The low, gray brick walls of the Andpingfang housing project form a grid of narrow, quiet alleys that cut through the Dongcheng District. Originally built in the nineteen fifties, this block provided homes for workers, replacing the…
Zhongshan Park Altars
This walk takes you through the peaceful imperial park flanking the Forbidden City, home to the ancient Altar of Land and Grain. It is a quiet alternative to the grand palaces next door, filled with ancient trees, ritual pavilions, and early revolutionary history.
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1. Baowei Andpingfang
2. Sun Yat-sen's Statue
A bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen stands in the center of a stone plaza in the Dongcheng District, depicting the revolutionary leader in his signature high-collared jacket. It serves as a marker for the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, which…
3. Laijin Yuxuan Restaurant
The Laijin Yuxuan Restaurant sits within the grounds of Zhongshan Park, housed inside a series of traditional, low-slung grey brick buildings with sweeping curved eaves. In the early nineteen hundreds, this spot functioned as the main tea…
4. Beijing Shejitan
The Altar of Agriculture, or Shejitan, sits as a square platform composed of five layers of earth, each colored differently to represent the soil of the five directions of China. Emperors once knelt here to offer grain and silk,…
5. Huifangyuan
Huifangyuan sits behind a wide, gray gate, marked by a series of low, interconnected courtyard buildings that mimic the layout of traditional Beijing hutongs. Developers built this complex in the late nineteen nineties to relocate…
6. Lanting Tablet Pavilion
The Lanting Tablet Pavilion sits in a quiet corner of Beijing with a double-eaved roof and a heavy stone slab standing inside. This pavilion houses a reproduction of the famous Lanting Ji Xu, a preface written by Wang Xizhi in the fourth…
7. Xiliting
The Xiliting tower stands as a solitary, weathered brick structure tucked within a dense residential courtyard in Beijing. It rises nearly twenty feet tall, a remnant of a Ming Dynasty defensive system that once spanned the city walls.…