Forward to the Past

A walk in the hútòng neighbouring the Forbidden City

Shopping

For specific recommendations on where to shop and what to buy, see Shopping (x-ref to come). For a general overview of shopping in Běijīng, cautions, and vital information on how and when to bargain, see below.

How to Bargain in Běijīng

Supposing that they ask thirty dollars for a thing, we offer fifteen, which at first will be indignantly rejected; but after perhaps three months of bargaining the man will come down to our price, thus keeping himself for three months out of the interest of his money.

A Foreign Journalist in Peking

Covering trivia and terror in 1930s China

‘China used to be dirt cheap for foreigners. People used to come out to work in a very modest capacity for a bank, for instance, and the first thing they would do would be to buy a polo pony.’

The End of the Emperors

The Dowager Empress Cíxǐ (慈禧太后) was born in 1835, the daughter of a minor Qīng official, and was one of 28 Manchu girls selected for the Xiánfēng emperor (reigned 1851–61).

She was made a concubine of the fifth rank at the age of 17, eventually giving birth to…