After breakfast at Tai Hing, Ben brought me to Jing Shan Park.  It is located at the north end of the Forbidden City and gives a great view of the palace from above.

Ben said he wanted to take me here because he wanted me to have a glimpse of the Forbidden City from above and also this is a great place to experience the culture of the Chinese people.

There is a hill in the middle of Jing Shan Park. Believe it or not, it is entirely man made. It is actually created from the earth that was excavated while building the moat around the Forbidden City. And the whole excavation is done manually!

Jingshan Park used to be connected to the Forbidden City and is also the imperial park for the palace. Today, it is separated by a busy road from the palace.

The entrance to the park is only RMB 2 (about 35 cents Canadian). That is so cheap. Oh but then in Vancouver our parks are free.

The best time to visit the parks in the city of Beijing is during the weekends. Beijingrens loves to gather in parks with friends and family and spend the day pursuing all kinds of activities. They certainly have a healthy lifestyle and that is why I don’t see a lot of overweight people around.

I love the colour of the ginko trees in their brightest yellow. It was autumn already and many of the trees are beginning to shed their leaves.

It was a Sunday that Ben brought me to the park simply because he wanted to show me the festivities.

There were … people dancing traditional dances and modern dances. We particularly like the lady in the black top as she was so engrossed in the dance and totally enjoyed it. We think they are from the western provinces of China.

They do invite you to learn along with them! If you stand there for too long and showing a lot of interest, they will ask you to join in.

There were people engaging in all kinds of gymnastic exercises. Some of them even try to engage people to participate by lending them their gear. Ben pushed me to give it a try but I was too shy to try it out with so many people watching.Actually, I won’t mind doing it if I am with friends doing it together!

I wonder when the Chinese in Vancouver will start to introduce these sort of activities. I hope they do.

There were groups playing musical instruments and there are many groups that blast away with their karaoke set. So it was quite loud.

There were groups of people that kicks a shuttle cocks like toy. I bought a couple of them home for Arkensen and Nanzaro to try them in the park in summer.

There were a lots of rocks that decorated the garden. Rock garden is an integral element of Chinese classical gardens.

Jingshan Park is also where the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty committed suicide.

When the Manchurians broke through the Great Wall north of Beijing and marched to the capital, the emperor sensing that it is the end of his dynasty, fled to this park with his trusted eunuch. The above is the spot where the emperor hung himself. The tree is no longer there but in its place is a tree so that you imagine where it is the emperor died.

Thinking about it, this is where the Han Chinese dynasty ended and which for 300 years, China was ruled by non-Chinese.

The above is the Pavilion of Everlasting Spring (Wanchun ting). It is the largest pavilion and located at the top of the middle peak of the Jing Shan Park. It used to be the highest point in the city.

This is the place that one must go to in Beijing. This is because this is the best place to see the Forbidden City from above.

From the Pavilion of Everlasting Spring is the superb view of the Forbidden City. This is the rear view and exit gate of the Forbidden City.

We were surprised that there were already a lot of people coming out of the Forbidden City at that time of the morning. It seems like most of these people were just walking through the palace within 30 minutes.

The northern view from hill. This is a look along the northern axis of the Beijing capital. While it is hard to see, along this axis is located the other important structures of the city. This included the Drum Tower, the Bell Tower and the Olympic site.

This was where I did one of the touristy stuff, i.e.  to have a picture taken in the imperial costumes. One photo costs me RMB 25 (CAD $4.20). Unfortunately, this is the only satisfactory photo which Ben took from our own camera.