Jingshan Park

Jingshan Park is a natural way to round off a trip to the Forbidden City. An artificial mound, it was created by the digging of the palace moat and served as a windbreak and a barrier to malevolent spirits (believed to emanate from the north) for the imperial quarter of the city. It takes its names, meaning Coal Hill, from a coal store once sited here. Its history, most momentously, includes the suicide of the last Ming emperor. Chong Zhen, in 1644, who hanged himself here from a locust tree after rebel troops broke into the imperial city. The spot, on the eastern side of the park, is easy to find as it is signposted everywhere (underneath signs pointing to children’s playground), though the tree that stands here is not the original.

It’s the views from the top of the hill that make this park such a compelling target: they take in the whole extent of the Forbidden City - giving a revealing perspective - and a fair swathe of the city outside, a deal more attractive than at ground level. To the west is Beihai with its fat snake lake, in the north Gulou and Zhonglou (the Drum and Bell towers), and to the northeast the Yonghe Gong.

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