Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Royal City. After passing through the Tian-an Men, the avenue widened into a
T-shaped palace square. The square was bounded on three sides by red brick
walls. Inside the east and west walls, long corridors called the “Corridor of a
Thousand Steps” were built. Outside the south central gate of the square was the
south central gate of the inner city wall. This gate was known as the Zheng-yang
Men, or Front Gate, and the part of Beijing which lay beyond it was called the
outer city. Along the main axis of the city, which had been extended, the funda-
mental principles of the design of Dadu City were further developed, and a higher
aesthetic level was achieved.
The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the last imperial dynasty in China's history,
also established its capital in Beijing. Besides erecting more palace buildings in the
Forbidden City and in the imperial park around Tai-ye Chi, it did not do much to
change the layout of the city. Thus Beijing City—or as we now call it, Beijing's Old
City—was preserved until the eve of the birth of New China. Starting with the prin-
ciples set forth in the Book of Artifi cers with adjustments made to accommodate
local geographical characteristics, and then having gone through numerous recon-
structions, Beijing has fi nally come down to us as the ultimate expression of the
ideal traditional Chinese city.
It is just this Beijing City that has been the object of high praise from Western
urban planners. For example, the renowned Danish architect Steen Eiler Rasmussen,
in the preface to his topic Towns and Buildings , wrote:
There are excellent German and Japanese guide topics giving detailed information about
every single palace and temple in Peking. But they do not contain a single mention of the
fact that the entire city is one of the wonders of the world, in its symmetry and clarity a
unique monument, the culmination of a great civilization. 6
Another example is provided by the distinguished American city planner
Edmund Bacon, who was Executive Director of the Philadelphia Planning
Commission for 20 years and made an important contribution to historic preser-
vation and restoration in that city. In his topic Design of Cities he wrote this
regarding Beijing's Old City:
Possibly the greatest single work of man on the face of the earth is Peking. This Chinese
city, designed as the domicile of the Emperor, was intended to mark the center of the uni-
verse. The city is deeply enmeshed in ritualistic formulae and religious concepts which do
not concern us now. Nevertheless, it is so brilliant in design that it provides a rich store-
house of ideas for the city of today. 7
Bacon's comment is noteworthy. As a center of imperial rule, he said, it was a
great design achievement and should be studied by city planners today. At the same
time, he points out that it contains much that does not serve the needs of the present.
This clearly reveals the dilemma we face today.
6 Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Towns and Buildings , paperback edition. Cambridge, Mass.: First M. I.
T. Press, 1969. Preface, p. v.
7 Edmund N. Bacon, Design of Cities , revised edition. London: Penguin Books, 1980, p. 244.
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