Jingshan Park covers 57 acres on Beijing’s highest hill, directly north of the Forbidden City and connected to it via the Gate of Divine Might. First built in 1179, it was reserved for exclusive use of the emperor, who would go there for recreational activities as well as to look out over Beijing.

There’s an artificial hill inside the park called Jingshan Hill. This hill was made in 1420 and was called the Long River Hill at that time. It has also been called Mei Shan, meaning Coal Hill, because coal was heaped at its base, and Feng Shui Hill because it was constructed north of the Forbidden City, to protect it from cold northern winds. In 1655 the hill finally came to be called by its current name.

There are five towers in the park. From them you can get a good view of Beijing, particularly the hutongs, and the Forbidden City. The five towers have typical Chinese two-story thatched roofs and neatly built stairs. Wanchun Pavillion is the center tower, and it stands at the highest point of the hill. The other four pavilions are built at the four corners of the park. Each has a copper statue of Buddha depicting the various tastes, acidic, salty, spicy, sweet and bitter. These statues are not original; those were damaged during the Boxer Rebellion.

Several palaces were built at the foot of the hill. The Shouhuang Palace was used to pay respect to the emperors’ ancestors, but today it’s the Children’s Palace. The Yongsi Palace stands a little further east, and the Guande Palace beside that. Deceased emperors lay in state in these buildings before their funerals.

At the foot of the hill there stands a pagoda tree, planted on the spot where it is said that  Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself from a similar tree as rebel forces led by Li Zichen entered the city in 1644 (though according to another version of the story he hanged himself in the Forbidden City). 

The park has been used in recent times for many exhibitions and shows, and over two hundred varieties of peonies bloom there in April and May.

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