Beijing Ming TombsNational Forest Park

Mangshan National Forest Park is located on the east side of Ming Tombs Reservoir in Changping District, with the highest peak at 659 meters. The mountain is named Mang (meaning python in Chinese) because it undulates like a huge python.

Covering an area of 8,000 hectares, Mangshan National Forest Park is the largest of its kind in Beijing. The park is home to 176 plant species; 96 percent of the park area is covered by forests. The most important species are evergreens such as Chinese pine, arborvitae, and lacebark pine. Walking in the forest and listening to the sound of mountain breeze is a refreshing experience. Winter jasmine, mountain peach, Ansu apricot, forsythia, clove, flowering almond, Chinese herbaceous peony, Chinese rose, and cherry blossom blooming in succession turns the park into a vast sea of amazing shapes and colors. The fiery red foliage, from smoke tree, mono maple, typhina, to Japanese creeper, tells visitors everything about autumn's splendor.

Over the past years, the Mangshan Mountain has been the voluntary tree planting base for central government organizations. In 1983 and 1984, state leaders including Deng Xiaoping, Wan Li, and Hu Yaobang came here twice to plant trees. The lacebark and Chinese pines they planted are now flourishing with verdant foliage. A Greening Pavilion and hundreds of tablets bearing inscriptions of celebrities are erected in the park, representing the visitors' strong patriotism and awareness of protecting nature and greening the country.

Apart from the vast natural landscape, there are several cultural attractions such as the Grand Buddha, Mangshan Pagoda, and the Highland Corridor.

A huge statue of the laughing Buddha Maitreya sits on a vast platform at the foot of the Mangshan Mountain. Sponsored by Ms. Li Ching-yan from Taiwan and designed by Prof. Zhao Shutong, a famous sculptor, the statue, 9.9 meters hight and weighing over 1,500 tons, is carved out of 200 pieces of granite. It took one year for 80 masons from Sichuan to finish the work. It is the largest stone Buddha in North China. On the 5,000-square-meter lawn before the Buddha are sculptures of 12 zodiac animals, which have attracted large numbers of tourists to take photos. Chinese scholar trees, lacebark pines, Japanese pagoda trees and Japanese creepers are planted surrounding the lawn, adding much beauty to the place.

Situated on the mountain top at an elevation of 640 meters, the 37-meter-tall Mangshan Pagoda is the best Ming-style pagoda in Beijing. It serves both as watchtower and scenic lookout. Viewed from outside, the steel & concrete pagoda is a five-storey building, while it actually has six stories inside. Standing on the pagoda, provides a panoramic view of all the tourist attractions of the Ming Tombs and the satellite town Changping; on clear, sunny days there is even a clear view of Beijing proper through a high-power telescope.

There are two painted corridors at the foot and on the top of the mountains, which provide shade and shelter for visitors. The corridor at the mountain foot is 90 meters long, situated on a hollow stone structure which has a museum inside. The museum exhibits over 1,000 strange-looking stones in the three exhibition halls, divided into six sections. The other corridor is 150 meters long and looks like a dragon half hidden in the clouds. These two corridors are connected by 1,299 steps made of 3,666 stone slabs. It is an ideal venue for outdoor exercise and sports which will uplift your spirit.

In the central area of the park there is an elegant old-Beijing-styled courtyard. In its west is a two-storey viewing pavilion. The pavilion provides a fine view of the skyline of the satellite town Changping in the west, the glistening Ming Tombs Reservoir in the northwest, the Ming Tombs half-hidden among the pines and cypresses in the distance, as well as the Cave of the Immortal, Dabao Mountain, Hanbao Mountain, Yingshan Mountain, Jiulong Palace, Reservoir Monument, gullies, cliffs and ancient temples. On sunny days, CCTV Tower in downtown Beijing can be seen , not to mention Mangshan Mountain. In summer, visitors can enjoy the shade and cool breezes, and in autumn they can view the maple leaves on the eastern side of the mountain and immerse themselves in the most spectacular color of the season.

Visitors to Mangshan Mountain are often impressed by the enchanting scenery. They appreciate not only the fresh and tranquil natural environment, but also the cultural inspiration drawn from the sites of cultural interest.

Facilities such as the cable car, mountain scooters, paragliding, sanatoria, wood houses, hotels and scaled-down replicas of world famous dams are to be set up in the park, which, when completed, will make the place a more charming resort for visitors from home and abroad.