10 Best Photography Places Around Beijing

[nan_tu2]

I have been in Beijing for the past 4 years and have done a lot of traveling and photography around Beijing. If you are

in Beijing for a slightly longer time than most of the passby tourists and interested in going to bring back home more

than the items from Hong Qiao pearl market. I recommend the following places for half day or one day visit around

Beijing.

 

For the pictures of the following places, please point to: http://drtu.com/en/?p=88

 

1: Beijing 798 Art District

 

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:All Year Round

798 is an art district, similar to New York's SOHO district and Minneapolis' River Walk. The factories were built in

1950s and had German style architecture. Most of the factories in 798 went out business in the 1980s and have left

empty through out 1990s. Since 2002, individual artists started to rent empty factory floors and turn them into show

rooms. However, most of the activities were grassroots and the rumor of immediate demolition of the area was

always on the background of the area development. In 2006, Beijing municipal government decided to put in

resources to build this area not only as show rooms for individual artist but as a creative and design center for

clothing manufacturers. Today, this area is filled with artistﾒs showrooms, coffee shops, design companies, art book

shops and tourist buses. The German designed factory buildings and rusty pipes and containers added interesting

background for fashion portraits and post modem pictures. This area has the highest concentration of fashionable

women in Beijing. So that telephoto lenses are useful now.

 

 

2: ChaoYang Park or Sun Park

 

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Spring and Summer

The government and real estate companies all say that the ChaoYang park is like the Central Park in New York.

Their intention is of cause to push up the real estate price around ChaoYang park. The park is located in ChaoYang

district inside the 4th ring and very close to the Guomao CBD area. It is the largest public park-in-city in Asia. As the

host city for the 2008 Olympic game, Beijing municipal government expanded the park by acquiring land from many

surrounding and dying factories. Trees and flowers were planted. Creeks and water ways were added. The real estate

prices around ChaoYang park also skyrocketed in 2006 and 2007 at an average 20,000RMB per squaremeter. Try to

enter the park from the North gate as the South gate is always jammed with people.

 

 

3: Beijing BaDaChu Park

 

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Spring and Summer

BaDaChu (Eight Great Buddist Sites) Park is on the mountain ridge of the west mountain. It is located in Sijingshan

district just outside the 5th ring road. There were 8 ancient temples in the park. These temples were scattered on the

slopes of the West Mountain. At least one of the temples is still used by the Buddhist monks today where you will

see very rare scene of praying events for the belivers. This temple is said to house the remains of the Shakyamuniﾒs

(the founder of the Buddhism) tooth. It also has an impressive stone carvings of 500 aharts.

 

 

4:ZhongShan Park

 

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Spring and Summer

Suitable For:Flowers and Trees

This park is just outside the forbidden city. It was a garden for the emperor who lives in the forbidden city. The best

time to go there is in the Spring or early Summer when the flowers are blossom and the trees are green. You will

also see a lot of local people enjoy all sorts of events, such as playing musics, demonstrating Taiji or even singing

the Beijing opera. You will have a glimps of the city resident leisure life.

 

 

5:Miao Feng Mountain

 

Accessibility:3star

Best Photographic season:Winter

MiaoFeng mountain is located 50 km on the north west of the city. Once every year in April and through out history,

people around Beijing has come to the mountain to worship. The temples and the pagodas at the ﾓgolden topﾔ have

been repaired and restored in the recent years. There is a very enjoyable ﾓancientﾔ trail that leads from the bottom of

the mountain to the ﾓgolden topﾔ. The average hiking time is 1 hour. The winter scene of snow covered mountain and

the ﾓgolden topﾔ will surely catch photographerﾒs eyes. This place is suitable for a 1 day out of the town excursion.

 

 

 

6:JianKou GreatWall

 

Accessibility:2star

Best Photographic season:All Year Round

Coming to Beijing and want to visit the Great Wall? forget about the usual Badaling Great Wall where you will see

tens or thousands of human heads and thousands of small stalles besides the heavily repaired "mordem" Great

Wall. There are more than 20 different sections of the Great Wall around Beijing. The most famous and most touristy

is the Dadaling. However, almost all the impressive photos of the Great Wall are taken in the Jiankou Great Wall.

Here, the mountain ridges are shaved in very narrow paths. The slops are steep. The Wall is not repaired and

restored in any form, leaving its original state. An over night camping in one of the watch towers on the Wall will

present opportunities to shoot the Wall in early morning and late afternoon. The pictures will just add the

unforgettable experience and give a new meaning to those touristy T shirt slogans: I have been to the Great Wall.

You only have been to the Great Wall if you hiked up the JianKou Great Wall. From the north ridge, it is a 1/2 walk to

the JianKou Great Wall.

 

 

7:Frangrance Hill

 

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Summer, Fall

Fragrance hill is the most popular hiking mountain for the locals. It is only 10 km on the north west of the 5th ring.

The top of the hill is Guijianchou which is only 550 meters above sea level. The best season to visit the Fragrance

Hill is in the late Fall when all the levels are turning red. The top of the Fragrance Hill is also the best place to see

the Beijing skyline line. Only there, one can truly grasp the immerse size of Beijing city.

 

 

8:BaShang GrassLand

 

Accessibility:1star

Best Photographic season:Summer, Fall

Bashang Grassland is located in Inner Mongolia, some 300 km north of Beijing. It takes more than 5 hours to

negotiate the twist and turns in the mountain before one can reach there. However, once you are there, you will

experience the same scenery that Genghis Khan saw some 1000 years ago. There are no factories, no traffic jam,

and no pollution. There are only small villages, endless grassland, wild flowers and historical relics.

 

9:Summer Palace

 

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Summer

Almost every first time visitor to Beijing will surely visit the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. It was built in the

Qing dynasty as a summer retreat for the emperors. The historical buildings and architectures are recently resorted

to the original states. There were many trees and flowers planted. The park is a perfect place to shoot old

architecture designs and Chinese folk stories which are painted on the ceilings of the ﾓlong corridorﾔ

 

 

10:Tsinghua University

 

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Spring, Summer

Last if not the least is the Tsinghua University. Known as the MIT of China, Tsinghua University produces the best

engineering talents in China. Many of the graduates are among the top leaders in China, such as Hu Jingtao (current

president) and Zhu Rongji (formal primer). Tsinghua University was built in the early 1900s the east of the

Yuanmingyuan. It was a private garden for one of the emperorﾒs relatives. The remains of the garden are still seen

today as the pond, lotus, pavilions and gardens in the historical part of the university.

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[gungajim]

I have been in Beijing a couple of times but you have some fresh suggestions here. I will be there again in December and will take a printed copy of this with me. Thanks for taking the time to prepare this list. GJ

[mohir_ali]

Maybe you should contact Bob Atkins (Admin) and write a complete article for Photo.net instead of bits and pieces through posts. It would all be in one place and people can still contribute comments and add content. Good work, and good luck.

[stanley_wu1]

I come back from Beijing just recently. The weather is not great, especially the day I went to the Great Wall. Thanks for the tips, I will definitely have this print-out with me the next time I go.

[bob_camarena]

I will be in Beijing for a week starting Aug 12. I was there in March on a tour but had no time to wander on my own but this time I will have more free time. We will be staying at the Xixi Friendship Hotel in the Xidan area, which I understand is a large shopping district frequented by locals. I'm hoping it is a good place for street photography. Can you tell me if this is the case and if you have any suggestions for photo/walking tours nearby?