Longtan Lake Park (), is a recreational

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...

located in Dongcheng District (formerly in

Chongwen District Chongwen District () is a former district of Beijing, located relatively southeast to the city center (Tiananmen), and was situated between Yongdingmen and Qianmen. It spanned an area of . It bordered Dongcheng to the north, Fengtai to the sou ...

) of

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, just east of the

Temple of Heaven The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial Religious Confucianism, religious Confucian buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperor of China, Emperors of the Ming dynasty, Ming and ...

. It is one of the largest modern parks inside the

2nd Ring Road The 2nd Ring Road () is the innermost ring road highway which encircles the city center of Beijing, People's Republic of China. (The first ring road had been a circular tram route.) The ring road can be divided into two parts: the original ri ...

. It has a large outdoor bird market. The main landscape feature is the lake with

moon bridge A moon bridge (月桥), also known as “''sori-bashi"'' (反り橋) in Japanese, or as a drum bridge (“taiko-bashi” 太鼓橋), is a highly arched pedestrian bridge. The moon bridge originated in China and was later introduced to Japan, where ...

s, rock gardens, dragon boats, tea houses and restaurants.LongTan Dragon Park
- Beijing Guide 2008 Some other attractions are also located in the park, such as a temple dedicated to

Yuan Chonghuan Yuan Chonghuan (; 6 June 1584 – 22 September 1630), courtesy name Yuansu, art name Ziru, was a Chinese politician, military general and writer who served under the Ming dynasty. Remembered as a national hero of Ming China and widely regarded ...

, a collection of tablets, a series of hills, a waterfall and the "Gardens of Chinese Dragons". Longtan Lake is located on an earth and mud

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

created during the

Jiajing Emperor The Jiajing Emperor (16September 150723January 1567), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizong of Ming, personal name Zhu Houcong, art name, art names Yaozhai, Leixuan, and Tianchi Diaosou, was the 12th List of emperors of the Ming ...

's reign of the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

; the material was used to make bricks for the outer city's wall. Afterwards, the pit filled with

wastewater Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of do ...

from the city. In 1952, Beijing government decided to address the environmental problem of the lake. Architect

Liang Sicheng Liang Sicheng ( zh, c=梁思成; 20 April 1901 – 9 January 1972) was a Chinese architect and architectural historian, known as the father of modern Chinese architecture. His father, Liang Qichao, was one of the most prominent Chinese scholar ...

was invited to re-design the area as a public park. The wastewater was diverted and removed, and replaced with freshwater to create the current lake. Longtan Park pic 2

References

External links

Longtan Park: Beijing Visitor
Parks in Beijing Dongcheng District, Beijing {{Beijing-geo-stub