Tuan Cheng Fortress

The training camp of the Jianrui Battalion, popularly called the Little Round City - Tuancheng Yanwuting - sits in Beijing's Haidian district on Xiangshan Nanlu at the foot of the Fragrant Hills. It was built in 1749 under the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty to prepare an elite Manchu Eight Banners unit for the planned campaign against the rebel Jinchuan tribes of Sichuan. Its hallmark is a circular fortified wall with two gates and a square drill ground with an audience hall in the middle - probably the only surviving Eight Banners training compound of its kind in China. Long restricted to military use, the site is now a small museum and a quiet stop on the way up the Fragrant Hills park.