Zhengyangmen

This guide to Zhengyangmen in Beijing centers on August 1900, when General Ma Fulu led Hui and Dongxiang cavalry in a last countercharge against foreign troops storming toward the heart of the city at this five-hundred-year-old gate. You'll hear about the emperor's once-exclusive central doorway, the fire and shellfire that scarred the tower, and the rebuilding that followed within fifteen years. Look up at the double-roofed tower still standing on the old city wall.