So you just arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon, and jet lag totally wiped you out by dinnertime.  Now it’s 4am and you're wide awake again.  But your first place to visit today, the Forbidden City, doesn’t open until 8:30am.  What do you do between now and then?  Easy: you come over to Zhongshan Park and the Workers Cultural Palace, both of which border the south side of the Forbidden City.  Zhongshan Park opens at 6am, half an hour before the Workers Cultural Palace, so come here first.  If you come in the west entryway, you’ll see these paintings under the eaves of the entrance gate.

The Altar of Land and Grain, Shejitan, in Zhongshan Park.  This is the historical reason to visit the park.  During the Ming and Qing dynasties, when this place was the Temple of National Revival, the emperor came here to make ritual sacrifices to the gods twice a year, at planting time and harvest time.  Dirt of five different colors fill the altar to represent land from all over China.  (Though messy at this time, the altar was later cleaned up and nicely laid out in preparation for the Beijing Olympics.)  The building beyond the altar, formerly the Hall of Worship, is now the Sun Yatsen (or Zhongshan) Memorial Hall.

A magnolia blossom.  This is the reason most people visit Zhongshan Park today.  In early April, magnolia trees blossom throughout the park, and many locals come to see the spectacle.  Once the blossoms have fallen, the park has many other gardens throughout that make the place well worth a visit during the spring and summer.

Bursts of color among the colorless trees of early spring.

Roof tiles on a pavilion and a hazy sunset in Zhongshan Park.

Huge, gnarly old cypress trees.  Some of Zhongshan Park’s cypresses are over a thousand years old.

Spring blossoms in Zhongshan Park.

A typical day at Zhongshan Park.

The view from those benches in the previous photograph, across to the southwest corner of the Forbidden City.  Boats can be rented here in Zhongshan Park and taken a short distance on the moat around this southwest corner.

Colorful inlaid rocks of a sidewalk in Zhongshan Park, photographed with the camera pointing straight down.

Corridors in Zhongshan Park.  It’s difficult to believe that such a peaceful little park could border the tourist chaos of the Forbidden City, but it’s true; pleasant as it is, I’ve never seen this place crowded.

Carving detail along that corridor.

More from the gardens of Zhongshan Park.

Eaves of a building near the west entryway of Zhongshan Park.  When you’ve completed your very early morning stroll around the park, don’t go out this way; leave through the northeast entryway instead.  When you do, you’ll see the south entrance to the Forbidden City off to the left.  If it’s not yet 8:30am, then it’s not yet open, so look straight ahead; you’ll see the entrance to the Workers Cultural Palace across from you.  Head over there, because it’s now open.