Beihai Park

39°55′28″N 116°22′59″E / 39.92444°N 116.38306°E / 39.92444; 116.38306

Beihai Park is a public park and former imperial garden immediately northwest of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.

First built in the 12th century, Beihai is among the largest of all surviving Chinese gardens and contains numerous historically important structures, palaces, and temples. Once part of the Imperial City, it has been open to the public since 1925. As with many of Chinese imperial gardens, Beihai was designed to imitate renowned scenic spots and architecture from various regions of China, particularly Jiangnan around the Yangtze Delta. Various aspects of the park evoke the elaborate pavilions and canals of Hangzhou and Yangzhou, the delicate gardens of Suzhou, and the natural scenery around Lake Tai with its famously porous stones. Beihai Park itself is now reckoned one of the masterpieces of Chinese gardening and landscaping.

The present park has an area of around 71 hectares (180 acres) with a lake that covers more than half of its area. At its center is Jade Flower Island (t 瓊華島, s 琼华岛, Qiónghuádǎo), whose highest point is 32 meters (105 ft). The park's lake is connected at its northern end to the Shichahai.

"Beihai" is the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the garden's Chinese name, 北海, meaning "Northern Sea". The name corresponds to the "Central Sea" (中海, Zhōnghǎi) and "Southern Sea" (南海, Nánhǎi) immediately to the park's south, still used—under the combined name Zhongnanhai—as the restricted headquarters of China's paramount leaders.

In 1179, Emperor Zhangzong of the Jurchen Jin dynasty had a country resort built northeast of Zhongdu, his empire's central capital located in what is now southwestern Beijing. Taiye Lake was excavated along the Jinshui River and the Palace of Great Peace (t 大寧宮, s 大宁宫, Dàníng Gōng) was erected on Jade Flower Island in the lake.

During the reign of Kublai Khan of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, the island was redesigned by various architects and officials including Liu Bingzhong, Guo Shoujing, and Amir al-Din. Taiye Lake was enclosed within the walls of the Imperial City of the Yuan Empire's new capital Khanbaliq.^{[citation needed]}

The Ming dynasty was initially based at Nanjing but moved to Beijing under the Yongle Emperor, with construction of his palace complex beginning in 1406. At this time, Taiye Lake was divided by bridges into three lakes described as the "Northern", "Central", and "Southern Seas". These lakes formed part of an extensive royal estate within the Imperial City called the Western Garden (西苑, Xīyuàn).