Beijing Zoo is a zoological park in Xizhimen, Xicheng District, Beijing. Founded in 1906 during the late Qing dynasty, it is the oldest zoo in China and oldest public park in northern China. The zoo is also a center of zoological research that studies and breeds rare animals from various continents.

The zoo occupies an area of 89 hectares (220 acres), including 5.6 hectares (14 acres) of lakes and ponds in Xicheng District. It has one of the largest animal collections in the country. In 2015, the zoo and its aquarium had over 450 species of land animals and over 500 species of marine animals; in all, it is home to 14,500 animals.

More than five million people visit the zoo each year. Like many of Beijing's parks, the zoo's grounds resemble classical Chinese gardens, with flower beds amidst natural scenery, including dense groves of trees, stretches of meadows, small streams and rivers, lotus pools, and hills dotted with pavilions and historical buildings.

The Beijing Zoo is well known for its collection of rare animals endemic to China, including giant pandas, which are the zoo's most popular animals, red pandas (native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China), golden snub-nosed monkeys, South China tigers, white-lipped deer, Père David's deer, crested ibises, Chinese alligators and Chinese giant salamanders.

Other endangered or threatened species housed at the zoo include a Siberian tiger, yaks, Przewalski's horses, snow leopards, Tibetan gazelles, and kiang. Some of the other animals in the zoo's collection include addaxes, Asian black bears, Asian and African elephants, bats, beluga whales, chimpanzees, clouded leopards, flamingos, gorillas, hippopotamuses, jaguars, kangaroos, lemurs, lions, muntjac, otters, penguins, polar bears, rhinoceroses, sea turtles, tapirs, giraffes and zebras, as well as 13 of the world's 15 species of cranes.^{[citation needed]}

The zoo grounds originally housed an imperial manor during the Ming dynasty, that became part of the estate of the general Fuk'anggan during the Qing dynasty. In 1906, the Imperial Ministry for Agricultural, Industry and Commerce established an experimental farm outside of Xizhimen on land that encompassed two gardens, the Leshan and Ji, and two temples, the Guangshan and Huining. The Experimental Farm consisted of an experimental farm, a botantical garden, a small menagerie of 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres). The experimental farm had five main experimental areas for grain, sericulture, vegetables, fruits and flowers. The menagerie was the earliest public zoo in China and the oldest public park in northern China.

Most of the animals were purchased by the Viceroy of Liangjiang, Duanfang, from Germany. The animal collection attracted great interest when the farm opened to visitors on 16 June 1908. Admission cost eight copper coins with children at half price. The Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor each visited the zoo twice. The farm was known as the Wanshouyuan or the "Garden of Ten Thousand Beasts." Among the historical buildings at the zoo is Changguanlou, a Baroque-style country-palace of Empress Dowager Cixi, designed by a French architect and built in 1908. It remains one of the best preserved Western-style palaces in China.

After the Qing dynasty was overthrown in 1911, the zoo became a national botanical garden during the Republican period. In the 1930s, with French aid, Lamarck Hall, named after the botanist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, was built at the experimental farm and housed plant research. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese occupiers built the monkey mountain in 1942, but used the experimental farm as a storage depot. In 1943, the Imperial Japanese Army poisoned the zoo's six lions and two leopards, purportedly to remove potential interference with air defenses. Many other animals, including the zoo's lone Asian elephant, died of starvation. By the end of the war, only ten monkeys, rabbits, geese, two pigeons, flamingo, emu, peacock, eagle, and three parrots remained.