Discover Beijing
Beihai Park
北海公园
A thousand-year-old imperial lake garden a block west of the Forbidden City, centred on Jade Flower Island and its white Tibetan-style stupa. Rowing boats in summer, lotus ponds, and the Nine Dragon Screen make it the most relaxed of the central sights.
The story
What makes this place special
The oldest surviving imperial garden in Beijing, and older than the Forbidden City by two centuries. A resort was laid out here in 1179 for the Jin emperor Zhangzong, with Taiye Lake excavated and a palace raised on Jade Flower Island; under Kublai Khan the island was redesigned by a team including the astronomer Guo Shoujing, and the lake lay inside the walls of Yuan Khanbaliq. When the Ming palace went up from 1406 the water was divided into three 'seas', of which Beihai is the north one. The park covers around 71 hectares, more than half of it water. The Tibetan-style White Dagoba, 40m of white stone on the island's 32m summit, marks the 1651 visit of the fifth Dalai Lama; the 1679 earthquake destroyed it and it was rebuilt the following year. The Nine-Dragon Wall on the north shore, in glazed brick of seven colours with nine dragons on each face, dates to 1402.
What you’ll discover
A large lake with a wooded island in it. From the south gate you cross a bridge to Jade Flower Island, climb through terraces and galleries to the White Dagoba, and come down the north side through a two-storey curved gallery along the water to a landing stage. The north shore has the real concentration of things: the Nine-Dragon Wall, the Five Dragon Pavilions standing out over the water on piers, the Xitian Fanjing Buddhist complex, and the Round City by the south gate with its Hall of Received Light and a 1.6m white jade Buddha whose left arm was damaged by the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900. In summer the lake carries pedal boats; in winter it freezes and is skated on.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Take the boat across rather than walking round. A ferry crosses between the island and the north shore for a few yuan and saves a 1.5km walk round the lake - most visitors don't realise it exists and walk the whole perimeter.
- The north-shore side - Nine-Dragon Wall, Five Dragon Pavilions, Xitian Fanjing - is better than the island and gets a fraction of the visitors, because the island is what the south gate points you at.
- The Round City is immediately inside the south gate and is routinely walked past; it holds the jade Buddha and a huge Yuan-dynasty jade bowl.
- Beihai's south gate is a short walk from Jingshan's west gate, so the Forbidden City, Jingshan and Beihai chain together in one day, in that order, ending with the lake in the late afternoon.
- In winter, if the ice is declared safe, the lake is opened for skating and ice chairs - a genuinely local Beijing thing, cheap, and nothing to do with the summer tourist operation.
- A dynastic-era detail worth knowing: the lake is the north third of the imperial Western Garden. The middle and south 'seas' are Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound next door, which is closed - so the east shore of Beihai looks across a wall at the government.
When to come
Late afternoon into sunset, when the White Dagoba lights up and the lake surface catches the light; the north shore faces the best of it. Lotus flowers in July and August, autumn colour in October, skating in January and February.
Getting around
Half and half. The lake shore paths, the Round City forecourt, the Nine-Dragon Wall and the Five Dragon Pavilions are flat, broad and paved, and the ferry between shores removes most of the distance, so a wheelchair or bad knee can have a real visit here - arguably the most accessible of the imperial sites. Jade Flower Island and the White Dagoba cannot be done: it is a steep climb up stone stairways with no lift. Gates are far apart, so arrange to be dropped at one and collected from another.
Worth knowing before you go
Buy the ¥20 combined ticket if you want to climb Jade Flower Island to the White Pagoda; the basic ticket only gets you the lakeshore. Cross from the north gate to Shichahai in five minutes to chain the two together.
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