The Western Hills () are the hills and mountains in the western part of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Geography

Being an extension of the Taihang mountain range from the

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

Province, the Western Hills cover approximately 17% of the

municipality, including most of the

Mentougou Mentougou District () is a district in western Beijing. Spanning , with 266,591 inhabitants (2000 Census), it is subdivided into 4 subdistricts of the city proper of Beijing and 9 towns (1 of which is a suburb of the city proper of Beijing). It bor ...

and Fangshan Districts as well as parts of Changping, Haidian, and

Shijingshan 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, bordering the districts of Haidian to the northeast and east, Fengtai to the s ...

. The elevation of the Western Hills range is between 100 m to over 1900 m above sea level and is visible from the city on clear days. A mix of

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

and

coniferous Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant ...

forests and highland meadows cover much of the Western Hills. Mountain streams feed into the Yongding and Juma Rivers, which flow through the Western Hills to irrigate the plains of Beijing.

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

is mined in Fangshan and Mentougou Districts. Natural and historical points of interest include river gorges, and hot springs, as well as temples, historic homes, secluded retreats and ancient ruins. Also known as the Western Hills Scenic Area, the area has long been used as a retreat by Chinese scholars, religious men, and members of the government and civil service. Nearest to Beijing's Haidian District is the

Fragrant Hills Fragrant Hills or Xiangshan Park is a public park and former imperial garden at the foot of the Western Hills in the Haidian District, Beijing, China. It was also formerly known as Jingyi Garden or "Jingyiyuan" (靜宜園). It covers and consis ...

Park. Nearby is the

Beijing Botanical Garden The China National Botanical Garden () is a national-level botanical garden in People's Republic of China. The garden is located in Haidian District, Beijing, between Fragrant Hills Park and Jade Spring Hill in the Western Hills. The National Bo ...

and

Temple of Azure Clouds The Temple of Azure Clouds (), or Biyun Temple, is a Buddhist temple located in the eastern part of the Western Hills, just outside the north gate of Fragrant Hills (Xiangshan) Park, in Haidian District, Beijing, China, approximately 20 ...

. The

Wofo Temple Wofo Temple () is a Buddhist temple located near the Beijing Botanical Garden from the center of Beijing. The temple is the location of a recumbent Buddha sculpture, created in 1321. History The temple was first built in the 7th century and kn ...

, which has a giant reclining

Buddha statue Much Buddhist art uses depictions of the historical Buddha, Gautama Buddha, which are known as Buddharūpa (literally, "Form of the Awakened One") in Sanskrit and Pali. These may be statues or other images such as paintings. The main figure in ...

, is located on the grounds of the botanical gardens. To the northwest of the Fragrant Hills Park are Jiufeng (Vulture Peak) Forest Park (鹫峰森林公园), Dajue Temple, and Fenghuanling (Phoenix Ridge) Scenic Area. South of the Fragrant Hills Park is

Badachu The Badachu (; also known as "Badachu Park"), 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 ...

(八大处; literally "eight great sites") in Shijingshan District, which is named after eight

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

temples and monasteries. The Western Hills of Shijinghan are also home to the

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. The course hosted the mountain bike competitions ...

, where the mountain biking competition of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games was held. Fossils of the

Peking Man Peking Man (''Homo erectus pekinensis'') is a subspecies of ''Homo erectus, H. erectus'' which inhabited the Zhoukoudian Cave of northern China during the Middle Pleistocene. The first fossil, a tooth, was discovered in 1921, and the Zhoukoudi ...

were discovered in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near

Zhoukoudian Zhoukoudian Area () is a town and an area located on the east Fangshan District, Beijing, China. It borders Nanjiao and Fozizhuang Townships to its north, Xiangyang, Chengguan and Yingfeng Subdistricts to its east, Shilou and Hangcunhe Towns to ...

in Fangshan District. The Western Hills also houses an underground command center of the Chinese military, a secret

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...

-like underground facility built with the assistance of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in the 1950s, which now serves a purpose similar to the

United States Military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

briefly lived in the Western Hills, and the

Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, formally known as the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and known as the Central Bureau before 1927, is the decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ...

retreated there briefly in 1989.

Western Hills Group

The

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

(KMT) also had a secret group named Western Hills, established in 1925. Revolutionary

Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...

's coffin was kept there, with the group's members being Buddhist, believing 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 Markovich Gruzenberg, known by the alias Borodin, zh, 鮑羅廷 (9 July 1884 – 29 May 1951), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Communist International (Comintern) agent. He was an advisor to Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang (KMT) i ...

, from the KMT.Spense, The Search for Modern China, p.326

References

External links

Western Hills page
{{coord, 39.9908, N, 116.1725, E, source:ruwiki_region:CN_type:mountain, format=dms, display=title Landforms of Beijing Mountains of Beijing North China Plain Hills of China

Geography

Western Hills Group

See also

References

External links