Something fishy at Yuyuantan Park (玉渊潭公园)

The first three characters in the brackets above can be translated as “Deep Jade Pool”. “Yu”, which is a falling tone, means “jade,” while the flat tone “yuan” and rising tone “tan” are the “deep pool” part of the park's name (the last two characters, a first tone “gong” and rising tone “yuan”, mean “park”).

I spent an afternoon during the National Day Holiday strolling about this park with my Chinese lady friend before we headed over to a Mongolian restaurant in West Beijing for dinner (this lady is Han Chinese but hails from Baotou in Inner Mongolia). She pointed out the fish-shaped floral arrangement in the above photo to me; otherwise, I wouldn't have noticed.

In addition to the flowers, Yuyuantan Park boasts a small lake. A picturesque arched bridge connects the lake's north and south shores to a little island located in its center. There are also lots of nice trees and paths along the shoreline. Here are a couple of photos:

However, Yuyuantan Park's main attraction is its cherry trees, which are located at the north end of the park. I can hardly wait to go back there this spring with my camera and take a lot of photos. And you can surely bet that I'll be posting them on my blog.

For people interested in visiting this lovely and tranquil place, you can get there by taking the Nr. 1 Subway Line to the Military Museum Station in West Beijing. It's about a 15 minute walk from the station to the park's south entrance. This can make for a pleasant stroll by itself, as one will pass through a nice flower garden on their way to the park.