Viewing Beijing's Night View from the MountainThe

Viewing Beijing's Night View from the Mountain

There are quite a few mountains around Beijing. Among them, Xiangshan Mountain is the one I’ve climbed most frequently—I went there once a week for two years. However, I had never seen Beijing’s night view from a mountain before.

I came across many short videos recommending the Zhaojiawa Scenic Viewing Platform for watching Beijing’s night scene, so I decided to make a trip there.

Zhaojiawa is located in Mentougou District. The roads leading to the foot of the mountain are regular urban roads, but once I started ascending, the road narrowed significantly. It was a winding mountain road with frequent twists and turns, and there were even a few sharp hairpin bends. I didn’t encounter many cars on the way up, so I thought there wouldn’t be many people at the platform. But when I arrived, I was surprised to see quite a number of cars and motorcycles—especially motorcycles. I suppose riding motorcycles on that section of the mountain road is quite thrilling.

The viewing platform itself is quite small. There’s a small convenience store selling drinks, a barbecue stall, and just two or three small tables set up. The road was narrow, and one side was already full of parked cars. I initially wanted to pull over and park there, but then I realized that side was for oncoming traffic, which didn’t seem right. So I continued driving slowly uphill. After passing the viewing platform for a short distance, I entered a small village, where I managed to make a U-turn smoothly and drive back down to park in the correct direction.

Looking out at Beijing in the distance, I could clearly identify the CCTV Tower and China Zun (CITIC Tower), but I couldn’t distinguish other landmarks. There was a road with red lights flickering on and off continuously, and I had no idea which road it was. Later, I heard that the first rehearsal for the military parade was taking place that night, so I guessed it might be Chang’an Avenue—but I wasn’t sure.

On the way down, I felt that my decision to make a U-turn and park properly was really wise, because there was a traffic jam! The number of cars causing the jam wasn’t large—only about five or six—but it still held us up for nearly half an hour. I noticed the cars parked on the opposite (wrong) side of the road; it must have been really difficult for them to get down the mountain.

The night view here wasn’t as spectacular as some short videos made it out to be, but it’s still a decent place to visit.