Hey, friends, I will show your 3 Beijing's famous park.
They are Beihai Park, Jingshan Park and the heartbroken Old Summer Palace.
0:00 Intro
1:28 Beihai Park
41:57 Jingshan Park
55:40 Old Summer Palace
1:28:18 The Maze
1:43:11 European Palaces Site
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★★ Beihai Park ★★
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Beihai Park is a public park and former imperial garden located in the northwestern part of the Imperial City, Beijing. First built in the 11th century, it is among the largest of all Chinese gardens and contains numerous historically important structures, palaces, and temples.
Beihai Park, inside the old Imperial City, looks much as it would have done in the 18th century when it served as Emperor Qianlong's private gardens. The Tibetan-style White Dagoba soars majestically over the lake (Beihai means ‘northern sea'), around which are found temples, pavilions, imperial stelae and other grand designs. A public park since 1925, Beihai now offers a window onto pastimes like dìshū, where locals demonstrate their calligraphy skills using giant brushes and water.
Beihai has been a royal playground since the Jin dynasty (1115–1234), when Jade Islet was shaped from the earth scooped out to create the lake.
Crowning the islet is the 36m-high Tibetan-style White Dagoba, built in 1651 by the first Qing emperor to honor a visit by the Dalai Lama. You can reach the islet by boat (¥5 to ¥15) or via bridges at the south and east gates. Entering via the south gate is the grand approach because you can climb up the steep southern approach through Yong'an Temple to the top.
The north shore of Beihai has the most interesting buildings. Jingxin Studio, a 'garden within a garden', was a favourite retreat of Emperor Qianlong, who would sip tea, listen to the plucking of the guqin (Chinese zither) and enjoy the carp-filled pools and scenic views.
Western Elysium, with its centrepiece Míng-era hall (recently restored) made of unpainted cedar, was a lamasery during the Ming dynasty, and was later rebuilt by Emperor Qianlong.
Nearby is the Nine Dragon Screen, a 5m-high, 27m-long 'spirit wall' emblazoned with writhing dragons picked out in coloured glazed tiles. At the northeast corner of the lake, Little Western Heaven is the largest square pavilion-style palace in China, built in secret as a gift for Emperor Qianlong's mother on her 80th birthday. Inside the cavernous hall is an enormous and rather garish diorama of Mt Sumeru.
This circular fortress known as Round City, just outside the south gate of Beihai, was the site of Kublai Khan's palace in the Yuan dynasty.
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★★ Old Summer Palace ★★
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The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens, and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China.
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What happened to the Old Summer Palace?
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The Old Summer Palace was known as the "Versailles of the East", but its glory and magnificence ceased in 1860. During the Second Opium War, British and French troops invaded Beijing, ransacked the Old Summer Palace, and looted its treasures, which are now displayed in museums around the world.
A masterpiece of design
From the early 18th century, the Old Summer Palace grew into an exclusive getaway resort for the ruling elite of China's Qing dynasty. Its architectural splendor has since been compared to France's Palace of Versailles.
"It was actually a combination of five garden residences of the Qing emperors," said Ying-chen Peng, a professor and Chinese art specialist at Washington D.C.'s American University, in a phone interview. "And in each garden residence, you have clusters of buildings and even artificial lakes, ponds and water systems. It really was a gem of Chinese architecture."
Although construction started during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor in the early 1700s, the complex underwent a major expansion under his grandson the Qianlong Emperor's rule. As well as increasing the complex in size, he also sought to diversify its architecture, which until then was typical of the country's north, according to Peng.
"He treated it as a miniature (version) of his empire. He made several trips to southern China ... and he was enchanted by its beauty," she said of the emperor's so-called "inspection tours," during which he would visit temples and mausoleums on official business as he consolidated power across the vast empire. "After he returned from these trips, he would order his architects to replicate famous scenes or sites that he had seen and appreciated."
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