
Fragrant Hills Park (East Gate 2)
Imperial hillside retreat and pleasure garden, twice burned by foreign armies, later a secret revolutionary headquarters.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Fragrant Hills Park's East Gate in Beijing follows one hillside garden through very different lives: a Ming-era imperial escape from summer heat, a retreat lavished with pavilions by Qianlong in 1745, twice burned by foreign armies, and for a few months in 1949 the secret headquarters where Mao Zedong and the Communist Party worked from a modest villa called Shuangqing. Look for that villa tucked into the slopes past the maples as you walk.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Summer Palace
Vast imperial garden of a lake and hill, with pavilions, a marble-style boat and covered walkways rebuilt for an empress.
Yuanmingyuan Park
Sprawling imperial garden ruins of marble columns and shattered fountains from a palace burned in eighteen sixty.
Songqingling Former Residence
Qing-era princely garden of winding waterways and rockeries, later home and office of a revolutionary widow.
Jingshan Park
Man-made hill of five peaks and pavilions built from moat earth, overlooking the old imperial palace.
Beihai Park
Sprawling imperial garden lake ringed by pavilions, centered on an islet crowned with a white Tibetan dagoba.
Zhongshan Park
Former imperial altar of white marble soil in five colors, now a tranquil public garden beside the Forbidden City.