前门步行街
Rebuilt imperial-era shopping street of old brand-name stores, heritage trams and carved wooden facades.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Qianmen Pedestrian Street in Beijing opens with the fire that tore through Beijing's richest shopping quarter on the night of June 16, 1800, after Boxers set a Western medicine shop alight. It follows how flames spread through the booksellers', silk and gold merchants' streets nearby, in what a Times of London correspondent called the most disastrous fire he knew of in China. Listen for the clang of the tram as you pass the carved wooden facades that recall that older street.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Beijing Dashilan
Ancient market lane of century-old shops rebuilt after a devastating nineteen-hundred fire.
Wangfujing Street, Beijing
Pedestrianized shopping street of department stores, malls and a famous snack alley built over an old princes' well.
Liulichang
Historic lane of kiln-turned-bookshops, ink stones and antiques once favored by imperial exam candidates.
St. Joseph's Church, Beijing
Gray-brick Catholic church with three bell towers, rebuilt after fire and Boxer Rebellion ruin.
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Beijing
Baroque cathedral rebuilt on Beijing's oldest Catholic mission site, burned in the Boxer Rebellion and raised again in nineteen oh four.
Beijing Wtown
Recreated Ming and Qing style canal village of grey brick courtyards, built beside an unrestored stretch of the Great Wall.