Taoranting Park-Beijing Garden & Park

Taoranting Park or Taoran Pavilion Park is located at the South Second Ring Road of Beijing. The overall area of this park covers 56.56 hectares including 17 hectares of water surface. Taoranting Park was built in 1952 and became the first modern architectural park after the foundation of People’s Republic of China. Before the setting up of park, this piece of land was already one of the famous spots in ancient Beijing. The popular Taoran Pavilion and the Cibei Nunnery (some translated as Mercy Nunnery) are located in this park. The beauty of the surrounding added with the strong cultural atmosphere has ensured this park to become an outstanding one.
Cibei Nunnery was built in Yuan Dynasty about 700 years ago. The total area of this nunnery is about 2,700 square meters including over 800 square meters of construction site. Some of the famous buildings in this nunnery are Guanyin Dian, Zhunti Dian, Wenchang Ge and Taoran Pavilion. Sine the Qing Dynasty, this park has become one of top destinations for poets and calligraphers. Thus, many famous poems and calligraphy works were created here.
According to the history, a piece of land which located slightly to the west of Cibei Nunnery had been chosen to build a pavilion in 1695 during Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Later, the pavilion was given name as Taoran which quoted from one of the famous poem written by Bai Juyi, a well-known poet during Tang Dynasty(618-907). Since then, the Taoran Pavilion became a famous destination for people around Beijing city throughout the years under Qing Dynasty.
There are many historical sites which located around Taoran Pavilion in this park. Longshu Temple (Dragon Tree Temple) which was once as popular as Taoran Pavilion in late Qing Dynasty was located to the northwestern part of this pavilion. Besides that, Heilong Tan (Black Dragon Pool), Longwang Ting (King of Dragon Pavilion), Nezha Temple, Cimei Yuan (Plum Blossom Garden) and Zu Garden, Yaotai Tea House as well as Xiangzhong (Fragrant Tomb) were very famous historical sites. Some of them might have even longer history when compared to Cibei An.
Another garden named as Huaxiamingting Garden (Huaxia Famous Pavilion Garden or sometimes translated as Cathay Pavilion Garden) was built in Taoran Pavilion Garden under the concept of “Garden in a Garden” in 1985. A large collection of famous and uniquely designed pavilion was rebuilt here by imitation. The collection of pavilion is including Zuiweng Ting (Drunken Old Man Pavilion), Lan Ting (Lan Pavilion), Eci Beiting (Goose Pool Tablet Pavilion), Shaolingcaotang Beiting (Shaolingcaotang Tablet Pavilion), Canglang Ting (Canglang Pavilion), Duxing Ting (Single Awake Pavilion), Erquan Ting (Double Stream Pavilion) and so on. All of these pavilions are built similar to the size of its original pavilion. There are many travelers throughout the nations visiting this park in order to witness the arts works of Chinese cultural and architectural designs.