Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Best
Imperial Beijing
Look around certain parts of Beijing, such as the mall- and skyscraper-dominated
CBD and Sanlitun, and it's easy to forget the capital's imperial roots. But for all
the changes wrought in the last 60-odd years, modern-day Beijing is still very
much tied to old Peking: the city of emperors, mandarins and concubines, and
their courtyard houses,
hutong
and palaces.
Beginnings
The Ming emperor Yongle turned Beijing into an imperial city, raising it from the rubble of
the former Mongol capital in the early 15th century. Under Yongle's watch, the Forbidden
City was built, along with the city walls, while the
hutong
were renovated. By the time the
Ming dynasty fell in 1644, Beijing was home to over 2000 temples and was one of the most
important and influential cities in all Asia. The Manchu warriors who established the sub-
sequent Qing dynasty carried on the development, building the inner walls that divided
their imperial, or 'Tartar', city from the so-called Chinese city beyond it.
Hutong Evolution
Hutong
(
Click here
)
started to appear in Beijing in the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), when
the city was being run by the Mongols; the word '
hutong
' is believed to come from an old
Mongol term for a passageway. They proliferated through the Ming and Qing dynasties,
until there were estimated to be 6000 of them in the capital. Those numbers have dropped
dramatically in recent years, as huge swathes of
hutong
land has been demolished to make
way for apartment blocks, offices and roads. There are reckoned to be somewhere between
1000 and 2000 left.
Best Palaces & Royal Residences
Forbidden City
(
Click here
)
You can't really miss this one, can you?