Beijing Parks and Gardens

Summer Palace Located in the northwestern suburbs of Beijing city and built in 1750, the Summer Palace is the existing largest, best-preserved imperial garden in China and a fine example of imperial gardening art. It was constructed in the Qing Dynasty, and in 1998, the site was inscribed into the UNESCO's World Heritage List. The Summer Palace mainly comprises Wanshou Hill that means longevity in Chinese, and Kunming Lake. While the hill accounts for a quarter of the park's total area and the ...

Beihai Park or North Sea Park is located half kilometer to the west of the north gate of the Forbidden City. Beihai Park is one of the most popular parks in the city of Beijing. The whole park covers a total area of over 68 hectares, more than half of it is taken up by the Beihai Lake. It is used to be the former palace of the emperors in successive dynasties, called the Winter Palace by Westerners. The main scenery of Beihai Park is composed of: Beihai Lake, Jade Islet, Jinxinhai, Nine Dragon ...

Shichahai is located in the northwest part of Beijing, and covers a large area of 146.7 hectares (about 363 areas). It is a famous scenic area that includes three lakes: Qianhai (Front Sea); Houhai (Back Sea); Xihai (Western Sea), surrounding places of historic interest and scenic beauty, and remnants of old-style Beijing residences, Hutong and Courtyard.   Shichahai is always a good place for locals’ recreational life, and in the last 200 years, many governmental officers, celebrities, ...

Houhai is an integral part of Shichahai. Its total area is 146.7 hectares, of which the waters area is 34 hectares, green area is 11.5 hectares. This is the ancient waters in Beijing 700 years ago during the period of Dadu. In fact, it is a huge artificial lake, is the royal exclusive pool in ancient time. Houhai is located in the center of Beijing; it’s only four or five stations from Tiananmen. It link with Beihai, and relatively distant from Jingshan and Summer Palace. It is the marvelous ...

The Old Summer Palace which is also known as the Ruins is the Yuanmingyuan - the Garden of Perfection and Light. It is located in the northwest of Beijing and to the east of the present-day Summer Palace. The Garden was first constructed in the year of 1709 during the reign of the Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. Over the next 150 years of the Qing Dynasty, this Garden was expanded to be a large-scale Chinese emperors' private pleasure garden, covering a total area of 350 hectares. In a word, ...

Beijing Zoo, lies west of Xizhimen and the western part of Beijing, was known for a short time after the founding of the People's Republic as the Western Suburbs Park. In the 18th century, the zoo was known as the Sanbeizi Gardens, supposedly named after the third son of Emperor Kangxi, Prince Cheng Yin. Another explanation is that Sanbeizi Gardens refereed to the Qing courtier Fukangan and the Gardens the site of his cottage. In fact, as early as the Ming Dynasty, an imperial mansion called ...

The Fragrant Hills is a public park at the foot of the Western Mountains in the Haidian District, and located in the northwestern part of Beijing, China. It consists of a natural pine-cypress forest, hills with maple trees, smoke trees and persimmon trees, as well as landscaped areas with traditional architecture and cultural relics. The name derives from the park's highest peak - Xianglu Feng, a hill with two large stones resembling incense burners at the top.   The park was established ...

The Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, also called China Nationalities Museum is a museum in Beijing, China, located just to the west of the Olympic Green. The huge park has been a labor of love and precisely re-creates life in all 56 of China's ethnic groups. It provides a facility and base for the protection, presentation and exchange of ethnic culture heritage. It is the window of ethnic policy of the government, harmony and progress of 56 nationalities in China.   The goal of this museum The ...

The Beijing World Park, located in south-western Fengtai District, is 17 kilometres from Tian'anmen and 40 kilometres from the Beijing International Airport. The park has 100 man-made and natural attractions from nearly 50 countries throughout the world.    The park covers an area of 46.7 hectares. The layout is modelled after the five continents and four oceans, incorporating national icons and folk-traditions of the world. Most of the architectural structures are built from marble, ...

The well-tended Beijing Botanical Gardens, set against the backdrop of the Western Hills in the northwestern outskirts of Beijing, between Xiangshan (Fragrant Hills) Park and Jade Spring Mountain, make for a pleasant outing among bamboo fronds, pines and lilacs.   History The Beijing Botanical Garden was established in 1955. It covers a large area of 564,000 square metres. The gardens include a dozen exhibition districts and halls, such as the tree garden, a perennial bulb garden, a rose ...

Situated 17 kilometres from Beijing city centre, south of the Fragrant Hills is Badachu, a famous attraction on Beijing’s outskirts. The Park covers a total area of 332 hectares and the height of the highest hill is 464 meters. It is among the first national key units of cultural relics for preservation.   Beijing Badachu Park is a Buddhist temple park with a long history and abundant historical relics. For hundreds of years the landscape has been famous for "Three Hills, Eight ...

Located in south-west of Beijing, the present Grand View Garden is a replica of Daguanyuan the magnificent garden of an imperial family described in the well-known Chinese novel "A Dream of Red Mansions" by a Qing Dynasty writer Cao Xueqin (17l5-l763). The site used to be a park dotted with willows and pines. In l984, the China Television Film Production Centre decided to use it as the setting to shoot garden scenes for the TV series "A Dream of Red Mansions". The Xuanwu District ...

Admission: Free Opening hours: 5:00-22:00   Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is one of the symbols of Tongzhou District. And Tongzhou Grand Canal Park is a result to spread the culture of this ancient project. Tongzhou Grand Canal Park is located in Tongzhou District, southeast of Beijing. It covers a total area of 368 square meters (909 acres) with length of 4,600 meters and width of 600-800 meters. Original build in 1936 and expanded in 1985, Grand Canal welcomes the first boat on April 26 ...

The Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park is the new, purpose-built venue for the rowing, canoeing and 10 km open-water swimming events in the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Shunyi Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Park is located at Mapo Village in Shunyi District in Beijing.   The first competitions at the venue were held in August 2007, a year ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games for which it was built. The World Junior Rowing Championships, China Open Canoe/Kayak Slalom and China Canoe/Kayak Flatwater ...

Beijing Jingdong Canyon Scenic Area locates in the east part of Heidouyu Village in Pinggu District, 90 kilometers away from Beijing city proper. This area boasts of various splendid natural sceneries including green mountain and crystal water, caves and ponds, waterfalls and springs. Reputed as the “first cave under the sun”, Jingdong Canyon Scenic Area has been existed for more than 1.5 billion years ago with splendid view of stalagmite, stalactite, stone pipe, stone flower and ...