Western Hills
Encyclopedia
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
.
Geography
Being an extension of the Taihang mountain rangeTaihang Mountains
The Taihang Mountains are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Henan, Shanxi and Hebei provinces. The range extends over 400 km from north to south and has an average elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 meters. The principal peak is Xiao Wutaishan...
from Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
Province, the Western Hills cover about 17% of Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
municipality including most of Mentougou
Mentougou District
Mentougou District is in west Beijing.Spanning 1,321 square kilometres, with 266,591 inhabitants , it is subdivided into 4 subdistricts of the city proper of Beijing and 9 towns ....
and Fangshan
Fangshan
Fangshan may refer to the following places in mainland China or Taiwan:*Fangshan County , of Lüliang, Shanxi*Fangshan District , Beijing*Fangshan, Pingtung , township in Pingtung County, TaiwanTowns...
Districts as well as parts of Changping
Changping District
Changping District , formerly Changping County , is situated in the suburbs of northwest Beijing.Changping District, covering an area of 1,430 square kilometers, has 2 subdistricts of the city of Changping and 15 towns with total population of 614,821...
, Haidian, and Shijingshan
Shijingshan District
Shijingshan District is an urban district of the municipality of Beijing. It lies to the west of the urban core of Beijing, and is part of the Western Hills area...
. The Western Hills range in elevation from 100 m to over 1900 m above sea level and are visible from the city on clear days. A mix of deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
and coniferous forests and highland meadows cover much of the Western Hills. Mountain streams feed into the Yongding
Yongding River
The Yongding River is a river in northern China. It is one of the main tributaries in the Hai River system and is best known as the largest river to flow through Beijing Municipality.-Geography:...
and Juma Rivers, which flow through the Western Hills to irrigate the plains of Beijing. Coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
is mined in Fangshan and Mentougou Districts. The Western Hills are rich with natural and historical points of interest. They are known for cliffs, caves, river gorges, and hot springs, as well as temples, historic homes, secluded retreats and ancient ruins.
An area renowned for its scenery (it is sometimes also known as the Western Hills Scenic Area), the Western Hills have long been a retreat for Chinese scholars, religious men, and members of the government and civil service. Nearest to Beijing's Haidian District is the Fragrant Hills
Fragrant Hills
Fragrant Hills Park is a public park at the foot of the Western Mountains in the Haidian District, in the northwestern part of Beijing, China. It covers 1.6 km² and consists of a natural pine-cypress forest, hills with maple trees, smoke trees and persimmon trees, as well as landscaped areas with...
Park, most famous for its fall colors. Nearby is the Beijing Botanical Garden
Beijing Botanical Garden
The Beijing Botanical Garden is a botanical garden situated in the northwestern outskirts of Beijing, China between Xiangshan Park and Jade Spring Mountain in the Western Hills.-History:...
and Temple of Azure Clouds
Temple of Azure Clouds
The Temple of Azure Clouds , is a Buddhist temple located in the eastern part of the Western Hills, just outside the north gate of Fragrant Hills Park , in the Haidian District, a northwestern suburb of Beijing, China, approximately 20 km from the city center...
. The Wofo Temple
Wofo Temple
Wofo Temple is a Buddhist temple located near the Beijing Botanical Garden from the center of Beijing. The temple is best known as the location of the 'Recumbent Buddha', a large sculpture of the Buddha lying down created in 1321.-History:...
, best known for its giant reclining Buddha statue
Buddharupa
Buddharūpa is the Sanskrit and Pali term used in Buddhism for statues or models of the Buddha.-Commonalities:...
, is located on the grounds of the botanical gardens. To the northwest of the Fragrant Hills
Fragrant Hills
Fragrant Hills Park is a public park at the foot of the Western Mountains in the Haidian District, in the northwestern part of Beijing, China. It covers 1.6 km² and consists of a natural pine-cypress forest, hills with maple trees, smoke trees and persimmon trees, as well as landscaped areas with...
Park are Jiufeng (Vulture Peak) Forest Park (鹫峰森林公园), Dajue Temple
Dajue Temple
The Dajue Temple is a Buddhist temple located in the Haidian District of western Beijing, China. It was founded in the 11th century, and the current temple dates to a reconstruction in the 15th century during the Ming Dynasty...
, and Fenghuanling (Phoenix Ridge) Scenic Area.
South of the Fragrant Hills Park is Badachu
Badachu
The Badachu , is a complex of monasteries located on the outskirts of urban Beijing, which means "Eight Great Sites" that refers to the eight Buddhist temples and nunneries scattered across the Cuiwei, Pingpo, and Lushi hills in Shijingshan District, at the foot of Beijing's Western Hills.- Temples...
(八大处; literally "eight great sites") in Shijingshan District, which is known and named for eight Buddhist
Buddhism in China
Chinese Buddhism refers collectively to the various schools of Buddhism that have flourished in China since ancient times. Buddhism has played an enormous role in shaping the mindset of the Chinese people, affecting their aesthetics, politics, literature, philosophy and medicine.At the peak of the...
temples and monasteries. The Western Hills of Shijinghan are also home to the Laoshan Mountain Bike Course
Laoshan Mountain Bike Course
The Laoshan Mountain Bike Course is a mountain bike cycling venue located in western Beijing, China adjacent to the Laoshan Velodrome. It began its renovation and expansion program in May 2006....
, where the mountain biking competition of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games were held.
Fossils of the Peking Man
Peking Man
Peking Man , Homo erectus pekinensis, is an example of Homo erectus. A group of fossil specimens was discovered in 1923-27 during excavations at Zhoukoudian near Beijing , China...
were discovered in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near Zhoukoudian
Zhoukoudian
Zhoukoudian or Choukoutien is a cave system in Beijing, China. It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris...
in Fangshan District.
The Western Hills also houses an underground command center of the Chinese military, a secret bunker
Bunker
A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
-like underground facility built with the assistance of the USSR in the 1950s, and now serves a purpose similar to the United States Military's Pentagon. The Beijing Subway
Beijing Subway
The Beijing Subway is a rapid transit rail network that serves the urban and suburban districts of Beijing municipality. It is owned by the city of Beijing and has two operators, the wholly state owned Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp., which operates 12 lines, and the Beijing MTR...
extends all the way to the Western Hills, though the last two stops are only used by the military, and are not open to the public .
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
lived in the Western Hills briefly, and the Politburo of the Communist Party of China
Politburo of the Communist Party of China
The Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China or Political bureau of the CPC Central Committee , formerly as Central Bureau before 1927, is a group of 24 people who oversee the Communist Party of China...
retreated there briefly in 1989.
Western Hills Group
The KuomintangKuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
also had a secret group named Western Hills, which was set up in 1925 when Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
's coffin was kept there; the group's members, who were Buddhist, believed that the presence of Sun Yat-sen's body could bless them.
The group had a political goal of ousting the Communist Left, headed by Mikhail Borodin
Mikhail Borodin
Mikhail Markovich Borodin was the alias of Mikhail Gruzenberg, a Comintern agent and Soviet arms dealer....
, from KMT.
See also
- Geography of BeijingGeography of BeijingBeijing is located at the northern tip of the North China Plain, near the meeting point of the Xishan and Yanshan mountain ranges. The city itself lies on flat land that opens to the east and south. The municipality's outlying districts and counties extend into the mountains that surround the...
- Western Hills Forest ReserveWestern Hills Forest ReserveWestern Hills Forest Reserve lies in the Biji Mountain chain to the west of Kunming, China. It is visible from the eastern or northern banks of Dianchi Lake....
, Kunming - 10 spirits from Western Hills (西山十戾) TaoismTaoismTaoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
stories