Beihai Park

This guide to Beihai Park in Beijing follows a black jade wine jar commissioned by Kublai Khan in 1265 for his palace on the island ahead of you, and how it vanished from the record when the Yuan dynasty fell. It picks the story back up centuries later, when the jar turned up doing ordinary kitchen duty in a small Daoist temple. You'll hear how Emperor Qianlong tracked it down around 1745 and what he had carved into its surface. Look for the Round City pavilion built to house it.