Beijing Travel Destinations: Mountain Forest Xiangshan Park

Xiangshan Park is a mountain forest park, which utilizes the natural environment with artificial embellishment. It is located in the southern side of the Temple of the Azure clouds at the foot of the Western Hills, northwest suburbs of Beijing.

Xiangshan Park was called Jingyi (Tranquillity) Park in ancient times. It forms like a crescent moon, behind which the connected peaks from north, and south encircle a col of 6 square kilometers. The Xiangshan Park is built in this col.

It is a mountain forest park, which utilizes the natural environment with artificial embellishment. Every pavilion, terrace, tower, pagoda, hall, loft, hill stone is made suitable for the requirement of natural scenery. Beautiful environment of the nature and various buildings at different layers are made in accordance with each other beauty, appearing in very harmonious grace.

The red maples are the picturesque scenery known far and near. Every year after the frost descent (in the last ten days of October), a great tract of maples of more than 90 maple trees on the south-west slope of the mountain become red. Among which some leaves of pine, cypress, persimmon and white birch dot the scene, inlaying green and yellow with red like a natural embroidery.

In the middle of the slope of the northwest mountain of Xiangshan Park, there is a tablet on which the Emperor Qian Long of the Qing Dynasty inscribed “Fine day snow in the Western Mountains”, one of the eight sights of old Beijing.