Beijing Botanical Garden locates to the east of Xiangshan. It is famous for collecting, exhibiting and preserving botanical resources of North, Northeast and Northwest China. The Garden is a complex of scientific researching, spreading and sightseeing. Its open area occupies over 200 hectares, forming by botanical exhibition area, places of interests and natural reserves. The total volume growing in the Garden goes more than 560,000 plants, with over 5,000 species. The grassland covers 900,000 square meters. All of landscapes inside the Garden make it heaven of plants and a nice place to get close to nature.
The botanical exhibition area occupies Asia’s largest plant greenhouse. The place is divided into plant area, trees garden, bonsai park and greenhouse flower region. The plant area contains parks specialized in peony, China rose, peach flower, syringe, bamboo, crab apple, water plant and many other items. The trees garden is formed by areas of ginkgo, pines, cypress, rosa, poplar, willow and so on. Bonsai park was opened in 1995. It collects thousands species of subtropical plants from all over the world.
In the area of Beijing Botanical Garden, there are some other famous sites you won’t miss. The first one is Wofo Temple. It is also called “Shifangpujue Temple”, locating at Shou’an Mountain inside the Botanical Garden. Wofo Temple is famous for its statue of Sakyamuni. The bronze statue was made in Dynasty Yuan (1271-1368), and is well preserved for hundreds of years. The cherry valley is another renowned natural sightseeing site within the area. It collects some of the treasury plants such as metasequoia. The cemetery of Liang Qichao is a celebrity-connected viewing site. Liang was an important person when China fighting for its fate from feudalism to modernization in late 1890s and early 20th century. It is interesting that the tomb was designed by Liang’s son, Mr. Liang Sicheng, a world-renowned Chinese architect. Both of the father and son were among those who devoted themselves to push forward China’s modernization.
Cao Xueqin Memorial is actually a new site. Cao was one of the most influential writers in ancient China’s history. The Dream of Red Mansions earned him a great fame all over the globe. According to Cao’s friends’ depiction, the exact small area inside Ma’anshan was very similar to Cao’s old house. Thus, people in later times built rooms here to commemorate him. It is a good place to learn more about the master of literature.