Beihai Park
The Beihai Park ( Chinese 北海 公園 / 北海 公园 , Pinyin Běihăi Gōngyuán ) in Beijing is one of the typical Chinese gardens . It is located northwest of the Forbidden City .
From the Jurjj Jin dynasty to the time of the Ming and Qing emperors, the North Sea (Beihai ) was part of the Forbidden City together with the Middle Sea (Zhonghai) and later also the South Sea (Nanhai) . While the area around the two last-named lakes today serves as the seat of government and party under the name Zhongnanhai and is therefore hermetically sealed off, the Beihai, including the park that extends along its banks, has been open to the public since 1925.
The Jin Emperor Shizong began the construction of a summer palace and the construction of this park in 1179 AD. Emperor Kublai Khan made it his residence in 1260 when he moved into the "Hall of Wide Cooling". In its place, the Qing emperors built the Lamaistic “White Pagoda” from 1651, which still dominates the park today. Emperor Qianlong (1736–1795) carried out extensive expansion work. Almost all of today's buildings in this park date from this construction period.
As in most Chinese gardens, the buildings have a high priority here too. The most important structures in this park are:
- the "Bridge of Eternal Peace"
- the Buddhist "Temple of Eternal Rest"
- the "White Pagoda"
- the "studio of the calm heart", a "garden in the garden"
- the "hall of heavenly bodies"
- the "Ten Thousand Buddha Tower"
- the "nine dragon wall".
Nine Dragons Wall
In addition to the White Pagoda, the Nine Dragon Wall is one of the main attractions in Beihai Park. It was built shortly after 1402 and covered with 427 seven-color reliefs made of glazed tiles. Originally it protected the residence of Emperor Yongle , who resided there while the Forbidden City was still under construction. The nine-dragon wall shows nine large dragons playing in clouds and waves . The wall is almost 6 meters high, 1.6 meters thick and 25.5 meters long.
In addition to the nine large dragons, there are hundreds of other dragon reliefs on the other decorations on the wall, the wall shows a total of 635 dragons in all sizes. This is the only dragon wall in China designed from the front and back.
Web links
Coordinates: 39 ° 55 ′ 25 ″ N , 116 ° 22 ′ 59 ″ E