Old Beijing - a personal journey of discovery

With maps and books I could find at the Foreign Languages Bookstore on Wangfujing Street I would try to make sense of Old Beijing The city was much more complex than I had initially appreciated. Early rules related to domestic building style, size, colour. Then there were many former internal walls and gates such as Dianmen, the "Earth Gate", but what did it all mean and signify?

The metro from Yonghegong was a convenient way to reach historic sites such as the Ancient Observatory at Jianguomen or the Ming-era "Victory Gate" at Deshengmen. At Qianmen a petite French-style cafe served coffee and crosissants for breakfast. There I looked toward the great Zhengyangmen and Jianlou Towers, imagining imperial processions as the emperors were carried south from the Forbidden City toward the Temple of Heaven. Then I would immerse myself in the alleys of Dashilar and Liulichang before heading back on the metro towards Dongzhimen, spending early evening in delightful Nanguan Park near the Russian Embassy.

I would slowly meander back along the alleys during both summer and winter trying to absorb so much of the local character. Nightly, in simple small restaurants, locals dined around steaming copper hotpots. Most days there was often was a quietness broken at times by the sound of bicycle bells, hawkers on their three-wheeled carts and something else, pigeons! Domesticated pigeons flew with whistles attached, creating sounds like jet aircraft!