Zhongshan Park
Former imperial altar of white marble soil in five colors, now a tranquil public garden beside the Forbidden City.
This guide to Zhongshan Park in Beijing opens in March 1925, when a coffin was carried into a walled imperial garden ordinary citizens had never been allowed to enter, trailed by more than a hundred thousand mourners for the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen. It traces the site back to 1421, when the Yongle Emperor built it as the Altar of Land and Grain, where emperors once knelt on soil hauled from across China to petition the gods of harvest. You'll hear how the sacred enclosure had already been opened to strolling couples years before that funeral crowd arrived. Look for the five colors of soil still covering the marble terrace.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.