In Beijing, there are many places where you can enjoy the best glorious full moon during the Mid-autumn Festival, such as Yuhe Garden and major parks. Besides these places, Planetarium can also offer you a view of the biggest full moon, a way more exciting than observation by naked eyes. Here I list the 6 places in Beijing where you can enjoy the most circular and beautiful moon during the Mid-autumn Festival.

Shichahai

Shichahai is a place perfectly integrating the purest traditional Beijing's local conditions and customs with modern urban recreational facilities. Besides, Houhai, a lake literally named as "sea", becomes more precious in this northern city with few lakes or rivers.

Shichahai is the only open scenic area with night boating service in Beijing. All sculling boats resemble the sightseeing boats as depicted in the painting "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival". As immersed in the primitive and melodious shanty, people go sightseeing on the lake and taste moon cakes, feeling unlimited coziness. Shichahai with broad waters therefore becomes one of the best places in Beijing for enjoying the mid-autumn moon.

Beijing Planetarium

You must have not tried to "admire the moon" by a telescope during the Mid-autumn Festival, right? In Beijing Planetarium, besides appreciating the moonlight, you can also conduct some scientific observations of the moon, e.g., apparent diurnal motion of the moon, reflection of moon revolution. Moreover, you can also observe the moon surface with naked eyes, clearly seeing that the surface of a full moon is covered with pits that form a variety of patterns. You can imagine which one is the "Goddess in the Moon", which one is the "fairy rabbit making medicines".

Taoranting Park

Taoranting Park is not just a park, but a place boasting river channels in the summer and snow-capped “mountains” in the winter. At the night of Mid-autumn Festival, joining in activities at any famous pavilion in the park, no matter it is drinking with snacks at "Inebriate Pavilion" or discussing about calligraphy at "Lanting Goose Pool and Stone Tablet Pavilion", is always one of the elegant amusements. The Central Island, located to the west of Taoranting West Lake, is surrounded by water and only accessible to people visiting by boat. It is the best place for mid-autumn moon appreciation within the park, provided with a moon-admiring teahouse where you can drink tea and taste assorted snacks.

Mt. Lingshan

The lamplight from the downtown of Beijing is blocked out by the hills here. Climbing to the top of Mt. Lingshan and enjoying the moon and stars shall be the most satisfying thing to do.

One can be very pleased by watching a sea of clouds, admiring the sunrise, smelling the flowers and listening to the wind in forest at the top of Mt. Lingshan. That is called "When shall I reach the top and hold all mountains in a single glance?" The unique climate here features hanging icicles in snow valley in the winter, flourishing flowers and plants in the spring, green fields in the summer and countless fruits in the autumn. The 3000-mu (about 200 hectares) meadow and 5000-mu (about 330 hectares) forest bring you a green world, where you can return to nature, enjoy the natural beauty, have your horizons expanded and sentiments nurtured, communicate with the nature and integrate yourself into the nature. In the summer, the temperature in Mt. Lingshan is 12 ℃ lower than that in the downtown of Beijing. When you can hardly stand the sultry weather, this place is exactly the best destination for your vacation.

Central Television Tower

It is well known that the Central Television Tower one of the tallest skyscrapers of Beijing, of which the circular outdoor observation deck is also a place for observing and exploring celestial mysteries most favored by amateur astronomers.

As a significant symbol of Beijing’ modernization, this tower is a complex integrating radio and television transmission, tour and sightseeing, catering and recreation into one entity. The nightscape lighting is another feature specific to this tower, and was awarded the First Prize of Beijing Nightscape Lighting. At night, if you look up to the Central Television Tower, it will appear in your sight as a big lantern hanging in the air.