Part of A Better Guide to Beijing’s coverage of the Imperial City
The original purpose of a stupa (the Sanskrit name) was to house the mortal remains of the historical Buddha, and later of other key Buddhist saints. Stupas also served the purpose of commemorating key events in his life, being built at the place of his birth, death…
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng
There are several versions of the Xiāng Fēi’s story, but in all of them she is a beloved concubine of the Qiánlóng emperor, a member of the Turki Uighur people. She was named Iparhan in her own language…
Buddhism in China is an alien import, at times denounced as a barbarian religion and banned. Arriving via the Silk Routes from Gandhara (modern-day Pakistan and northern India), it gradually spread from oasis to oasis around the Tarim basin, and by 166 CE could count a Hàn emperor among its…
Originally published as Beijing by Cadogan Guides.
Fun but authoritative, the book is written in the strong voice of someone who loves poking around Beijing’s hutongs, buzzing with pleasure at each new find… old China hands will even learn a thing or two…
Běijīng’s original foreign enclave, besieged in 1900Part of A Better Guide to Beijing’s coverage of the Imperial City
I dined that evening in the stuffy atmosphere of the British Legation. The compound of the English Palace with its…
After his abdication, the Xuāntǒng emperor Pǔyí was left with the enormous financial burden of the Imperial…
How to approach itPart of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond
He expressed a particular enthusiasm with respect to visiting the wall of China. I catched it for the moment, and said I really believed I should go and see…
Dowager Empress Cíxǐ’s favourite escape from BěijīngPart of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond
How most of the emperors’ greatest treasures came to be in Taipei
It is surprising that any of the vast collection of art objects and antiquities assembled haphazardly by the emperors over many hundreds of years actually survived into the 21st century. The…
These were the top 10 stories published by A Better Guide to Beijing; you can also dive into yearly archives: 2016, 2017, and 2019.