Shichahai and Houhai Lakes: Waterfront Walks and Silver Ingot Bridge

Directly north of Beihai Park and west of the Drum and Bell Towers, a ribbon of three interconnected spring-fed lakes cuts diagonally through the historic grey-brick courtyards of Xicheng District. Collectively known as Shichahai (the Lake of Ten Temples, named after the Buddhist and Daoist monasteries that once ringed its shores), the water divides into Qianhai (Front Sea), Houhai (Back Sea) and the quieter western basin of Xihai (West Sea, or Jishuitan). During the thirteenth-century Yuan dynasty, this waterway served as the northern terminus of the Grand Canal, where grain barges from southern China unloaded their cargo within sight of the palace.

Qianhai, Yandai Byway and Silver Ingot Bridge

Step out of Shichahai Station on Subway Line 8 and you arrive near the northeast shore of Qianhai, where weeping willows overhang stone balustrades and lotus flowers bloom in July and August. Slanting northeast from the water toward Drum Tower East Avenue runs Yandai Byway (Yandaixiejie, or Tobacco Pipe Skew Street), a narrow pedestrian lane famous during the Qing dynasty for long-stemmed bronze and bamboo tobacco pipes and today lined with snack stalls, stamp shops and the old post office housed in a former Daoist temple.

At the narrow waist where Qianhai meets Houhai arches the white marble Silver Ingot Bridge (Yindingqiao). In Imperial times, standing on this single-arch bridge on a clear afternoon offered one of the classic Eight Minor Views of Yanjing, called Viewing Mountains from Silver Ingot Bridge, because the blue peaks of the Western Hills rose cleanly above the open water of Houhai.

The quiet north shore of Houhai and Xihai

While the southern bank of Houhai near the bridge fills with lively neon bars and live acoustic singers after dark, walking clockwise along the northern shore of Houhai (Houhai Beiyan) reveals a far calmer side of old Beijing. Here the waterfront path passes beneath ancient locust trees past the lakeside garden estate of Prince Gong's Mansion, the secluded courtyard of the Former Residence of Soong Ching-ling (built inside the garden of the last emperor Puyi's father, Prince Chun), and the lakeside pavilion of Wanghailou. Continue further northwest past Deshengmen to Xihai Wetland Park, where wooden boardwalks thread through reed beds and wild ducks with locals fishing in the shade. If you visit in mid-winter when the lake freezes solid, Shichahai opens a fenced outdoor ice rink where families propel themselves on traditional wooden bingche ice-chairs using twin iron spikes.