Fragrant Hills Park
Located on the west side of Beijing,Fragrant Hills is a large
forest park with the characteristics of imperial gardens in which
natural landscape is combined with artificial scenery. It is
more than 20 kilometers from Beijing and covers an area of 160
hectares. Its highest peak, 557 meters above sea level, looks
like a huge incense burner, so it gets the name “Incense
Burner Peak.” (Xiang Lu Feng [Shan]): the name Fragrant Hills
(Xiang Shan) is derived from this.
Fragrant Hills has a very long history. A park was
established in 1186, during the Jin Dynasty, and renovated by
emperors of the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties (1115-1911). In
1745, Emperor Qianlong ordered large-scale construction. At that
time, 28 beautiful scenes with enclosing walls were set up and
named Jingyi Park by the emperor. The Anglo-French Army and the
Eight Power Allied Forces burned it to ashes in 1860 and 1900
respectively.
In March 1949, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist
Party was headquartered at Fragrant Hills. Comrade Mao Zedong
lived in Shuangqing Villa, from where he directed the famous
“Crossing the Chang Jiang River Campaign” during the
War of Liberation. Fragrant Hills was formally opened as a
park in 1956. After extensive reconstruction, it again took
on its unique charm, and has become a famous tourist resort.
Visitors can enjoy quiet, ancient scenes, myriad beautiful
flowers in early spring, a cool holiday in the summer, red leaves
in late fall, and splendid snow scenes in winter. Fragrant
Hills has developed into a world-renowned forest park that attracts
large numbers of visitors from China and abroad.
There are three convenient roads for enjoying the park. Along
the northern road, are Glasses Lake, Cascade Cave, Fine-Day and
Jian Xin Pavilions, Zhao Temple, Glazed Pagoda and the Geyun Bell.
Along the middle road are Tingxue, Purple Mist, and Wangfeng
Pavilions, Zhisong Garden, Lotus Lawn, Yuhua Villa,
Snow-On-the-West Mountain, Incense-Burner Peak, Chongyang Garret,
etc. Along the southern road there are Green Lake, Dai Shui Ping
Shan, Green Pavilion, Gem Rock, Complacency Moat, the Red Leaves
Scenery, Sermon Pine, relics of Fragrant Hills Temple, Toad Peak,
Happiness Garden, Shuangqing Villa, White-Pine Pavilion, Sen Yu Hu
and Plum Stone, etc. Visitors can take an 18-minute cable car ride
to the top of Incense Burner Peak while leisurely enjoying the
beautiful scenery below and get an excellent view of Beijing.