Foreign Legation Quarter

The former Foreign Legation Quarter, where the 19th-century foreign powers flung up their embassies, schools, post offices and banks, lay east of Tiananmen Square. Stroll around Taijichang Dajie and Zhengyi Lu, which still suggest its former European flavour. On the northern corner of Taijichang Toutiao’s intersection with Taijichang Dajie survives a brick in the wall engraved with the road’s former foreign name: Rue Hart. The district was turned into a war zone during the famous legation siege during the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901). Probably the greatest cultural loss was the torching of the Hanlin Academy, the centre of Chinese learning and literature. Ricalton noted: The Classics of Confucius inscribed on tablets of marble were treasured there; these are gone; the 20,000 volumes of precious literature are gone; and this venerable institution, founded a thousand years before the Christian era…is a heap of ruins. The loss of thousands of volumes of ancient records recalls the destruction of the Alexandrian Library as an irreparable loss; not so many precious books, perhaps, yet the Hanlin College antedated the Alexandrian Library by nearly seven hundred years. The library was burnt down by Huí (ethnic Chinese Muslims) troops in a disastrous bid to flush out besieged Westerners. Don’t forget to explore Legation Quarter (23 Qianmen Dongdajie), a classy cluster of restored legation buildings at the west end of Dongjiaomin Xiang, the major east–west road driving through the quarter (renamed Anti-Imperialist Rd during the Cultural Revolution). The commercial quadrant – which opened straight into the jaws of the credit crunch – is home to several exclusive restaurants, shops and an art gallery. At the junction of Taijichang Dajie and Dongjiaomin Xiang stands the gaunt twin-spired St Michael’s Church (Dōngjiāomínxiàng Tiānzhǔ Jiàotáng), facing the buildings of the former Belgian Embassy. Along the western reaches of Dongjiaomin Xiang you’ll pass the former French Legation (behind bright-red doors), the former French post office (now the Jingyuan Sichuan Restaurant), the fascinating Beijing Police Museum and the former Dutch Legation (undergoing splendid restoration).