Beihai Park

Beihai Park

Beihai Park is located in the central area of Beijing, adjacent to Jingshan in the East, Zhongnanhai in the South and Shichahai in the north

It belongs to ancient Chinese royal garden. The whole garden is centered on Beihai, covering 69 hectares (including 39 hectares of water surface)

. It was built in Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties. It was opened as a park in 1925

. For the national key cultural relics protection units, national AAAA tourist attractions

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Historical evolution

Beihai Park was originally a lake in the northeast of Yanjing city of Liaoning Province, named Jinhai. There is a small island named Yao Island, where Liao built "Yao Island Palace". From 1163 to 1179, Jin Shizong built Qionghua Island, following the example of Genyue garden in Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan Province), and transported a large number of Taihu stones from Genyue imperial garden to build rockery caves. In the Northeast suburb of Zhongdu, he built Daning Li Palace (also known as Taining Palace) with yaoyu (Beihai) as the center.

Since then, Beihai has basically formed today's Royal Palace pattern. At that time, the earth excavated from the "golden sea" was expanded into islands and hills around the sea. The island was called "Qionghua island" and the water was called "xihuatan", and the "Guanghan hall" and other buildings were rebuilt.

From the first year of the Yuan Dynasty to the eighth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1264-1271), Qionghua island was expanded three times and Guanghan hall was rebuilt. Guanghan hall is 120 feet wide from east to west, 62 feet deep and 50 feet high, with 7 rooms wide, serving as a meeting place for emperors. In the hall, there are "Dushan big jade sea" (today's big jade urn in Beihai regiment city), built "jade hall" and "five mountain precious jade couch" (today's Taipei). There is also a jade rockery with jade ring iron hanging on the top of the hall. In the hall, there are two small stalagmites with their own taps, spouting water from the lake carried by water trucks behind the mountain. In 1271, Qionghua island was renamed "longevity mountain" (also known as "longevity mountain"). Taking Qionghua island as the center, palaces were built on the East and west sides of the lake to build Beihai into a grand royal garden.

After Zhu Di moved his capital to Beijing in Ming Dynasty, he expanded and repaired Beihai on the basis of Yuan Dynasty, but basically maintained the pattern of Beihai in Yuan Dynasty. In Xuande period of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanji of Xuanzong carried out large-scale expansion and repair of "Wansui mountain". Yitian hall was restored in Yuandi (today's Tuancheng). Xishan Yuandian was built on a small island in the south of Yuandi. The bridge was demolished and filled in the east of Tuancheng to connect it with the land.

In 1458, Taisu hall was built on the North Bank of Beihai (now at the Wulong Pavilion). Because it was made of tin, it was also called "tin hall" or "summer cool hall". More than 3000 craftsmen and 200000 taels of silver were employed to build the hall. "Ninghe hall" was built on the east bank, and "Yingcui hall" was built on the West Bank. The eight hole stone bridge interrupted in the west of Tuancheng was changed into nine hole stone bridge, which is called jin'ao jade bridge. On the newly excavated Nanhai Yingtai, "Zhaohe hall" and other buildings were built.

In the seventh year of Wanli (1579) of the Ming Dynasty, the Guanghan hall, which had gone through more than 600 years of wind, rain and war in the four dynasties, collapsed and destroyed, and the main building of the heaven Palace on earth disappeared.

In 1651, the eighth year of Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty, for the sake of national harmony, the emperor Fulin of the Qing dynasty built a Tibetan white pagoda on the abandoned site of Guanghan hall and a "White Pagoda Temple" (Zhengjue hall is the Mountain Gate) in front of the pagoda at the request of the Tibetan Lama. Because the Lama pagoda was built on the island, the name of the mountain was changed to "Baitashan".

From 1741 to 1771, Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty repaired and built Beihai on a large scale. After 30 years of continuous construction, many pavilions, platforms, halls and pavilions were built. Qing Qianlong called himself "the joy of gardens, and can not forget", so he introduced the essence of Jiangnan gardens, literati freehand brushwork and landscape gardens into Imperial Palace, and built the garden of gardens in Beihai, such as Jingxin Zhai, Huafang Zhai and Hao Pu.

From 1885 to 1888, Cixi rebuilt the "three seas" building with naval funds, laid the first railway in China along the lake on the West and north bank, and built a small railway station in front of jingxinzhai for Cixi to take a small train to visit the garden. In the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1900), the Allied forces of the eight countries invaded Beijing and trampled on Beihai. The Chengguan hall on the north bank set up a coalition headquarters, and more than 10000 golden Buddhas and other treasures in the Wanfo tower were looted.

After the revolution of 1911 overthrew the Qing Dynasty, Beihai garden was closed for more than 10 years. After a little renovation, Beihai garden was officially opened as a park on August 1, 1925.

After the founding of the people's Republic of China in 1949, the government allocated huge funds to repair Beihai Park, dredged lakes, repaired ancient buildings, paved corridors and added public service facilities.

