Xiangshan (Fragrant Hills) Park, also known as the Forest Park,is located on the eastern sides of the Western Hills, approximately 10 kilometers to the west of Beijing. Due to its high elevation and dense cover of trees, spring arrives late in the area and summer days are always pleasantly cool. The best time to visit the park is late fall, when the smoke tree leaves turn red. The trees make the grandest display of al. There are also groves of apricots,pears,peaches and lilacs adding their fragrance, and the more solemn evergreens, whose contribution to the local beauty is unrestricted by seasonal changes.

A poem of Marshal Chen Yi reads:

The red leaves of the Western Hills because even redder as the frost thickens.

And an earlier poem by the Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu treats the same subject,

Stopping in my sedan chair in the evening, I sit admiring the maple grove,

The frost-covered leaves are redder than the flowers of spring.