The General Cypresses of Ditan

Three cypresses around the Fangze Altar hold military ranks. The Great General stands south of the altar's south gate, 5.15 metres round and still vigorous. The Old General is west of it at 4.8 metres. The One-Armed General, outside the west perimeter wall, has lost every major limb but one and is still alive. Tradition dates the trio to 1530, when the Jiajing Emperor raised the Temple of Earth's altar here. A Shaanxi official is said to have sent the saplings, invoking the cypress the Yellow Emperor supposedly planted. Their official tags read about four hundred years, but a 2026 investigation by the city paper argues the trees predate the altar and may be Yuan or early Ming work, which is why the age band here is broad rather than exact. The same piece dismantles a local tradition that Sun Yat-sen named them; the records suggest he never planted anything on this ground. The species is contested too. Older park sources call all three Chinese arborvitae; the 2026 article reclassifies two of them as junipers. Nobody disputes that they are old, and all three were described as green and standing in that same report. Entry to Ditan Park costs two yuan, a formality rather than a fee. Walk to the altar and they are around you, in three directions.