Shi Sha Hai Area
Because of my job, personally I know this place very well, that was at least 10 years ago, before it gets so much attention.
The Shishahai area consistes of three lakes, the ‘Xi Hai ‘- West Lake, the ‘Hou Hai’ – Back Lake, the ‘Qian Hai’ – Front Lake.
There are different versions on the story of how it got the name as ????Shi Sha Hai????, one of them says, there were many temples around these lakes, and Shi means ten (but could means many in Chinese), Sha means temple. The “Hai” in Chinese originally means Sea, but locally in Beijing the lakes downtown all are called as Hai, this was a tradition from the Yuan Dynasty, but still quiet confusing even for Chinese who are not living in Beijing.
All of the lakes are mainly from the nature, and that was the reason why the Capital was chosen to be built here. In the Yuan Dynasty, these lake were the north end of the nation transportation, the Grand Canal System, so we can imagine here was very busy, and the lakes were bigger and deeper.
Today, the Shishahai area is the only open-water area free of ticket, and what is more, as the downtown of the old capital, lots of cultural relics are kept:
Hutong, the traditional way of living, is very famous. The Hutong Tour is a must of everyone comes to visit. But the problem now is, there seems to be too many companies doing the same job, on the busy season, there are far too many tourists than the real locals.
The Former Residence of Late Madam Soong Ching Ling, the wife of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. The residence was the garden of Prince Chun’s mansion where the Last Emperor Pu Yi was born. Now the main part of the mansion is still a government ministry.
The Royal Residence of Prince Gong, the former owner of the mansion was a very corrupted high official in the middle of Qing. The second owner was Prince Gong, the foreign minister during the late 19th century.
[...] Shishahai Lake is a very popular place for movies, many different parts in this movie were shoot around the lake. [...]