Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
From
Tiān'ānmén Sq
, cross the road and climb the steps into
Dongjiaomin Xiang
. The red-brick
building next to the Tiā-n'ān Hotel at No 39 was the former
French Hospital
.
Through a grey-brick archway on your right, stands the elegant former
Legation Quarter
of ash-grey ar-
chitecture, now a collection of trendy restaurants facing onto a grass quadrangle.
Behind a wall a short walk east rises a green-roofed building at No 40, which was once the
Dutch Legation
.
Further along on your right stands a building with massive pillars, the erstwhile address of the First National
City Bank of New York ( Huāqí Yínháng), now the quirky
Běijīng Police Museum
.
Keep walking east to the domed building on the corner of Zhengyi Lu and Dongjiaomin Xiang, once the
Yokohama SpecieBank
.
The grey building at No 19 is the former
French post office
, now Jìngyuán Chuāncài Sichuanese restaur-
ant and ideal for lunch before you reach the former
French Legation
, at No 15, with its large red entrance.
The Capital Hotel on the other side is built in the former German Legation.
Backing onto a small school courtyard, the twin spires of the Gothic
St Michael's Church
rise ahead at No
11, facing the green roofs and ornate red brickwork of the old
Belgian Legation
.
Stroll north along Taijichang Dajie and hunt down the brick street sign embedded in the northern wall of
Taijichang Toutiao, carved with the old name of the road,
Rue Hart
. Located along the north side of Rue
Hart was the Austro-Hungarian Legation, south of which stood the Peking Club.
Reaching the north end of Taijichang Dajie, across busy Dongchang'an Jie is the
Raffles Běijīng Hotel
(built 1900), which is just a stone's throw from the famous
Wangfujing Dajie
shopping strip.
POLY ART MUSEUM
( Bǎolì Yìshù Bówùguǎn; 6500 8117;
www.polymuseum.com
;
9th fl, Poly Plaza, 14 Dongzhimen Nandajie; ad-
mission ¥20, audio guide ¥10; 9.30am-4.30pm; Dongsi Shitiao)
This small but exquisite museum
displays a glorious array of ancient bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, a magni-
ficent high-water mark for bronze production. Check out the intricate scaling on the '
Zun
vessel in the shape of a Phoenix' or the '
You
with Divine Faces' , with its elephant head
on the side of the vessel. The detailed animist patterns on the
Gangbo You
are similarly
vivid and fascinating. In an attached room are four of the Western-styled 12 bronze anim-
als plundered with the sacking of the Old Summer Palace that have been acquired by the
museum. The pig, monkey, tiger and ox peer out from glass cabinets - you can buy a
model for ¥15,000. The last room is populated with a wonderful collection of standing
|MUSEUM
