fruit carved into fancy decorations, pastry looking like a swan etc. It looked like a very expensive place and I saw many dressed-up Westerners go there, perhaps for business entertainment. See photos below.

Restaurant and waitress

Beautiful wall and ceiling decorations at the lake-side restaurant

After contemplating the imperial ways of living by the lake, I started climbing up the hill and discovered lots of colorful pavilions, chambers, towers and terraces among the rocks, some Taihu Lake stones apparently moved here during the Jin Dynasty from Genyue Garden in Bianliang (capital of the North Song Dynasty in 990-1127), ancient trees and pathways.

Ceiling details in pavilion

At the top of the hill on the Qionghua Dao (or ‘Jade Flowery Islet’) in Beihai Park, the Tibetan style White Pagoda (Baita) Temple is the landmark visible from miles away. It’s an almost 36 m tall Buddhist temple constructed on the former site of the Palace in the Moon where Kublai Khan received Marco Polo. I arrived after closing hours so unfortunately I missed the thousands of Buddha statues that are apparently on display in the temple.

Baita – The White Pagoda

It was getting really dark at 8:30-9 pm and since I couldn’t enter the temple I looked at the view of Beijing and the lake from the terrace at the hilltop. The evening sky was very pretty with a pink sunset breaking up the heavy clouds.

View over Beijing and the Taiyechi lake from the top of the Qiong Island

Beihai Park is probably one of the fondest takeaways from my trip to Beijing. Located in the middle of a modern city, this multi-faceted but harmonic imperial garden showcased the powerful elements of nature and history in a beautiful mix. I left with an impression that I could return many times to let the winds by Taiyechi lake wash away contemporary problems and to discover new historic treasures every time.

Jingshan Park

Directly north of the Forbidden City you will find the beautiful Jingshan Park. It contains a number of imperial pavilions and the one located at the top of the hill in the park has a marvelous view overlooking the city. From here you can view the whole Forbidden City with all its imperial palace buildings to the south.


View to the north from Wanchun Pavilion (All Time Spring Pavilion)

Jingshan Park's hill is topped by five pavilions, the main one of which contains a large Buddha statue. The pavilion is from 1751, named All Time Spring Pavilion and is 17.4 meters high.

Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

These are my last reports from the China trip back in May. I thought I'd better finish the series before my summer vacation travels start...

To give you a little background to ancient and imperial China, I suggest you read up on history:

• A very comprehensive and interesting history of China from Wikipedia>>
• Timeline of Chinese dynasties>>
• Ming Dynasty>>
• Qing Dynasty>>

The hotel concierge pointed out some of the main attractions and sites in Beijing on a small fold-out map, and the Beijing Travel Guide helped me get acquainted with the capital of China online before I started exploring the city physically.

In the city center of Beijing you find Tiananmen Square which is not very imperial, but nonetheless located right next to the Imperial Palace grounds (called the Forbidden City) so you can’t miss it and it’s a good starting point for a sightseeing tour. Tiananmen Square is apparently big enough to fit half a million people and as such the biggest central square in the world. During the Ming and Qing eras, there were red walls around the site which also had buildings. The walls were pulled down in the 1911 revolution (see photo below with revolution sculpture).


1911 revolution

The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, commonly known as the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, or the Mao Mausoleum

The square is used mainly for big, momentous occasions. This is where Mao Zedong announced the new “People’s Republic of China” in 1949. This is also where a series of mass demonstrations for democratic rights and against the ruling of the Chinese Communist party were held in 1989 led by students, intellectuals, and labor activists, resulting in the Chinese army storming the demonstrations and many civilians being killed or injured (numbers vary from a few hundred up to thousands of people who died) – in Western media known as “the Massacre in Tiananmen Square”.


Tiananmen Square with the Monument of the People's Heroes to the right


In front of the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of Chinese Revolution: a count-down sign keeps track of number of days left to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

On the northern side of Tiananmen Square you see the entrance to the Forbidden City, with a big portrait of Mao Zedong on the facade of the Tiananmen Gate. This “Gate of Heavenly Peace” is a 20th century creation but the gate sticking up directly behind it is a Ming Dynasty structure.


Tiananmen Gate


It was very interesting to walk around in the Forbidden City. The Imperial Palace, today a Palace Museum complex, was completed by Emperor Yongle (one of the Ming emperors) in 1420. A moat and a 10 m high wall surround all the palace buildings (apparently there are 9,999 of them but not all are open to the public). The area was forbidden to all but the imperial court and the only westerners allowed were Jesuit scholar-priests in the 17th and 18th centuries, plus ambassadors who tried to trade with China.




The Forbidden City is almost 1 km long and 750 m wide and divided into two parts. The southern section – the Outer Court, housing the throne halls of Supreme Harmony which was under repair when I was there, Central Harmony and Preserved Harmony – was where the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation.


Hall of Central Harmony

First built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty and originally called Hua Gai Dian (Hall of Overwhelming Glory), the Hall of Central Harmony (Zhong He Dian) was destroyed and reconstructed several times over the centuries. The existing hall (seen on the photo above) was constructed in 1627, but received its current name in 1645 during the Qing Dynasty. This square building has a single pyramid-shaped roof, with a gold plated bronze covering. The floor is paved with high-quality square clay bricks, commonly known as “golden bricks”. A throne is placed in the center of the hall and a board hangs above the throne with an inscription by Emperor Qianlong, which according to a sign outside the hall says: “The Way of Heaven is profound and mysterious and the way of mankind is difficult. Only if we make a precise and unified plan and follow the doctrine of the mean, can we rule this country well.”

