The Foreign Legation Quarter in Beijing: a virtual tour

September 17, 2007

One of the more interesting walks through Beijing is the former Foreign Legation Quarter which lies to the east of Tiananmen Square. The Legation quarter was the area where the Western powers and Japan had their embassies during the latter part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th. Manchus, Mongolians and Koreans also resided in this area. It stands as a vivid reminder of foreign occupation and the site of one of China's most humiliating episodes: the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers belonged to a religious society that called themselves the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists" (Yi He Quan) who believed they could use a combination of martial arts and animistic magic to fight and expel foreigners from China. The Boxers slaughtered Christian missionaries and Christian Chinese converts throughout north China, and their attacks reached a climax in Beijing in the spring of 1900 with attacks on missionaries and Chinese Christians in and around the city. By June, foreigners and Chinese Christians took refuge from these attacks in the Foreign Legation Quarter where they held out for 55 days waiting for help. When the Qing imperial court refused to suppress the rebellion, the foreign powers responded by calling in an allied expeditionary force known as the "Eight Nation Alliance" (baguo lianjun). The alliance started in the port city of Tianjin and made their way into Beijing by August 14 where they broke the seige of the Legation Quarters and occupied Beijing. In the following year, the Qing imperial court signed the humiliating "Boxer Protocol" where they promised, among other things, to pay a staggering indemnity to the foreign powers that is estimated to be about 333 million U.S. dollars.

We start our walk here at Zhengyang ("facing sun") Gate, which was damaged during the Boxer Rebellion. This gate forms the southern entrance to Tiananmen Square, and is the largest of the 9 gates that were part of the inner city walls that were taken down in the 1950s. Take the subway to the Qianmen stop and when you get out, you'll be outside this gate. Walk through the gate into the square, and you'll see Mao's mausoleum in front of you. Turn around and this is the view you should see.


To your left (looking east), you should see this building which is on the western border of the Legation quarter. To get there, take the underground tunnel that leads to the other side of the street.










When you get to the other side of the street, enter into the alley way that leads past this building. This alley is Dong jiao min xiang and is the southern border of the Legation quarter. Continue walking east along this alleyway. To your right, as you walk past this building (which houses the Management Committee of the Tiananmen District government), you'll pass the area that was the U.S. legation. You won't be able to see much because of the walls.








Update: In September of 2008, I brought another group of students to tour this area and we found that the former U.S. legation area had been turned into a posh, upscale restaurant complex that includes a French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese restaurant. I guess you could say it's a form of culinary colonialism!

Below left is a picture of the flyer for the complex, called Legation Ltd. (According to one source, the Americans had a baseball field built on the grounds of this complex.) On the right is a picture of the former U.S. embassy building which now houses the French restaurant.























One thing you'll notice when you walk through this neighborhood (if you can read Chinese) is that it is home to many government and public security (the name of China's police) offices. Many of these buildings are off limits and you'll see guards standing at the gates to ward off any curiousity seekers.


Further up the street you'll find this building to your right. It's used to be the National City Bank of New York, and is now the Beijing City Police Museum. Across the street, you'll see an imposing modern structure which is the Supreme People's Court. It used to be the site of the former Soviet legation. If you go to the entrance of the alleyway just to the west of the Supreme People's Court, you'll see etched on one of the walls "USSR Embassy Compound Lane".



Further up Dong jiao min xiang, you'll come to an intersection. This building will be on the northeast corner. It is the former Yokohama Specie Bank, one of several banks in the Legation quarter, and now home to a Chinese company.









Turn left at this intersection up Zhengyi Road, and on your right, you'll come to this gate which marks the entrance to the former Japanese legation. As the black and white plaque on the gate states, this compound is now home to the Beijing city government. The last emperor Pu Yi apparently holed up here when he was forced out of the Forbidden City in 1924. A little further up, on your left, you'll see the gates to the former British legation.






Go back down to Dong jiao min xiang and continue east. On your left, over these walls, is the site of the former French legation. Go further up and you'll see the gate which is flanked by two stone lions. The buildings in the legation were destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion and the lions are all that remains. Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia holed up here in 1970 and again in 1979 when Cambodia was attacked by the U.S. and Vietnam.







Past the French legation, you'll come to an intersection. On the northeast corner rise the spires of St. Michael's Catholic Church. Across the street from the church are the grounds of the former Belgian legation.

Turn left up Taijichang Street and go to the third alleyway on your right. On your left, you'll see the headquarters of the Beijing city Party Committee, the real seat of power in Beijing politics.


On the third alleyway on the right, called Taijichang Toutiao, look for this brick with the words "Rue Hart". This street was named after Sir Robert Hart who was the Inspector General of the Chinese customs service from 1863-1907. Hart had a residence across the street in what is now the Overseas Friendship Association headquarters. Further down Rue Hart, one can find the former Danish legation on the right, and the former Austro-Hungarian legation.



Go back to Taijichang Street and continue north until you get to the next big intersection. Here you see the start of Wangfujing, Beijing's main shopping drag, and a great place just to walk (no cars are allowed for several blocks) and window shop. On the northwest corner is the Beijing Hotel, and a few blocks up on your left, you'll find the Foreign Languages Bookstore, a nice place to browse for English-language books on China and other subjects. Enjoy!



For more pictures of the Foreign Legation quarter, go to my Flickr website at www.flickr.com/photos/theshiehs and go to the collection entitled Beijing, and you'll see a set entitled Foreign Legation Quarter.