Fragrant Hills Park, also known as Xiang Shan Park, is located about 25 kilometers to the northwest of Beijing. It served as an imperial park in the old days with forest characteristics, and it occupies a total area of 160 hectares. The main peak is about 557 meters high above the sea level, so it is nicknamed as Devil Frowning Peak.
Fragrant Hill got its name out of three reasons. Firstly, there is a huge piece of protruding shaped rock standing at the top of the Western Hills, with wisps of spiraling mist of clouds girdling around the peak, it looks very much like an incense burner giving out incense-smoke, so we call it Incense Burner Hill, Xianglufeng in Chinese. Since Incense Burner is pronounced as Xianglu, which has the same pronounciation with “fragrant” in Chinese, hence it got the name of Fragrant Hill. Secondly, there is a famous poem written by Libai, an outstanding poet in the Tang dynasty, which described spiraling wisp of purple clouds girdling around Lushan Mountain peak. The peak in Lushan Mountain was called Incense Burner Hill, and then we called the western hills Fragrant Hill. Thirdly, there were many apricot trees planted on the Western Hills in ancient times, so the fragrant smell of apricot flower fills everywhere in spring time, hence it got the name of Fragrant Hil l.
History of Fragrant Hills Park
Fragrant Hills Park has a history of over 800 years, and it was first built in 1186 of the Jin Dynasty(1115-1234), At that time the Jin emperor built a temple on the hill named Ganlusi, and later, other Jin emperors built some view pavilions, towers, pagodas and platforms here successively. Thus here became a proto type of the imperial garden for later dynasties.
During the old days, the emperors of the past dynasties built their” temporary palace” and yards on Fragrant Hill where they oftern came to hunt animals or spent their summer days. In 1745, a large-scale construction of imperial gardens started on the western outskirts of Beijing. During Emperor Qianlong’s regin, the famous Three Hills and Five Gardens were built under the emperor’s personal supervision. Fragrant Hill is one of the three hills and the Garden of Tranquility and Pleasure under the hll was one of the five gardens. At that time, there were 28 scenic spots and attractions in Jinyiyuan.
Unfortunately, this garden got twice damaged. The first time was in 1860 by the Anglo-French Allied Forces. the second in 1900, the garden was damaged by the Allied Forces of Eight Powers. After that those scenic spots and attractions were hardly seen there. Moreover, during the time of warlords and Kuomindang, the park was occupied b some high-ranking officials as their private villas, so the garden was in a condition of slack management. Gradually the garden fell into a declined and waned condition.
Every year in October, cool and pleasant, it is the best season for tourists because of the red leaves everywhere on the hills. This unique natural beauty is made by 100,000 smoke trees planted on the hill, which made the Fragrant Hill one of the most beautiful scenery spots in Beijing suburbs. The red leaves on the Fragrant Hills have a long history. As early as in the Jin dynasty(1115-1234), the red leaves were described by some poets. And in 1745 of the Qing dynasty, Emperor Qianlong built the Garden of Tranquilty and Pleasure on the Fragrant Hills, and then here became the best place to enjoy the red leaves in late autumn.
---------------------------------------------------------------Author: AmoyTrip.com--Fragrant Hills Park
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