Beijing: Beihai Park, take one

From Tiananmen Square I walked to Beihei Park. It was originally an Imperial Garden, so abounds with pagodas and such like.

Now it’s where the lucky residents of Beijing can come and loaf, exercise or canoodle, and where overheated and footsore tourists can chillax (ha, I’ve been waiting to use that word!) without feeling like there’s a need To Be Very Impressed.

I particularly wanted to see the Nine Dragon Screen, at the north entrance to the park, but I didn’t want to stampede past everything else to get to it.

I wandered about, exploring hidden nooks and crannies, and fondly remembering my first visit to the park in September, when we had all flopped around, exhausted, on the grass and played cards, and it seemed like we’d have forever until we went home.

The result of this leisurely, and slightly prematurely nostalgic, stroll was that I arrived at the Nine Dragon Screen five minutes after it had closed. I taught one of my Chinese friends the word ‘Doh!’, and this would seem to be its perfect definition.

The closed doors of the Nine Dragon Screen.