Xiangshan Park is situated in the western suburbs of Beijing, where rugged ridges rise in unbroken emerald. Covering about 168 hectares, it is an imperial garden featuring mountain forests. The highest summit, Incense Burner Peak—popularly nick-named “Where Even Ghosts Lose Heart”—rises to 575 m above sea level.

       The park was first built in the 26th year of the Dading reign of the Jin dynasty (1186), almost nine centuries ago. By the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, emperors had already built detached palaces among the hills for summer hunting and cool retreats. Xiangshan Temple once crowned all temples in western Beijing; in 1745 Emperor Qianlong lavished funds on a vast project that created the twenty-eight celebrated vistas known ever after as Jingyi Garden—“Garden of Quiet Delight”. Among the celebrated “Three Hills and Five Gardens” of western Beijing, Xiangshan alone supplies one hill and one garden. Twice ravaged—first by the Anglo-French allied forces in 1860 and again by the Eight-Power Allied Forces in 1900—the site was opened to the people as a public park in 1956.

       Historic relics and monuments crowd the park: pavilions, terraces, halls and towers scattered among the woods like stars across the sky. Here is the Xishan Qingxue (“Sunny Western Hills after Snow”), one of the Eight Great Views of Yanjing; Biyun Temple, a monastery that marries Ming and Qing architectural idioms; the country’s only surviving set of five-hundred gilt-wood Luóhàn statues; Zongjing-Dazhao Temple, the palace built to receive the Sixth Panchen Lama; and Jian Xin Pavilions, an elegant garden court of unmistakable Jiangnan charm…

       Biyun Temple itself was begun in 1331, the second year of the Zhishun era of the Yuan dynasty, originally under the name Biyun Hermitage. Successive enlargements during the Zhengde and Tianqi reigns of the Ming Dynasty and again under Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1736-1795) produced its present scale. Occupying roughly forty thousand square meters, the temple rises in six successive courtyards aligned along an east-west axis, each terrace climbing the mountain slope to create an ever-rising sense of magnificence. In 1957 the Beijing Municipal Government listed it among the first batch of key cultural relics under municipal protection; in 2001 it was designated a key cultural relics unit under national protection.

      Shuangqing Villa owes its name to two ice-cold springs that gush from a rock fissure. Emperor Zhangzong of the Jin Dynasty named them “Dream-Inspired Springs”; in 1745 Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty built a retreat here called “Pine-Isle Cloud Manor” and, delighted by the cool, clear water, bestowed the name “Shuangqing”—“Double Clarity”. After the 1917 flood in Zhili, Xiong Xiling founded the Xiangshan Children’s Home and turned the site into a private villa—henceforward Shuangqing Villa. It became the residence and workplace of Chairman Mao Zedong. On 25 March 1949 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) moved into Xiangshan; from this villa Chairman Mao directed the Yangtze River Crossing campaign, oversaw preparations for the founding of New China and wrote the celebrated poem “The People’s Liberation Army Occupies Nanjing”, turning a new page in Chinese history. In 2019, under the care of the CPC Central Committee and the Beijing Municipal Committee and Government, the former revolutionary sites of the CPC Central Committee at Xiangshan—including Shuangqing Villa—were restored and opened to the public on 13 September. Eight sites cluster on the southern slope: Shuangqing Villa (Chairman Mao’s office and residence); Laiqing Xuan (offices and living quarters of Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Ren Bishi); the Shuangqing Villa East Bungalow (Central Guard Department); Siqin House (Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee); Duoyun Pavilion (Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee); the Little White Building (CPC Central Committee Library); Lizhu Building (Telephone Bureau at Xiangshan); and Zhenfang Building together with Zhennan House (Confidential Department of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee).

       Xiangshan Park is densely wooded, with a forest coverage rate of 96%. It is home to more than 5,800 ancient and notable trees alone—one quarter of the total within Beijing’s urban area—making it one of the capital’s richest sources of negative oxygen ions. This unique landscape blends “mountain streams, famous springs, venerable trees, and red autumn foliage,” endowing the garden with exceptional scenic richness. A natural haven from summer heat and a veritable forest oxygen bar, Xiangshan offers the city a perfect breathing space.

       Xiangshan is renowned for its red leaves; named one of the “Sixteen New Sights of Beijing” in 1986, they now provide the capital’s richest autumn colour. Eight botanical families and fourteen tree species are represented, totaling 140,000 individuals over 93 hectares—a spectacular display. Xiangshan Park holds more than 100,000 smoke-trees (Cotinus coggygria) covering about 80 hectares, the main constituent of its red-leaf forest. The leaves contain chlorophyll, xanthophyll, carotenoids, β-carotene and anthocyanins; in spring and summer chlorophyll drives photosynthesis and keeps the foliage green, but the cooler days of autumn and the widening day-night temperature range inhibit chlorophyll synthesis and gradually break it down, while carotenoids, β-carotene and anthocyanins increase, turning the leaves yellow-red, orange-red and other beautiful hues.       Xiangshan Park has been a “Capital Civilized Unit” continuously since 1993; in 2001 it was rated AAAA by the China National Tourism Administration, in 2002 it was listed among the first “Beijing Top-Quality Parks,” and in 2004 it passed both the ISO 9001 Quality Management System and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System certifications. In 2019, the Xiangshan Revolutionary Memorial Site of the CPC Central Committee was designated a National Patriotic Education Demonstration Base, Shuangqing Villa was designated a key cultural relics unit under national protection, and in 2020 the park was honoured as a National Civilized Unit.