Attractions >> Beijing >> Beijing Attractions

Taoranting Park Beijing

Taoranting Park or Joyous Pavilion Park is located in the southern part of the city, north of the Beijing Southern Railway Station. Taoranting Park covered the Black Dragon Pond in the east, Dragon Spring Temple in the west, Nanheng Street in the north and the city wall in the south.

Taoranting Park got its name after famous Tang poet Bai Juyis poem: When the chrysanthemums turn yellow and wine is made,
Lo! my dear friend,
Lets drink to our hearts content and be drunken away In ecstasy.

Unlike other parks and gardens of the city which were reserved for the emperor and his family, the Taoranting Park was accessible to all. This explains why the park was a popular meeting place for poets and literary men during the Qing dynasty.
Two revolutionaries, Gao Junyu and his girl friend, Shi Pingmei, were buried here.

History
Taoranting Park dates as far back as the 3rd century BC. The site of todays Taoranting Park was the eastern urban district of the capital city ( Dadu ) of the Jin Dynasty. Later this place became an attraction for tourists from far away and those scholars who came to the nations capital for imperial civil examinations. In the past century several famous revolutionaries were closely associated with the Taoranting Pavilion.

Architecture and Lay Out
At the gate of the temple was a calligraphic work in gold of Taoran by Jiang Zao and on the temple wall were inset with a rock carving, Ode to Taoranting that sang in the last two verses. Most outstanding of the gardens sights was the grotesque formation of Taihu Lake rocks designed by Zhang Ran.