Strolling by the moat before dusk arrives

🌅🚶‍♀🌳 At 5:30 PM, I make it a point to walk by the moat before the twilight sets in. 😊🕔🚶‍♂🌆 🌸🌞🌡 It's early April now, and the daytime temperature has stabilized above 20 degrees Celsius. Going out in just a long-sleeved T-shirt, shedding the jacket signifies the arrival of early summer. 👚🌻🌞 🌸🌷🌼 It's the blooming season for many of Beijing's common spring flowers. The riverbanks are adorned with numerous peach and magnolia trees in full bloom, along with forsythias and some unknown purple flowers covering the slopes. 🌺🌸🌼 🏞🚴‍♂🏃‍♀ Both sides of the riverbank have been transformed into waterfront scenic belts. The walking paths along the bank and the narrow parks above the slopes stretch for kilometers, forming a greenway system for leisurely movement. 🚶‍♂🌳🏞 🌳🏃‍♀🚶‍♂ Surrounded by blooming flowers and green willows, walking on the plastic tracks by the riverbank or in the shade of the park's trees is undoubtedly an activity that attracts people of all kinds for sports, fitness, and leisure. 🧘‍♀🤸‍♂🏋‍♀ 🎣🦐🌊 Besides sports and strolls, the centuries-old moat of Beijing's outer city also caters to people's desire to be near water, with not a few engaging in fishing and shrimp catching by the water. 🐟🌊🎣 🏰📜📚 Additionally, the area from Caihuying Bridge to Guang'anmen Bridge along the West Second Ring Road is rich in historical and cultural elements. Apart from the moat of Beijing from the Ming and Qing dynasties, this area was also the core region of the initial construction of Jicheng and the palace city of the Jurchen Jin dynasty. 🏛📜🗺 📜🗿🏛 The Jinchengdu Park, the site of Yingtian Gate, the Jinchengdu Memorial Archway, and the Jicheng Memorial Column, all lined up from south to north along the river, tell the story of Beijing's three thousand years of city-building history and nine hundred years of being the capital. 🗽📜🏰 🤴👑🎭 The princes of the Ji city during the Western Zhou dynasty and the emperors from the nomadic tribes during the Jin dynasty would never have imagined that, thousands of years later, the core area they ruled would become a corner of the southwest of later dynasties, nor could they have guessed that a moat would run through it. 🤷‍♂👑🎭 👑🚫❌ The forbidden grounds once accessible only to the privileged elite have now become a place for the common people to leisurely stroll, a true testament to the ever-changing world. 🌆🚶‍♀🌳 🌇🌞🏠 Dusk has arrived, and as the sun gradually sets behind the tall buildings, it's time for me to head home. 🏡🌇🚶‍♂