Description

The Search for a Vanishing Beijing

A Guide to China's Capital Through the Ages

M. A. Aldrich

  • Published: 2008
  • Subject Listing: Asian Studies, Chinese History, Travel
  • Bibliographic information: Orig. pub. 2006. 408 pp., 160 illus., 22 maps, notes, bibliog., index, 6 x 9 in.
  • Territorial rights: U.S. rights only
  • Distributed for: Hong Kong University Press
  • Contents

The Search for a Vanishing Beijing weaves the genres of travel essays and travel guides into a comprehensive narrative about the cultural mosaic of the capital of China. The author leads the reader through palaces, temples, back streets and markets while bringing back to living memory forgotten or overlooked Peking customs, stories and beliefs.

The text touches on everything under the sun as the reader walks from Tian An Men Square through the surrounding neighborhoods and further to sights in rustic settings. The narrative relates stories about imperial customs, street food, temple festivals, historic trees, Red Guard struggle sessions, Tibetan and Mongolian customs, hiking trails, political clashes, residences of famous Chinese and foreigners, ghosts, prisons, classical Chinese poetry, ice-skating, espionage, burial customs, old and new embassy districts, courtesans, restaurants and (even) Chinese liquor. Interspersed throughout the book are stories told by such diverse sources as Marco Polo and Bernard Shaw as well as 20th century Sinophiles like Juliet Bredon, George Kates and David Kidd. Commentary from Ming and Qing era travel guides are brought out for a Chinese perspective on celebrated locations in the city.

M. A. Aldrich's interest in Chinese culture began more than 30 years ago. He is a graduate of the Foreign Service School of Georgetown University where he studied under Jesuit teachers who lived in China before the revolution of 1949. He has been an international commercial attorney in Greater China for 15 years.
Contents
List of maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
Notes on using this book

1. The Plan of Old Peking
2. Traditional Beliefs
3. Historical Overview
4. Tian An Men Square
5. . Zhong Shan Park and the Ancestral Hall
6. The Purple Forbidden City
7. The Eastern Imperial City and Environs
8. The Western Imperial City
9. The Former Legation District
10. The Eastern Tartar City
11. The Western Tartar City
12. The Eastern Chinese City
13. The Western Chinese City
14. Eastern Suburbs
15. Northern Suburbs
16. Western Suburbs
17. The Summer Palace
18. The Western Hills
19. The Ming Tombs
20. The Great Wall
21. Sights Further Afield
22. Food
23. Drink
24. A Night at the Opera
25. Epilogue

Notes
Bibliography
Illustration credits
Index
Reviews