TouchBeijing.com

As part of the canal running from Summer Palace, Beihai Park (namelly “the North Sea”) is the last section of water opened to public, other two more lakes Zhonghai and Nanhai (the “Middle and South Sea”) occupied by the central goverment.

Beihai was first built in 938 A.D., in the Liao Dynasty. In 1267, Kublai Khan took here as the center of his capital and built his palaces very close by, now today they are underneath the Jingshan Hill. In the Ming and Qing Dynasty, Beihai was the inner garden and lake inside the Royal City, till 1925 it was opened as a public park.

Beihai was constructed based on the traditional Chinese mythological fairyland story: one lake and three islets, today only one kept (the one with the white pagoda), another one is the Tuancheng (used to be seperated by water), and the last one was merged with the bridge.

In the very south of the park, that is the Tuancheng City or the “City of Harmony”, where was the 2nd islet. It is 4.6 meters high and extended 276 meters in perimeter. In the center, that is a temple, but 2 trees famous, named as “General in White Robe” and “Marquis of Shade”.

The big Jade Jar by the center of here is also famous, it dates back to 1265.

This is the 1st islet out of the three holy islets, below the white pogoda is a temple named “永安寺” or the “Temple of Eternal Peace”

the Immortal’s Fairy Dew Plate from the Qing Dynasty

A view from the north side of the islet, at the left side of this photo, the stone was collected from Taihu Lake of Yangzhou, in the south of China

That is the temple on top of Jingshan Park

The Nine-Dragon Screen was erected in 1756, it was once the screen wall of a hall. The screen is about 25 meters long, there are nine dragons on each side of the screen.