Insight Guides: Beijing City Guide

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• ISBN:
  9781780057019
• Edition: 7
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Insight City Guide Beijing is a full-colour, comprehensive travel guide to this historic and exciting city.
Full-colour photography and maps throughout combine with authoritative text to give you both inspiration and information to help explore Beijing and its surrounding areas. Be inspired by the "Best Of Beijing" section, which highlights the top experiences and places to visit in Beijing, while a comprehensive Travel Tips section provides all the practical information and travel advice you need, as well as a guide to things to do in Beijing, plus our selective listings for hotel and restaurants.
Lavish Photo Features offer a unique insight into topics such as traditional medicine, life in the hutong and the city's parks. Insight's trademark history coverage provides a fascinating introduction to Beijing's position as capital of imperial dynasties for more than 1,000 years as well as its modern life, while features by local writers delve into Beijing's culture - everything from life in the New China to religion and food and drink.
Ten Places chapters cover the city and its surroundings, from Imperial Beijing, Wangfujing and the Foreign Legation Quarter and the Olympic Park, to the Ming Tombs and Great Wall and the ancient village of Chuandixia. Colour maps throughout help you get around so you can find the top attractions in Beijing as well as venture off the beaten track, to make sure you have the quintessential Beijing experience.

The Lake District and the North

To the north of historic Beihai Park, Beijing’s most attractive neighbourhoods are found in the leafy streets and hutong around Houhai and its adjoining lakes. Further east is the impressive Lama Temple.

Main Attractions

Beihai Park

Jingshan (Coal Hill Park)

Shichahai

Palace of Prince Gong

Bell and Drum Towers

Lama Temple

Confucius Temple

Gui Jie (food street)

Western Yellow Temple

Maps and Listings

Map, click here

Restaurants, click here

Accommodation, click here

Though there are records of a natural body of water and marshy islets in central Beijing dating back to the Tang dynasty, it was during the Liao and Jin periods (10th–13th centuries) that the man-made lakes of Beihai (North Lake), Qianhai (Front Lake), Houhai (Back Lake) and Xihai (West Lake) took shape. As well as serving as termini to the city’s canal network, their aesthetic appeal attracted the city’s ruling elite – who built fine residences in the area, including an imperial lodge on Jade Island.

Today some of Beijing’s most expensive courtyard properties can still be found here, though this attractive area mostly has an egalitarian atmosphere; in the warmer months, locals indulge in simple pleasures such as boating, fishing and passing the time playing mah-jong or cards by the lakeside. Tourists come for the historic sights, though many spend a good deal of their time in the proliferation of bars, cafés and restaurants that seem to fill every corner around the lakes.

Goldfish, a form of carp, have been bred in China for over 1,000 years. They are traditionally associated with art and poetry.

Ming Tang Evans/Apa Publications

To the north and east, a large area of hutong extends past the Bell and Drum towers all the way to the Confucius and Lama temples. Beyond the Second Ring Road lies ancient Ditan Park, after which the sprawling modern suburbs take over.

A pavilion at Round Town in the south of the park.

Ming Tang Evans/Apa Publications

Beihai Park

Address: 1 Wenjin Jie, Xicheng District

Opening Hrs: summer daily 6am–10pm, winter 6.30am–7pm

Entrance Fee: charge

Transport: the South Gate is a short walk from Forbidden City North Gate (Shenwumen)

The area around the North Lake, Beihai Park 1 [map] (Beihai Gongyuan; 北海公园) is one of the most beautiful and popular places to spend a day out in central Beijing, no matter what the season. In winter, the lake is used for skating. The very youngest enjoy themselves on ice sledges – contraptions consisting of a wooden chair, or sometimes just a large plank, fastened onto two runners. In days gone by, the ice was smoothed with glowing irons for imperial celebrations. During the rest of the year, the lake is used for boating – some even swim in it during the summer – and its banks attract those who enjoy strolling.

The other part of the lake, Zhongnanhai 2 [map] (中南海), literally, “Central and Southern Lake”, and its surroundings, were a pleasure garden for the court. Right next to the Forbidden City, this is where horse races and hunts, birthday receptions and celebrations of the Lantern Festival took place. After 1949, Mao, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi and other notables lived in the area, and Mao’s private library is still here today. Surrounded by its massive wall, Zhongnanhai has been the seat of the politburo and the state council since 1949. Foreigners are not admitted into this modern-day Forbidden City unless they are invited to an audience.

Tip

As with the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven, it’s worth buying an all-inclusive ticket (tao piao) when visiting Beihai Park. This entitles you to access all the places of interest within the park.

Islands in the lake

The location of the park – west of Jingshan (Coal Hill) and northwest of the Imperial Palace – marks the centre of Kublai Khan’s Mongol capital, Khanbaliq (known as Dadu in Chinese). In the south of the park, with a separate entrance, is the Round Town 3 [map] (Tuancheng; 团城; Tue–Sun 8am–4.30pm; charge), one of three islands in the Northern Lake. The khan had this island landscaped, along with the surrounding area, and from this spot, according to Marco Polo, he ruled in inimitable splendour. However, only the trees remain from that time, all the architecture of the Mongol Yuan dynasty having been destroyed.

The banks of Xihai (West Lake).

Ming Tang Evans/Apa Publications

An exquisite 1.5-metre (5ft)-wide nephrite container, in which Kublai Khan kept his wine, also survives; it stands next to the entrance of a pavilion with white marble pillars and a blue roof. In the 18th century, a poem by the emperor Qianlong praising the beauty of this work of art was engraved on the inside of the vessel. A second jewel in the Round Town is a 1.5-metre (5ft) white jade statue of Buddha with inlaid jewels. It can be seen in the Receiving Light Hall (Chengguangdian; 承光殿).

Jade Island 4 [map] (Qionghuadao; 琼华岛) is the most impressive part of the park as far as scenery and history are concerned. The main path leads from the South Gate to a 600-year-old bridge, across which is the Temple of Eternal Peace 5 [map] (Yong’ansi; 永安寺), and beyond that, the Hall of the Wheel of Law (Falundian; 法轮殿).

The White Dagoba....