Located in the western suburbs of Beijing, Fragrant Hills Park covers an area of 188 hectares and is an imperial garden featuring forests and hills. The main peak, Xianglu Feng (Incense Burner Peak), commonly known as "Where Even Ghosts Lose Heart," rises to 575 meters above sea level.
Built in the 26th year of Emperor Shizong of Jin Dynasty, it has a history of nearly 900 years. In the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, imperial palaces were built on the Fragrant Hills. Emperors would go there to hunt and beat the heat every summer and autumn. Among the well-known "Three Hills and Five Gardens" in western Beijing, the Fragrant Hills Park is home to one of the hills (Fragrant Hill) and one of the gardens (Jingyi Garden). It was burned down by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860 and again in 1900 by the Allied Forces of the Eight Powers. In 1956, it was opened as a public park.
Fragrant Hills Park is home to a wealth of cultural relics and historic sites, with pavilions, terraces, and towers scattered like stars across the forested hills. Here you can find the "Xi Shan Qing Xue" one of the "Eight Scenic Spots of Yanjing"; the Biyun Temple, a temple combining architectural styles of the Ming and Qing dynasties; the only existing gilded wooded "Five Hundred Arhats" statues in China; the "Zongjing Dazhao Miao", a temporary palace built to welcome the Sixth Panchen Lama; and the "Jianxin Zhai", an elegant garden courtyard with distinctive Jiangnan (south of the Yangtze River) characteristics.
The Biyun Temple was first built in 1331. It was renovated and expanded during the Zhengde and Tianqi eras of the Ming Dynasty (1271-1368) and the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty (1736-1795), reaching its current scale. The temple covers an area of approximately 40,000 square meters. The main buildings along the east-west axis are arranged across six courtyards. Its halls rise in tiers along the mountain slope, creating a grand and imposing architectural ensemble. In 1957, Biyun Temple was listed among the first batch of key cultural relics protection units by the Beijing Municipality. In 2001, it was designated a national key cultural relics protection unit.
The Shuangqing Villa got its name from two clear streams emerging from rock crevices. It was initially named "Menggan Quan" by Emperor Zhangzong of the Jin Dynasty. It was the "Songwu Mountain Villa", a royal garden in the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Qianlong, finding the spring water cool and sweet, bestowed upon it the name "Shuangqing". In 2019, Shuangqing Villa was renovated and exhibited, and officially opened to the public on September 13. Shuangqing Villa has now been turned into the exhibition room of Mao Zedong (the founder of the People's Republic of China)'s activities in Shuangqing. The living room of Mao Zedong is still preserved and displays his photos, telegraph texts and poems handwriting, and manuscripts for visit and remembrance. The small hexagonal pavilion beside the pool is the place for Mao Zedong to chat with friends and reading newspapers at his leisure.
With a forest coverage of 96 percent, the Fragrant Hills Park boasts more than 5,800 ancient and famous trees, making it one of the areas with the highest concentration of negative oxygen ions, and a summer resort.
The scenery of red leaves on the Fragrant Hills is famous both at home and abroad, becoming the greatest autumn scenery in Beijing. In 1986, they were rated as one of the "Sixteen New Scenes of Beijing," representing the most vivid autumn scenery in the capital. The foliage comes from 14 species across eight plant families, totaling around 140,000 trees over an area of about 1,400 mu. Among them, more than 100,000 are smoke trees (Cotinus coggygria), which form the backbone of the autumn scenery. In spring and summer, chlorophyll dominates, giving the leaves their green color through photosynthesis. As temperatures drop in autumn and the day-night temperature difference increases, chlorophyll breaks down while pigments such as carotenoids and anthocyanins become more prominent, producing vibrant hues of red, yellow, and orange.
Fragrant Hills Park has been recognized as a Capital Civilized Unit since 1993. In 2001, it was rated as an AAAA Tourist Attraction by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China. In 2002, it was named among the first batch of Beijing's Excellent Parks. In 2004, it passed the ISO9001 International Quality Management System and ISO14001 International Environmental Management System certifications. In 2020, it was awarded the title of National Civilized Unit.
(Source: The official website of Fragrant Hills Park)
