Zhongshan Park 

Located in the heart of Beijing and adjacent to Tiananmen Square to the east, Beijing Zhongshan Park covers an area of 23.8 hectares and is a monumental classical temple garden.

In the Liao Dynasty, it was once Xingguo Temple, and in the Yuan Dynasty, it was renamed Wanshou Xingguo Temple. In the eighteenth year of Ming Yongle, according to the principle of "Zuo Zu You She", it was built as a soil and grain altar.  

In 1914, under the direction of Zhu Qiqian, chief minister of internal affairs of the Beiyang government, the altar was opened to the public as a park, originally called Central Park, which was the first public garden in Beijing at that time.

In 1925, when Sun Yat-sen died, the coffin was parked there and a public memorial was held. In honor of this great pioneer of the democratic revolution, it was renamed Zhongshan Park in 1928. 

Soil and Grain Altar 

Zhongshan Park is the place where the royal worship of the gods was held in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The main building of the park is a social and grain altar, which is square in shape and is built with white jade to form a three-story platform and paved with "green, red, yellow, white and black" five-color soil collected from all over the country.

Zhongshan Hall 

The north of the altar is the "worship hall", which is also today's Zhongshan Hall. The worship hall, also known as the Xiangdian or Jidian, is a grand wooden building with yellow glazed tiles, a single-eave hall roof, a white stone base, exposed beams and arches, and paintings. 

In the southwest of the altar, there are auxiliary buildings such as the sacred kitchen, the sacred treasury, and the slaughtering pavilion. To the east of the altar is the Evergreen Garden, where rockeries are stacked, flower sheds are erected, flower beds are built, and bonsai are placed. Among them, there are attractions such as the pine and cypress Jiaocui Pavilion, the Touju Pavilion, and the Laijinyuxuan. The Tanghuawu in the west is a greenhouse for cultivating various precious flowers and trees.

Address: No. 4, Zhonghua Road, Dongcheng District, Beijing 

Reservation and ticket purchase: WeChat public account and mini-app of "Changyou Park"

Translator: BAO Minmin

Reviewer: WANG Yiwen