In 1961, Beihai Park was announced as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

At the end of February 1971 (during the Cultural Revolution), without any public notice, Beihai Park and nearby Jingshan Park, which are separated from Zhongnanhai bridge, were mysteriously closed until March 1, 1978, nearly two years after the end of the cultural revolution.

In 1986, Beihai was rated as one of the 16 scenic spots in Beijing.

geographical environment

Beihai Park is located in the central area of Beijing, adjacent to Jingshan in the East, Zhongnanhai in the South and Shichahai in the north

It belongs to ancient Chinese royal garden. With Beihai as the center, the park covers an area of 69 hectares (including 39 hectares of water surface), mainly composed of Qionghua Island, east bank and north bank scenic spots. On Qionghua Island, the trees are gloomy, the pavilions are quiet, and the white pagoda stands on the top of the mountain, which has become the symbol of the park.

details

Main attractions

North bank scenic spot

Xiaoxitian

Xiaoxitian was built in 1768 and 1770. It was built by Emperor Qianlong for his mother's birthday. The main building is paradise, with a total area of 1200 square meters and a crossbeam span of 13.5 meters. It is the largest square Pavilion style palace building in China. The windows and South fans of the palace are decorated with fine patterns. A gold plaque is hung on the top of the palace, which reads "paradise" as Emperor Qianlong's pen. Above it is a golden octagonal dome with dragon caisson. The hall is surrounded by water on all sides. There is a bridge to connect it. There is a glazed archway in the East, West, North and south. There is a small square Pavilion in the four corners. There is a crescent River in the South and a carved stone bridge. In the hall, there is a clay statue of Putuo in Nanhai. There are 226 Buddha statues on the mountain. The bottom of the mountain is painted with sea water to symbolize the scenic spot of Putuo in the Buddhist world. Therefore, it is called "Luohan mountain" and "island"

 

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Iron shadow wall

It's a relic of the Yuan Dynasty. The wall is brown and carved from neutral volcanic conglomerate. Because it looks like iron in color and texture, it's called iron shadow wall. The wall is 1.89 meters high and 3.56 meters long. On both sides, it is carved with different animals with cloud patterns. The carving is simple and thick. The iron shadow wall used to be the screen wall in front of an ancient temple outside the Jiande gate (today's Desheng Gate). In the early Ming Dynasty, the wall was moved to the front of Desheng nunnery (today's tieyingbi hutong) in Desheng Gate. In 1947, the wall was moved to Beihai Park. In 1986, Beihai Park recovered its base from tieyingbi Hutong, thus restoring the cultural relic

 

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the nine dragon wall

Jiulongbi is the shadow wall in front of Zhibao hall, which was built in 1756. The wall is 5.96m high, 1.60m thick and 25.52m long. The two sides of the wall are inlaid with seven color glazed tiles. There are nine colorful dragons on each side, flying and playing with pearls among the waves and clouds. There are 635 Panlong and Panlong on the wall. There are three ancient nine dragon walls in China, but this one is double-sided

 

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Heart-East Study

Covering an area of about 8700 square meters, jingxinzhai is one of the most exquisite gardens in Beihai. Jingxinzhai used to be an ordinary official house in Ming Dynasty. In 1757, jingxinzhai (then called jingqingzhai) was built during the expansion of "West heaven Buddhist realm", also known as "Qianlong small garden". The main buildings in the park are jingqingzhai, Baosu library, yunqinzhai, Bixian Pavilion, baochawu, xuhuaxuan, Qinquan corridor, zhenluan Pavilion, Shiqiao, etc. Jingxinzhai lies on the mountain in the East, the temple in the west, cangbo in the south, pavilions, pavilions, corridors, pavilions, stone bridges, pools, stacked stones, rockeries and pavilions. The architectural form of the pavilion does not lose the magnificent spirit of the northern garden, but also has the exquisite taste of the Jiangnan garden

 

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Kuaixuetang calligraphy Museum

Kuaixue hall was built in 1775. There are two main halls, Chengguan hall and yulanxuan. The corridors on the East and west sides of the fast snow hall are inlaid with 80 ink stone carvings of 20 calligraphers from the Jin Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty. Among them, Wang Xizhi's "fast snow time Qingtie" and Emperor Qianlong's "records of the fast snow hall" are the most famous.

Wulong Pavilion

The Wulong pavilion was built in 1602, the 30th year of Wanli period in Ming Dynasty. It is called Longze Pavilion in the middle, Yongrui Pavilion and Fucui Pavilion on the left, Chengxiang Pavilion and Zixiang Pavilion on the right. In 1763, the wooden curved bridge was changed into a stone bridge, and bluestone railings and columns were installed. In the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1900), the railings and pillars were destroyed by the Allied forces of the eight countries, and they were restored as they were in 1974. The existing Wulong pavilion has become a place where people can see the White Pagoda and Guangshan of Beihai lake

Chinese PinYin : Bei Hai Gong Yuan