We discovered a new favorite park today called Jingshan Park. Here's a little history from Wikipedia.
Jingshan is immediately north of the
Forbidden City. The 45.7-metre high artificial hill was constructed in the
Yongle era of the
Ming Dynasty entirely from the soil excavated in forming the moats of the Imperial Palace and nearby
canals. It is especially impressive when one considers that all of this material was moved only by manual labor and animal power. According to the dictates of
Feng Shui, it is favorable to site a residence to the south of a nearby hill (and it is also practical, gaining protection from chilly northern winds). The imperial palaces in the other capitals of previous dynasties were situated to the south of a hill. When the capital was moved to
Beijing, no such hill existed at this location, so one was constructed. It is popularly known as
Feng Shui Hill. It is also known as
Coal Hill, a direct translation of its old popular Chinese name. Jingshan is especially a popular place for elderly people socializing and gathering. One can often find elderly folks dancing, singing opera and doing other cultural activities, such as kuai ban, at Jingshan.
Ok, enough education...it's a beautiful park and it was a beautiful day to be there. We didn't know what to expect but we walked in to see dinosaur skeletons and over 30 animatronic dinosaurs scattered throughout the park. Surprise! Only in China! While wandering through the park we also saw people skipping rope, playing their version of hacky sack but with feathers, dancing, playing the violin and the accordion.
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| Look at Fiona's face...she still LOVES Dinosaurs! |
The point I'd like to make...the Chinese have a real sense of community and are not in the least bit self-conscious. I thought it was wonderful that people just find a park and hang out in it, doing what they enjoy with the people they want to spend their Sunday with. I saw 5 middle aged people skip roping together and a 50+ year old woman dancing by herself. None of them cared we were staring, they just smiled.
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| The Forbidden City from the top of Coal Hill (pretty big, huh?) |
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| It was such a clear day you could see the mountains. This lake is in the park called Beihai. |
There's this great picture of my family when I was about 8 and Amy was just a baby. My parents and the 2 of us were dressed as frontier people and it was shot in sepia. I'm sure you've seen something similar. Well China has its own frontier photo op...here is the 3 of us in the Imperial garb of the Ming Dynasty.
Each time I post about a park in China, I say "it's our favorite" so now I'm going to say "It's our favorite SO FAR..." The Chinese do their parks very well.
