A Better Guide to Běijīng

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…

The Ends of the Eunuchs

After his abdication, the Xuāntǒng emperor Pǔyí was left with the enormous financial burden of the Imperial…

The Two Palace Museums

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…

Forward to the Past

A walk in the hútòng neighbouring the Forbidden City

Pride and a Fall

The death of the Pearl Concubine

It was in these northeast halls that the hurried conferences of Cíxǐ and her court took place as the foreign armies approached Běijīng during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.