Shichahai Place of Origin of Beijing City

Shichahai is a green pearl in the northwest corner of Beijing city. Combining natural landscape, human landscape, highly centralized cultural relics and historic sites and folk activities of long history, it is a historical culture and scenic landscaped area in Beijing and it is the place of origin of Beijing city. In 2004, the Xicheng district changed the name of Changqiao street into Shichahai street in order to carry forward the splendid culture of Shichahai. In 2005, in the activity of China s Most beautiful Places held by Chinese National Geography Press, Shichahai was evaluated as one of the five most beautiful urban areas. When the Olympic Games was held in Beijing in 2008, many residents near Shichahai entertained large number of foreign tourists as Olympic Games Family . In 2009, Shichahai was elevated as AAAA grade scenic spot by the National Tourism Administration.

People lived near Shichahai as early as Tang dynasty. Now, there are still Tang Locust Trees in Guke Courtyard of Beihai Huafangzhai and Zhenshan Pavilion behind JingshanMountain. They are historical witnesses. Shichahai was called White Lotus Pond in Liao (Jin) dynasty, which showed that lotuses were in full bloom in Liao (Jin) dynasty. Shichahai was called Jishui Pond or Haizi in Yuan Dynasty. In Qing dynasty, the water area on the west of DeshengBridge was still called Jishui Pond. Because there was a JingyeTemple in the north bank, it was also called JingyeLake. The water area between DeshengBridge and YindinBridge was called Shichahai because there was an old temple called Shichahai in the northwest bank. There was another saying. It was called Shichahai because there were ten temples around it. There grew lots of lotuses on the east of YingdingBridge which was the best place for enjoying lotuses in Beijing at that time, so it was called SmallLotusLake . After new China was founded, the said three water areas were called Xihai, Houhai and Qianhai respectively and collectively called Shichahai. In order to distinguish it from Qiansanhai (Beihai, Zhongnanhai), Shichahai was also called Housanhai.

BeijingCity Appears After Shichahai.

After Yuan dynasty destroyed Jin dynasty, once luxurious Jin dynasty capital (it was near Guang anmen and utilized water system of Lotus Pond) was destroyed into ruins by the army of Yuan dynasty. While re-selecting site for founding capital, Kublai Khan followed prime minister Liu Bingzhong s suggestion to utilize the water system of Jishui Pond, Beihai and Zhongnanhai to found the capital. After construction in Liao dynasty and Jin dynasty, Beihai and Zhongnanhai at that time had become a famous imperial garden in Beijing. At that time, Qiong Dao Chun Yin and Tai Ye Qiu Bo in the famous Eight famous sights in ancient Beijing were just here. In addition, the imperial palace of Jin dynasty capital was destroyed and kublai khan provisionally lived in DaliaoPalace in Qiongyu of Beihai (a temporary imperial palace which was built in Liao and Jin dynasty). As a result, he decided to found a new capital along the axis on the east of Jishui Pond, Beihai and Zhongnanhai. Dadu (namely Beijing) was founded as the capital of Yuan dynasty. It was constructed from Zhiyuan 4 (1267) to Zhiyuan 13 (1276), so there was a common saying in old Beijing : Beijing City Appears After Shichahai . Yuan dynasty palace in Dadu was also called imperial palace which was constructed on the east of Beihai. DamingPalace in the palace (namely FengtianPalace and TaihePalace in Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty) was the highest and most magnificent construction in Dadu city. Dadu city had criss-cross streets and orderly chess board type layout. Nowadays, South and North Lugu Streets and nearby streets in Dongcheng District mostly maintain the layout in Yuan dynasty. In addition, the streets in Beijing were called Hutong from Yuan dynasty. At that time, it was planned that the locust trees were planted along the street and in Hutong as roadside trees. Naturally, there were two locust trees in front of the gate of each quadrangle dwellings. When Italian traveler Marco Polo came to Yuan Dynasty Dadu, he said that Dadu was the most beautiful city in the world. At present, the old streets and Hutong built in Yuan dynasty can also be found in Beijing.