Beihai Botanical Park — Attraction in Beijing

Beihai Park is a beautiful park next to the Forbidden City with many architectural treasures and temples in its own right. The central feature is a large lake and island.

After a day of visiting the often crowded Forbidden City, Beihai Park is a good place to relax and perhaps feed the fish or ducks. In summer, there are boat rides on the lake but in the winter, when we visited, the lake was frozen solid, which is beautiful in its own way (but be warned, it gets quite cold in the late afternoon so you might want to visit in the mid-afternoon or late morning).

Pro-Tip There is a minimal charge to visit the park but there is a separate charge to visit the island. In my opinion, one entrance fee is enough and there is little reason to pay again to visit the island since you can fairly close to the island and see most of the attractions without paying to enter.

Be sure to visit the hilltop temple next to the park. For a few yuan, you can climb the hill and enjoy an amazing "aerial" view of the Forbidden City and...

Views were still fantastic even during the cold November month. Ferries/boat rides were not operating...

Great place for a stroll. Recommend giving it a few hours and buying the full ticket and going up the...