HouHai Park – 后海公园 Print
Written by Administrator   
Monday, 04 August 2008 08:40
HouHai Park is one of the most popular parks in Beijing and for four good reasons:
  1. Admission is free of charge.
  2. The park is open for visitors almost 24/7
  3. It has a lake and boats for rent. In the winter the lake freezes and you can rent ice-skates.
  4. At the lakeside there are many bars, restaurants, coffee shops and souvenir shops. Kind of all in one park.
HouHai's only drawback is its location. Though it's in the city center there is no subway line passing nearby. You either have to take the bus, a taxi or walk from GulouDaJie Subway station for about 15 minutes but we will get to that later in the directions section.

HouHai is a great place to visit by day and night. It's very nice just to take a stroll at the lakeside, have a rest and a drink at the bar of your choice and then go and have a look at the nice little shops of YanDaiXieJie.

HouHai might be far from the subway but it's very close to other places worth visiting like BeiHai Park (right across the street from the southern entrance) and the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, GuLouDongDaJie and NanLuoGuXiang with many nice restaurants and shops. By the way, even thought it is called HouHai Park, the lake the park resides on is QianHai 前海. So don't let the maps confuse you.

Directions:
As we said before, there is no subway station very close to HouHai Park. The closest subway station is GuLouDaJie. From there take Exit B and start walking south (turn right from the exit). Now you are walking along JiuGuLouDaJie. When you can't go straight anymore turn left and then turn right. Now you should be walking south on DiAnMenWaiDaJie. When see the entrance to YanDaiXieJie alley turn right and keep going straight until you get to the lake. If you don't want to walk you can always take the Subway to DongSiShiTiao station (Exit A). After you get out of the station turn right and head towards the bus stations. Take Bus 701 to __________.
If at any point you wish to take a taxi, just tell the driver you want to go to HouHai GongYuan or HouHai JiuBa Jie.