Chaoyang · CN

Chaoyang Park

Chaoyang Park (朝阳公园) is Beijing's green lung on the city's east side — the largest urban park inside the Fourth Ring Road, a sprawling 288.7-hectare landscape in which almost 68 hectares are lake and waterway and roughly 87 percent is green space. Stretched about 2.8 kilometres from north to south and 1.5 kilometres across, it holds leafy trails, flower gardens, rowing lakes, an amusement fairground and a beach-style waterfront where the 2008 Olympic beach volleyball matches were played. Open from early morning until late and rated a national 4A scenic area, it sits just beside the embassy quarter and the CBD, so it doubles as a quick escape from the city's glass towers — a place to rent a boat, wander past sculptures, catch a festival or simply walk one of Beijing's biggest and busiest public parks.