The emperor used to rest in the Hall of Central Harmony on his way to attend an important ceremony or hold court, and officials kowtowed to the emperor here. The day before the emperor held a sacrificial ceremony, he would read the prayer tablet aloud in this hall. The words “Zhong He” come from the Book of Rites, meaning “When we handle matters properly and harmoniously without leaning to either side, all things on earth will flourish.”



Hall of Preserved Harmony

Originally called Jin Sheng Dian (Hall of Scrupulous Behavior), also the Hall of Preserved Harmony (Bao He Dian) (seen on photos above) was first constructed in 1420 but destroyed by fire and reconstructed several times. It still retains its original beams and columns. During the Ming Dynasty, the emperor changed clothes in this hall before an important ceremony. In the Qing Dynasty, the emperor held banquets here for his princes, dukes and ministers of ethnic minorities on the lunar New Year’s Eve and the Lantern Festival. The words “Bao He” are from the Book of Changes and mean “Maintaining harmony between all things on earth to have a long period of peace and stability.”

Gate of Heavenly Purity

The emperor lived with his royal family in the northern section – the Inner Court – featuring the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of the Union, the Palace of Earthly Tranquility and the Imperial Garden.

Hall of Heavenly Purity

The Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qian Qing Gong) was constructed in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt in 1798 during the Qing Dynasty. The emperor lived and handled political affairs in this palace. After an emperor passed away in the Qing Dynasty, his coffin was kept in the hall to prove that he had died peacefully. After the memorial ceremony, the coffin was moved to Guan De Dian (Hall for Observing Military Virtue) in Jingshan (Prospect Hill) Park (see separate blog post), north of Forbidden City. Finally, the funeral was held and the deceased emperor was buried in the imperial mausoleum.

Emperor Yongshen (1678-1735) secretly set up a succession system with an “Heir Apparent Box” placed behind a board in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. The name of the emperor’s successor, written down by the emperor himself, was kept in this box and after he passed away the secretly appointed crown prince would ascend the throne.

Hall of Celestial and Terrestrial Union

The words “Jiao Tai” mean “the union of heaven and earth” and hence the square Hall of Celestial and Terrestrial Union (Jiao Tai Dian) (see photos above) is situated between Qian Qing Gong (Palace of Heavenly Purity) and Kun Ning Gong (Palace of Earthly Tranquility) in the Inner Court of the Forbidden City. In the center of the hall is a throne, above which hangs a board inscribed with words by Emperor Kangxi, meaning “doing nothing.” Below this board there is a screen with an inscription by Emperor Qianlong. In the Qing Dynasty, an annual grand ceremony was held here on the empress’ birthday, the lunar New Year, the Winter Solstice and on the “Day for Opening up Treasures” in the first lunar month.

The Inner Court housed not only the residences of the emperor and his empress, consorts and concubines, but also administrative buildings.

The Inner Court has been the home of fourteen emperors of the Ming dynasty (from the third Ming emperor Zhu Di) and ten emperors of the Qing dynasty. The Qing Dynasty fell to republican revolutionaries in 1911 and the last emperor of China (the last Qing emperor Puyi) was forced to abdicate. He was finally driven from the Inner Court in 1924 during a coup launched by the warlord Feng Yuxiang.

Read more about the Forbidden City here>>

Imperial China – Temple of Heaven in Beijing

The day after my arrival to China, my former colleague Abbas took me sightseeing. To the southeast of the Southern Gate of Beijing City lies an extensive ancient garden. When overlooked from the sky, it is circular in the north and square in the south, a pattern symbolic of the ancient belief that heaven was round and the earth square. A stone-paved main road is running from the north to the south. In the south there is the white Circular Mound Altar; in the north there is a round main hall with blue tiles and golden roofs; to the west of the main road there are exquisite square palaces.

It was a beautiful and hot summer’s day, perfect to see the Temple of Heaven. Built by the Emperor Yongle during the Ming Dynasty in the early 15th century (1420), this was where the emperor renewed his mandate with heaven at every winter solstice, offered sacrifices to Heaven and prayed for a plentiful harvest.

Abbas at Zhaoheng Gate (South Gate)


Me at the Circular Mound Altar

In 1530, people offered to Heaven and Earth separately, so the Circular Mound Altar was built. It has three terraces made of Artemisia leaf gray marbles. In the center of the upper terrace there is a raised round marble called “Heavenly Center Stone” or “Supreme Ultimate Stone” with a special acoustic resonance so that when you stand on it and speak it gives a loud and resonant effect “as of speaking with God”.

First the emperor would enter the Imperial Vault of Heaven (the smaller circular hall on the photos below) where he meditated and prepared himself. Then he crossed the Danbi Bridge, to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests with its 3-tiered blue-tile roof. Both the Vault and the Hall of Prayer are round buildings enclosed by square courtyards symbolizing the journey from earth to heaven by the emperor.

Imperial Vault of Heaven

Danbi Bridge - The path is one meter high at its southern end and rises to four meters high at the northern tip, signifying that it is stepping up towards heaven.

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

Me in traditional costume at the Temple of Heaven