Jingshan Park

The Coal Hill Park lies right to the north of the Palace Museum. It used to be a private garden of the imperial family. When the Imperial Palace was built in the early Ming Dynasty, the earth excavated to make the moat was piled up, and five peaks took shape. Coal was once heaped around the foot of the hill, it is therefore also known as Coal Hill. In Qianlong's time, fruit trees grew and birds were raised in the grounds, the place was then called the Hundred Fruits Garden. Feudal emperors came here to climb the hill, attend the banquets, shoot arrows, and enjoy flowers as well. The hill is just behind the Forbidden City. It used to be a natural screen. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was regarded as "Dominating Hill", a symbol of stability of the feudal rulers. Five pavilions were later built on the ridges, From east to west they are: Guanmiaoting (Wonderful View Pavilion), Zhoushangting (Surrounding View Pavilion), Wanchunting (Everlasting Spring Pavilion), Fulanting (Panoramic View Pavilion) and Jifangting (Harmonious Fragrance Pavilion). From the hilltop, visitors can have a bird's-eye view of the city. There used to be a bronze statue of a god in each of the pavilions. Unfortunately four of them were stolen by the allied forces of the eight powers in 1,900, and the one on the uppermost pavilion was totally damaged.

Entering the front gate, you come to Qiwanglou (Chamber of Beautiful Expectation) which stands with its back to the hill 43 metres high. In the old days there was a Confucius' shrine in the building, where the Qing officials and scholars paid their respects to him. It is now a gift shop.

On your way up the hill from the eastern slope, you will come across a locust tree right below the Wonderful View Pavilion. There was formerly an old locust tree from which the last Ming emperor Chongzhen hanged himself when a peasant army led by Li Zicheng broke into Beijing in 1644. A new tree has been planted to mark the site.

On top of the hill, you will find the park located on the meridian line. It starts from Yongdingmen Gate at the southernmost city limit and runs northward through the Front Gate, Tian'anmen, the Forbidden City to the Everlasting Spring Pavilion and leads on to the Drum Tower and Bell Tower to the north. Looking southward on a bright sunny day, the yellow glazed-tile roofs of the Forbidden City glitter like thousands of gilded fish-scales under the sun. To the southwest lies the North Sea, Middle Sea and the South Sea. Further to the west is the White Dagoba which emerges on the island in Beihai Park like a maiden in her white sari, pretty, elegant and graceful. At night, the scene is unusually striking.

Behind the hill is Shouhuangdian (Hall of Imperial Longevity) where the portraits of the ancestors of the Qing court were housed. To its east is Guandedian (Hall of View of Virtue) used as a temporary resting-place for deceased emperors before burial.

The Coal Hill Park was opened to the public in 1928. After liberation, the buildings were renovated and flowers and fruit trees were planted. The Hall of Imperial Longevity was turned into a Children's Palace. Now the Coal Hill Park has become one of the popular holiday resorts for the people of Beijing.

Coal Hill Park

The Beijing Evening News reported on June 22, 1987 that viewed from the air, the Coal Hill Park is just like a smiling giant Buddha. This was a new discovery in testing remote sensing colourful images by the remote sensing technical experts of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources.

The surrounding wall of the Coal Hill Park is like a big scenery frame. The delightful scenery in the park forms a huge Buddha sitting in the centre. The experts said that perhaps it was designed by the ancient builders or it was an accidental coincidence. It remains to be studied and verified in the days to come.

According to the Remote Sensing Centre of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources, Guo Jibin discovered from a remote sensing photo of Beijing that the layout of the old city with the Forbidden City, the Coal Hill Park, the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, form the shape of a dragon, while the man-dug imperial lake gardens form another dragon.

According to Guo, the dragon formed by the Imperial City is about 4.5 kilometres long, from the Golden Water River in the south straight to the Bell Tower in the north. Tian'anmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace), together with the Golden Water River and the white marble bridge over the river, form the mouth of the dragon, and West and East Chang' an (Eternal Peace) Avenues are its tentacles. The symmetrically sitated and equal-sized Altar of Land and Grain (today's Zhongshan "Dr. Sun Yat-sen" Park) and the Imperial Ancestral Temple (today's Working People's Cultural Palace) are the two eyes of the dragon. The wide paved path from Wumen (Meridian Gate) to the Gate of Heavenly Peace is the bridge of the dragon's nose. The Forbidden City, together with the Coal Hill Park and a straight road leading north to the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, give the dragon its body and tail. Standing on the top of Coal Hill and looking southward, the golden glazed tiles of the imperial palaces appear just like the scales of the dragon shining in the sun, while further south, the semi-circular-shaped watchtower and Zhengyangmen (South-Facing Gate), seen from the sky above, appear just like a pearl the dragon is playing with. The specially-structured corner towers of the Forbidden City are the four powerful claws of the dragon.

To the west of the "building-formed dragon" lies a "water dragon" formed by the imperial lake gardens. Running from south to north, they are Nanhai (South Lake), the head of the dragon; Zhonghai (Central Lake) and Beihai ( North Lake) the dragon's body; and Housanhai (The Three Rear Lakes) which give the dragon its tail. The layout of the Imperial City shows a strong tint of imperial authority and divine authority. Apart from some traditional regularities in ancient building planning, the Eight Diagrams and other forms of divination were also used in planning these two dragons. The shapes of these two dragons are not very much like the figure of today's dragon, but compared with the dragon carvings and ornamental patterns on some cultural relics of several thousand years ago, the similarities are obvious.

The new discovery is regarded as far-fetched by some experts, owing to the lack of evidence from historical records. But other experts think it is quite reasonable, and the difference of opinion has caused a lot of discussions in ancient building research circles.