Beijing

In the drama, we often see narrow alleys and traditional buildings as well as Palaces and gigantic gates of the forbidden city. After 20 years of the republican era, We get a feeling, that the city had hardly changed and remained its traditional feature. It is partly true but it was a rather conscious decision of the municipal government and its newly appointed mayor in the 1930s.

This front gate of Bejing's historic city wall (Zhengyangmen: 正阳门) was often featured in the show

## Beijing (Beiping) in the 1930s

In the early phase of the republican era, there were multiple plans, to modernize Beijing. That includes toppling walls and liberating sealed spaces. Numerous streets began to be paved with macadam, asphalt or concrete. The imperial temple, the Altar of Earth and Grain, became a very popular Central park among citizens in Beijng. The ultimate goal of the government was reshaping Beijing to a modern capital city, like Paris, New York, Berlin or London, and exemplifying the departure from the old imperial China. This "modernization / westernization" plan was replaced by a new orientation in the 1930s.

Shortly before Winter Begonia started, the national Government moved the capital from Beijing (北京), so called the northern capital, to Nanjing (南京 the southern capital) in 1928. Consequently, the former capital was renamed as Beiping (北平). This was a massive blow for the city, since Beijing had enjoyed its dynastic-capital status and its privilege over 800 years, and because of that, other than the function of capital city, the city had hardly developed a self-sustaining economy. The city needed a financial plan and a new identity.

While the government in the early years of the republican era tried to modernize the city and struggled to shake off its past, Yuan Liang, Beiping's new mayor in 1933 and his government began to use its historical heritage and to preserve these as emblems of Beiping and Chinese Culture. They planed to redefine the city as a modern city of tradition, a centre of Chinese culture. The government in Nanjing also supported the promotion of Beiping as a tourist city open to foreign visitors. This plan was also backed by the idea, that attracting foreign tourists would gain the international understanding of Chinese Culture and eventually draw the attention of the international community about the Japanese invasion.

In this context, the following map of Beiping, which was issued in 1936 by an American artist and military officer, Frank Dorn, is an interesting example. The map emphasized the touristic places in this old city. It was also surrounded by a series of pictures, these are the historical events of China. Foreigners could get an very vivid impression of the city as an embodiment of Chinese history and culture.

1936 Frank Dorn Map of Beijing or Peking, China

## Streets, Lanes and alleyways

It's not the aim of this page to explore the whole history of Chinese Capital cities nor the long history of Beijing itself. Here, I just want to mention, the basic idea of Chinese capital city: The city's square form was planned according to the Chinese Cosmology. The grid street patterns also created the urban units, which were often zoned as administrative and commercial districts as well as residential districts, while the ruler's palace was almost always located in the central or in the north central part of the city.

Beijing was also planned according to this idea. The basic structure of today's Beijing was already built in the 13th century. The form of the city, consisting of inner and outer cities, hardly changed since the 16th century. The total area within the Inner and Outer city walls was sixty-two km2.

In 1750, Complete Map of Beijing (京城全图 Jincheng Chuantu) was issued, which was commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor. The entire street system on the map is to this day still pretty much recognizable. On the map, the forbidden city stood in the middle of the inner city, while main streets on the both side of the forbidden city ran symmetrically. Most of the main streets ran north-south, namely parallel to the 7.9 km long central axis. Each of the north-south main streets was like a spine, with alleys on both sides that ran mostly from east to west. Along most of the broad and busy main streets there were buildings for commerce and handicrafts, while residential buildings were laid out in rows along the narrow and quiet alleys (Hutong). Speaking of the width of those streets, there was already a regulation during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). According to that, the width of Boulevard measured about 37 m, streets around 19 m and Hutong 6 m - 9 m. The distance between two Hutong was around 70 metres long.

### Hutong (胡同: alleyways)

This narrow Hutong is one of the famous features of Beijing until today, since typical traditional courtyard houses were built along Hutong-Alley. These quintessential Chinese architectures nowadays attract many tourists. Shuiyun House is also a typical courtyard house.

### Pailou (牌楼: archways over the streets)

It isn't a feature of Beijing but general artistic treatments in Chinese cities, which are commonly found in different regions in China. On the archways in the drama, we see the name of the streets. Most of those archways were demolished in the 1950s.

## Qianmen Gate Tower Area

We don't know exactly, where opera houses in the drama are located, yet, they are very likely situated in the Qianmen Gate Tower area, south of the Qianmen (Zhengyangmen) Gate, since most of the opera houses in the 1930s scattered there. In this area, the city's entertainment, catering industry, commerce and people's cultural activities were concentrated. Not only the opera houses and homes of opera performers but also many Peking Opera fans as well as people, who worked in the entertainment industry, lived in the area. In the first half of the 20th century, the Qianmen Gate Tower are was home to some 600 famous artists of Peking Opera, pingju opera, acrobatics and other folkart forms. In the centre of this area the Qianmen street runs south from Qianmen Gate, along the Beijing central axis.

