Research on the Layout Method of Haidian Imperial Garden Cluster of Beijing

Located in the east of the “Three Hills and Five Gardens” area of Beijing, Haidian Imperial Garden Cluster originated in the Emperor Kangxi period, flourished in the Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing period and declined in the Emperor Daoguang and Emperor Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty. It is characterized by large scale, superb skills, dense water network and great changes over the time. From the perspective of regional landscape planning, this research makes overall spatial restoration of the water-garden-field-village-camp-road system during the 1821–1860 period by using historical archives, infers its evolution, counts its construction scale, and analyzes its layout method. The result shows that Changchun Yuan, Yuanming Yuan and Ma Chang were connected into a huge imperial forbidden zone and occupied the main part. The difference in waterscape between private gardens and granted gardens was caused by their locations with the Haidian Tableland. The landscape of paddy fields showed imperial characteristics through temple gardens and afforestation. Finally, it put forward the conclusion that there was a close landscape and social connection between the gardens, water system, fields and villagers as well as four conservation and utilization strategies of great site protection: enlarge the range, renovate key parts of the water system, develop cultural parks and establish ruins park cluster.