Beihai Park 北海公园

My mother and I visited the Beihai Park (北海公园) after Forbidden City. Beihai Park is located at North West of the Forbidden City. We walked to the Beihai Park from the Gate of Divine Might. In front of the Gate of Divine Might, tourists can either choose to walk or use the buses, taxi and also tricycles to travel to the Beihai Park. 

Lotus Lake Garden

Willow by the Lotus Lake

Bridge to Qionghua Island

The weather of Beijing gets colder during evening. We went in to the Beihai Park through the South Gate. Tourists can buy BBQ Chinese sausages, steam corns and drinks at the entrance of the park. Entrance ticket and Combo ticket can be bought at the South Gate. The Combo ticket includes the entrance ticket, the Qionghua Island (琼华岛) ticket and the Tuancheng City (团城) ticket.

Tuancheng City

Introduction Board for Tuancheng City

Back of White Dagoba

White Dagoba (白塔) is the main focus of Beihai Park. It is a temple located on Qionghua Island. Many tourists come here to visit the White Dagoba. We need to climb up few hundreds steps, passes through Falundian (法轮殿), Zhengjuedian (正觉殿), and Pu’andian (普安殿) to reach the White Dagoba. We can enjoy the nice scenery around the lake on top of the dagoba. It is really a great time to climb up to the White Dagoba during evening.

Falundian

Zhengjuedian

Pu'andian

Long Stair to White Dagoba

Front of White Dagoba

After that, we leave the White Dagoba from the behind entrance of the temple. There is a Qionghua Cave (琼华古洞). The entrance ticket is not included in the Combo ticket. The entrance ticket cost 5RMB per person to visit that cave. From my opinion, this is not worth to visit. There is nothing much to see in the cave unless you are interested to the Chinese Traditional Celestial Stem and Earthly Branches (天干地支).

Huanbilou (环碧楼）

The famous Nine Dragons Wall (九龙壁) is at the north side of the Beihai Park. Tourists can take boat to across the lake to go to the north side of the park from the north point of the Qionghua Island. Tourists can choose to use the north gate to leave the park and continue the journey. Else you can walk back to the south gate along the lake enjoying the view of the Baihai.

Jicui (积翠）

From the Beihai Park, I feel that people in Beijing have a lot of leisure facilities. There are a lot of nice lakes in Beijing, Beihai is one of them. People can choose to walk around the lake, boat on the lake, enjoy the nice scenery or take up a big brush and showing the writing skill.

Shu fa

Po Shi Zha Gen

Writing with brush is a traditional Chinese practice，called Shufa (书法）. Using the big brush is really testing the skill and the strength of hand. In Beihai Park, there are people leisurely writing big words on the floor using water. The nice writing can be kept for few minute and it will be dry after that. Look at one of the writer, he is writing the words that people is asking for; idiom, proverb, saying are written on the floor. These interest and hobby should be our practice in one day.

Looking at Beijing, we should really have more of these leisure facilities instead of building more and more of the shopping center around. Give some time to spend with family and the nature, doing interesting and fun practice just like Beijing’s people do.

Reference Map:



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Travel Tips:

The Beihai Park combo ticket price:
RMB20, include entrance ticket, the Qionghua Island ticket and the Tuancheng City ticket

(Qionghua Island is formally called the Jade Flowery Islet, and Tuancheng City is called the Round City)

Islet Opening hour:
9.00 - 17.00, 1st April - 31th October
9.00 - 16.00, 1st November - 31th March

Entrance:
The South Gate
The East Gate

Little Tips:

The price of F&B in Beihai Park is averagely around 10 to 20 RMB per person, it is quite convenience to get F&B here.
Beihai is a nice lake for boating and a recommended freelancing activities attraction. (Boating price is  around 40 to 60 RMB if not mistaken)