## Tianqiao area (天桥)

In episode 6, Shang Xirui brought Cheng Fentai to this densely populated downtown area. This area is situated in the south of the Qianmen Gate Tower area.

## Beiping Railway Station (Zhengyangmen East Railway Station: 正阳门东车站)

At the last scene, Cheng Fengtai is waiting for Shang Xirui at the platform of the Beiping Railway Station. Hopefully, Shang Xirui would come on time and they go together to Hongkong. (Well, Shang Xirui can still take another train, if he misses that train.)

What we see as the Beiping Station in the drama are a part of the pedestrian bridge as well as a platform and some small buildings. However, the real Railway Station was, as the following pictures show, a huge representative european style building. The Station, now the railway museum, was situated on the south east side of the front gate, which we often see in the drama (see the picture above of this page).

Beiping Railway Station in the 1930s

## Grand Hotel des Wagons-Lits （Liuguo Fandian: 六国饭店)

In Episode 2, Shang Xirui sings in his plain clothes at the private party. (The first picture shows the name of the hotel) The Party is held at the Grand Hotel des Wagons-Lits. When Cheng Fengtai tries to negotiate with Cao Guixiu in Episode 10, they also meet at this Hotel. In Episode 15, Jiang Dengbao says to Du Qi: since he writes drafts in the Lu Guo Hotel (Chinese Name of the hotel), he doesn't know his father's condition. Du Qi is the regular of this hotel, too.

The Hotel seems the centre of the social life of the upper class in Beiping in the drama. Indeed, Grand hotel des Wagons-Lits established its name as one of the most prestigious Hotels in Beijing at that time.

### The Grand Hotel des Wagons-Lits

The Grand Hotel des Wagons-Lits (Beijing) was built in 1905 by the Compagnie Internationale des Grands Hotels, a subsidiary of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits in Beijing. The hotel was built in Beijing Legation Quarter, namely Dong Jiaomin Xiang 东郊民巷, immediately to the east of Tiananmen Square.

It was in line with the business policy of the sleeper company to also provide appropriate hotels to its clientele at important destinations on its luxury trains (Ostend, Monte Carlo, Cairo, etc.). The company's first Grand Hotel in the embassy district of the Chinese capital was built in the Flemish Gothic style in 1905, but soon proved to be too small and was replaced by a larger, more sober building before 1914. The hotel covered an area of about 20000 square meters. It had five floors and about 300 guest rooms, restaurants that provide exotic dishes, conference hall, recreation hall, movie hall, billiards room, table tennis room and swimming pool. There was a garden on the roof.

The hotel was mainly used by ministers, officials and upper class people of various countries. In addition, some military and political key figures who stepped down at that time often came here to seek refuge.

## Literature

CRUSH, Peter: CHINESE RAILWAYS - CONSTRUCTION - HISTORY - CHRONOLOGICAL (1875 -1945) - (2018 version) https://www.researchgate.net/project/CHINESE-RAILWAYS-CONSTRUCTION-HISTORY-CHRONOLOGICAL-1875-1945
DONG, Madeleine Yue: Defining Beiping. Urban Reconstruction and National Identity, 1928-1936, in: ESHERICK, Joseph W. (ed.): Remaking the Chinese City. Modernity and National Identity, 1900-1950 (University of Hawai'i Press 1999) 121-138.

DRYBURGH, Marjorie: National City, human city: the reimagining and revitalization of Beiping, 1928-37, in: Urban History Volume 23 Part 3, 2005, 500-524.

KNAPP, Ronald G. / LO, Kai-Yin (ed.): House, Home, Family. Living and Being Chinese, University of Hawai'i Press 2005.

Liangyong, Wu: Rehabilitating the Old City of Beijing. A Project in the Ju'er Hutong Neighbourhood (UBC Press 1999)

QINGXI, Lou: Ancient Chinese Architecture (Foreign Languages Press Beijing 2002)

TAKAMURA, Masahiko (高村　雅彦): 中国の都市空間を読む8 (山川出版社 2000)

University of Bristol: Historical Photographs of China https://www.hpcbristol.net/

WASSERSTROM, Jeffrey: Introduction, in: LINCOLN, Toby / HAIYAN, Liu (ed.): Urban History, Volume 38 Part 3, Special Issue: China's urban turn, 2011, 367-372.

WRIGHT, Arthur F.: The Cosmology of the Chinese City, in: SKINNER, William G. (ed.): The City in Late Imperial China (Stanford University Press 1977), 33-73.

ZHANG, Donia: Classical courtyard houses of Beijing: architecture as cultural artifact, in: Space and Communication 1(1) (December 2015) 47-68. (PDF Version: https://www.researchgate.net/publication)

百度: 六国饭店 https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%85%AD%E5%9B%BD%E9%A5%AD%E5%BA%97/5638660