Yanqing District, where the Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition is being held, is a summer resort and the agricultural base of Beijing. Yanqing boasts itself as being home to parts of the Great Wall, as well as free parks with beautiful scenery. 

Guishui Park

Guishui Park occupies an area of nearly 10,000 mu, 5,000 of which is covered by water. It consists of five scenic areas, Taidiyuan (literally terrace garden), Qingfengyuan (literally breeze garden), Jingxinyuan (literally inner peace garden), Youjingyuan (literally tranquil pathway garden) and Yaheyuan (literally elegant lotus garden). The landscape in the park, which is mainly created by plants and water bodies, fully embodies the design art and the garden-making culture. The Italian Taidiyuan, one of the highlights in the garden, is built at the eastern part of the park. It consists of eight stone columns, three sculptures, a water-dropping pool and a European-style pavilion.

Xiadu Park

Xiadu Park owns China’s largest sculpture-themed park, in which 50 sculpture works are made of stones and metals. Designers expressed their understandings about “Human, Life and Nature” through the concrete or abstract artistic forms in the sculptures.

In the meantime time, Xiadu Park is also a music park. Visitors can listen to the soothing and gentle background music in every corner of the park. Also, the park is equipped with various lights, including blooming flower-shaped lights, lawn lights, recessed lights, garden lamps, high-pole lamps, wall lamps and street lamps. When the night falls, all these lights embellish the park with different colors, which make it even more captivating and glamorous.

Sanlihe Wetland Park

Sanlihe Wetland Park, located at the northwestern Yanqing, is the very first wetland eco park in Beijing. Stretching 2,000m from northwest to southeast, the natural forested and ribbon-like wetland park is planned to cover an area of 1,200 mu. And the transformation and construction of watercourse, villages and forest lands in 510 mu have been completed in Phase I.

The park preserves the original forest lands and plants as many as possible, and grows up to 27,000 trees and shrubs and 10,000-square-meter flowers and lawns (mainly aquatic plants and terrestrial plants that are suitable for growing in wetlands). In the park, there are a water-cascading pool, 4,000m-long concrete road, 1,000m-long wooden galley road and two stone forests where consist of various stones varied in size, shape and height. In addition, the four small wooden bridges and a thatched hut provide visitors with a place to rest and have some fun. Baimaquan (literally white horse spring), another attraction in the park, is located at the west side of Sanlihe. It never stops running and naturally grows abundant dark green aquatic plants inside. The clear and drinkable water makes another appealing scenic spot in the park.

Jiangshuiquan Park

Integrated with water-dropping landscape, fountains, galley roads, pavilions, bridges and lighting, Jiangshuiquan Park is divided into five drastically different scenic areas which are themed on flowers, brooks and stones, trees, grasslands and mountains, animals like fishes, and lakes. In addition, there are three entrance squares in the south, north and west of the park, and six others which are called Yinyue (literally music), Shengtai (literally ecological), Qinziyuan (literally parent-child garden), Tingxi (literally brook-listening), Huxuan (literally curve and rotating) and Guanjingtai (literally viewing deck), covering an area of 11,000 square meters. Furthermore, the park also consists of 18,000-square-meter cobblestones paved in the watercourses, 5,036m-long road built with concrete bricks and granite plates, 1,800-square-meter water-cascading landscape and fountains, 520m-long galley road and 16 bridges, in which six of them are made of reinforced concrete and the rest 10 are made of wood.

Xiangshuiyuan Park

Xiangshuiyuan Park occupies an area of 135 mu, 18 of which is covered by water. In the park, there are an arch stone bridge, a pavilion, 45 solar energy lights and 75 sets of park benches. It is planted with 13,000 varieties of trees and 62,500-square-meter grasslands. As a park that is integrated with sightseeing, leisure activities and workout facilities, visitors can enjoy the birds chirping and fragrant flowers whiling doing physical exercise.