Introduction to North, Around the Back Lakes
The three lakes of the Shí Chà Hǎi (什刹海) — the Qián Hǎi (前海, Front Lake), HòuHǎi (后海, Back Lake), and Xī Hǎi (西海, West Lake) — are conversationally known collectively as the Hòu Hǎi, or Back Lakes, although their collective proper name means ‘Ten-Temple Lakes’. The land here beyond the Inner City walls was largely deserted well into the Qīng dynasty (1644–1912) until non-military Manchu aristocracy forbidden to live in the Inner City began to build here. Numerous temples were constructed on the north bank of the Hòu Hǎi, to be joined by further mansions.
The lakes lie immediately to the north of Běi Hǎi Park, beyond the northern wall of the Imperial City and separated from it by a cross-town highway, Píng’ān Dàdào. Controversial when it was constructed in 1999, this widening of existing roads flattened hectares of ancient housing, despite the surprisingly loud public protest of residents and even legal challenges — not that the plaintiffs had any chance against the government. The street was then lined with new walls and mock-Qīng shops, which had trouble finding tenants as there’s little passing trade on foot and traffic is not (in theory) allowed to stop. Taxi drivers prefer the Second Ring Road further to the north because it has no traffic lights; consequently the traffic here is often lighter, and movement relatively quicker (but only syrupy rather than treacly).
To the north, the area around the three lakes was once full of the mansions of Manchu princes. These were built both along the shores and in the hútòng, which become interestingly tangled as they adapt to the irregular shape of the lakes. There’s still some good walking both here and across to and around the ancient Drum and Bell Towers to the northeast, particularly in the afternoons when the area is quiet. Old men play mah-jong (麻将, májiàng) at shady tables near the water’s edge, sit dripping and half-naked after swims in the murky waters, cast lines for fish, practice the èrhú (二胡, two-string bowed lute), or chat with their liáogē (鹩哥, mynahs).
Some of the mansions have long disappeared, some have been eaten into by Píng’ān Dàdào, others have been taken over and modified by various government departments with sometimes only the gardens remaining. But much of the extravagant Prince Gōng’s Mansion has reappeared after a period as government offices, one site has become a hotel (see Bamboo Garden Hotel), and some others have become memorial halls for artists and officials beatified by Party decree. One of these was the birthplace of the last Qīng emperor, Pǔyì. See Princely Privileges.
The mass beautification of Běijīng in 1999 reached the lakes, which were dredged of silt and hemmed with new paved walkways, benches, grassy areas, and fences. ‘Beautiful,’ said one retired resident gloomily, ‘but I suppose they’ll start charging us to go in soon.’ He was wrong, but there was further beautification in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, and the sudden mass arrival of tawdry bars evicted from the redevelopment of Sānlǐtún now nightly drowns this once peaceful area in noisy domestic and foreign revelry.
New signboards have maps indicating large numbers of revived historic buildings, but almost none of these can be entered, as many are still the homes of official bodies of one kind or another. Brand new old sìhéyuàn have sprouted in several locations, complete with double garages, and both celebrities and (more importantly) officials are known to have bought or grabbed property in this area, suggesting it will at least keep some low-rise neo-authentic ambience as much of the rest of Běijīng is flattened.
It’s easy to put together walking routes around the hútòng, or you may choose just to get lost, using the tops of the Drum and Bell Towers for orientation. This was the first area chosen by the eminently avoidable made-for-Gold-Card-holders hútòng tours, their Cadillac-style cycle-rickshaws with gilded mudguards and fringed awnings waiting in the streets around the Guō Mòruò Museum on the way to Prince Gōng’s Mansion.
A clampdown in December 2007 reduced these pests from over 1000 down to around 300 and introduced controls on both pricing and pestering. The effects do not seem to have lasted, but at least the annoyances at the edge of the lake have been slightly reduced to endless repeats of Hotel California from wall-mounted speakers, likely to appeal only to those who travel all the way to Běijīng just to drink Heineken and Budweiser.
But there are hútòng in this area officially listed for proper preservation, at least within the special Chinese sense of the word, such as Dōng Sì Sān Tiáo to Dōng Sì Bā Tiáo. The Guō Mòruò Museum, Prince Gōng’s Mansion, sights on the north shore of the Hòu Hǎi, and the Drum and Bell Towers can be visited collectively on foot, with plenty of choices for refreshments in the hútòng around the lake shores or cheap and lively local restaurants up Jiù Gǔlóu Dàjiē (旧鼓楼大街) north of the towers (although mass redevelopment is underway). There’s also the declining but still just slightly more tasteful bar and restaurant street Nán Luógǔ Xiàng (南锣鼓巷), a southwards turning a little further east along Gǔlóu Dōng Dàjiē (鼓楼东大街).
NORTH, AROUND THE BACK LAKES
Guō Mòruò Museum 郭沫若纪念馆
Prince Gōng’s Mansion 恭王府
Princely Privileges
East Bank of the Hòu Hǎi (walk), Former Residence of Soong Ching-ling, Guǎnghuà Sì, Guǎngfú Guān, Huǒ Dé Zhēn Jūn Miào, Guō Shǒujìng Memorial Hall
Drum and Bell Towers 鼓楼, 钟楼
Déshèng Mén Arrow Tower 德胜门箭楼
Xú Bēihóng Memorial Hall (closed) 徐悲鸿纪念馆
In the Depths of Many Flowers (walk), Méi Lánfāng Memorial Hall 梅兰芳纪念馆
Next: Guō Mòruò Museum
Previously, in South of Qián Mén: Today Art Museum
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.
For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List
