Longtan Lake Park
The major landscape in this park is the Longtan Lake, which translates as Dragon Pool. The lake used to be a huge man-made cave on the ground. The cave was created during Jiajing Emperor's reign of Ming Dynasty, when people in Beijing dug earth and mud there to make bricks for the city wall of Beijing Outer City. After that, the cave became the drainage area of the old Beijing, and became a lake of waste water.
In 1952, the Beijing government decided to solve the environmental problem caused by the lake of waste water. They drew away waste water from the lake, and invited Liang Sicheng, a famous architect and landscape designer, to re-design this area to be a public park. The waste water was removed and replaced with freshwater to create a, new, scenic lake. Some other attractions are also located in the park, such as a temple dedicated to Yuan Chonghuan, a collection of tablets, a series of hills, a waterfall and the "Gardens of Chinese Dragons".
References
- ^ LongTan Park - Chinatravel guide
- ^ LongTan Dragon Park Archived 2008-07-25 at the Wayback Machine - Beijing Guide 2008
External links