Beihai Park, Beijing

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Bei Hai park is a traditional Chinese park, which means that you will do a considerable amount of climbing up and down steps to enjoy it fully.

Bei Hai park is located on a lovely lake, and consists of temples, pavilions, a vertiginous stupa and many other structures.

A large part of the delight is the sight and the sound of the crowd: spoiled only children with anxious mothers, singing seniors, card players...

Bei Hai park is almost "next door" to the Forbidden City. I visited both consecutively, and that was exhilarating but a bit hard on the legs...

If you like Bai Hai park, you'll love the Summer Palace, a similar but larger complex on a lake.

Along with the Jade Bowl and the Chengguangdian, one of the fascinating sights here is the huge jade statue of Buddha now sitting in that hall. Ci Xi converted the Chengguangdian into an altar for a huge jade statue of Buddha brought back from Myanmar by the monk Ming Kuan. This enterprising monk set off on his travels pretending to be a representative of Ci Xi and was treated ike royalty everywhere he visited. ("Oooh yes! The Empress Dowager? We're like this. Brother and sister. We're always round each others house. Chatting, having a few drinks. Yes. ") Then he suddenly found himself saddled with a gift in Myanmar which happened to be one of the largest jade carvings in the world, and a bit of a dilemma. You can't go home to Beijing and keep a 1.5 metre high statue of Buddha on the porch without people wondering where you got it. The palace guards were deeply suspicious and were going to have the monk-tourist arrested, and it required the intervention of Li Lianying, chief eunuch, to save him. The monk confessed to Ci Xi, who obviously was quite impressed with the wit and enterprise of the monk. She kept the jade Buddha and, presumably, went round to the monk's house for a few drinks and a chat. (In truth, he was given 500 taels of silver).
Presciently, and with a rather good sense of style, she placed the Buddha close to the other huge jade carving, the big Jin era bowl.

Bei Hai Park is just a 10 minutes walk if you exit the Forbidden City on the North Exit and just across the street from the West Exit of Jing Shan Park.

It is a smaller imperial garden than Summer Palace. The highlight is the Lamma Buddhist Temple on the island of the Bei Hai Lake.

A long climb all the way to the very top of the Lamma Pagoda gives a wonderful view of the Forbidden city and a panaromic view of Beijing City.

Built in 1756, the Nine-Dragon Wall is five meters high, 23 meters long, and 1.2 meters thick. It is composed of 424 seven-color glazed bricks in bas-relief. There are nine coiling dragons on either side of the wall.

Since I am a dragon myself (born in 1976), I HAD to add a tenth dragon!

The Dushandayuhai or Jade Bowl Pavilion sits in prode of place, in the middle. Now glazed in, the fabulous jade bowl is one of the biggest jade carvings ever created, from a single piece of Myanmar jade. It was created in 1265, and was initially kept in the Guanghan Palace, but was put in the Round City when that palace collapsed in 1570. The famous Yuan emperor Kublai Khan used it as a wine container at big celebrations and festivals. During the Ming dynasty, incredibly it disappeared. Quite how something the size and weight of a family car can just disappear is astonishing. It was later discovered in 1745 at the Zhenwumia (The Temple of the North God, also known as the True Martial Arts Monsatery) by the west gate of the Imperial Palace. ("Hey! Look what we just found!"). The monks there had been using it as a vat to pickle cucumbers.
Emperor Qianlong paid 1000 taels of silver for it and had it moved it back to its original position at the Round City and built a pavilion to protect it from the elements, and placed it on a special pedestal. Qianlong composed a poem in its honour, and this is inscribed inside the bowl. Scholars from the Imperial College were ordered to write poems about the bowl ("Yes. Apparently that's what he said. A poem. About the bowl. The one in the Round City. ...... I know. I've got better things to do as well, but that's what the Big Cheese has ordered!")
The poems were subsequently inscribed on the columns of the pavilion holding the bowl. The bowl is simply beautiful, and decorated with clouds, dragons and waves.

Beihai Park at about 6am is a true marvel. The people (mainly old timers) are out there singing over the lake, or doing tai chi or other slow moving excercises. It is truly a "must see". The park is beautiful, right in the middle of the city, and the people are friendly.
Although we don't usually get up at the crack of dawn, we took advantage of jet lag and visited the park the first morning after our arrival. A short taxi ride (under $2 USD) and we were back in our hotel for breakfast.

Actually, I didn't quite like Beihai Park and I wouldn't really say that it's a "Must See Activity". It depends of course of what you're looking for. If you want to see a traditional park, I don't think Beihai is a good example. It's far too big and crowded. If you're interested by its historical heritage (it was the Emperor's garden), you can imagine what it must have been at those times.

It's a nice stroll though as Beihai Park is pretty big. Be aware that you have to pay to visit certain parts of the Park although you've already paid to go in.

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The garden slightly northwest of the Forbidden City should be on everyones must see things. It's actually two things to see here: The park itself and the round city. The round city has a jar, witch is said to be the only thing remaining from the great Khan that ruled what is now Beijing. I'm not sure which Khan they meant by the great Khan (Djingis, U, or Kublai).

You can rent a rowboat and paddle on the water.

They will restore most of the island before the Olympics, so I don't know how much will be open for public. They had already begun when I was there.