Behind the Botanical Gardens
Stroll through Beijing’s beautiful Botanical Gardens on the way to a loop hike in the hills behind the park area.
This hike is not currently scheduled
Lido, then Liangmaqiao—we’re reversing our regular pickups this weekend because we currently can’t get into the Lido Hotel to use the bathrooms, and the Starbucks won’t be open until too late. No bathrooms, no coffee … no good reason to hang about there. There should be time to grab a coffee at the Starbucks by the pickup point at Liangmaqiao, if you’re fast!
With pretty much everywhere shut down for visitors it’s tough to find a good hike right now. We’ve found a few places to go for a walk, and, while they’re not quite the sort of trail we usually go for, it is definitely awesome to be able to get up into the hills and into the open air.
The hike starts and finishes in the Botanical Gardens in Haidian District. Right now the gardens are in fine form, full of flowers and blooms.
We walk up into the park and through the forest, and then climb a trail to get into the hills in the back.
Out back of the park there’s a good loop hike that goes up into the hills, going up through ‘Cherry Valley’ and then up on to the high ridge above the gardens. The trail follows hill paths and some fire break roads, passing through forested areas and rocky valleys.
After completing the loop we come back down through the park to finish.
COVID-19 and participation precautions
The current precautions are minimal. Please read in full here: Operating hikes under COVID-19 precautions
