In Paul French’s book Midnight in Peking, about the unsolved 1937 murder of Pamela Werner, a place called “the badlands” is often referred to. In fact it, was probably here that Pamela was last seen alive. But what was this place of such ill repute? What survives of it today?

In an unlabelled box at the Kew archives in London you can find the Werner Letters. A seemingly ever-flowing cascade of words typed onto hundreds of now yellowed pages, these writings are the main source material used by Paul French for his book “Midnight in Peking”.

Recently, we have discovered Robert Swallow’s Sidelights on Peking Life, a peculiar insider’s guide to Beijing from the year 1927. He dedicates 10 pages to describing the ghosts that haunt the streets of the city, and some of them are quite amazing.

PEIPING, May 4 - Ex-Shanghai dancing girls are striking a rich harvest nowadays in the cabarets of Peiping and Tientsin. Driven North by the necessity tor finding work, both Chinese and Korean hostesses are finding that they can make as much money in one month in Peiping as they were able to make in two months in Shanghai.

Travelling in Asia, pioneering female journalist Eliza Scidmore was truly taken with Beijing when she started visiting the city in the 1890s. When she first arrived, the city was still divided into two parts - a Manchu inner city to the north, and a Chinese outer city in the south.

A cultural revolution letter from one of the greats of the Dashilar Beijing Opera scene

I was six years old when I made my first brush. My father taught me. In 1956, he was one of the first workers at the state-owned Lifushou brush making factory here at Liulichang. And I ended up being the last one. I took over from my father in 1979.

We recently collected a catalogue from a 1977 exhibition at the Forbidden City museum about the empress dowager Cixi. The catalogue clearly has a message. In very direct language, the former Qing dynasty regent is described as the most selfish and evil human being imaginable. One headline simply states “Cixi was a vampire”.

Mao Zedong never officially visited the Forbidden City. However, three times within the same week in 1953, he stood upon its wall. A common theory is that when he climbed atop the 500-year-old fortification he was discussing with other members of government and advisors what it would look like if

It was allegedly the first Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang who instated a daily morning audience of the most important government officials in the Imperial Palace. It was called Zao Chao (早朝)

On November 5, 1924 the last emperor of China was forced out of the Forbidden City, however it would take almost two weeks for the most senior consorts to leave the palace. In the newspapers of the time it was speculated why it took so long to expel them.

On March 28 1425 Bejing’s status as capital was suddenly abruptly changed:

“It is ordered that all government offices need to add temporary residence 行在 to their names…,the Emperor has decided to move the capital back to Nanjing….”

“Damage caused by bombing of the Imperial Palace:
Yesterday morning, the Republican Army sent a plane to bomb the Imperial Palace. We already published a special edition which gave the following information: This morning at 10:30, the Republican Army sent a plane to the Palace and dropped two bombs

In the 1920s plans were drawn up by the Swedish architect Albin Stark to convert the Hall Of Absolute Harmony in the Forbidden City to a parliament, but because of interference by the strongest warlord in the North Wu Peifu the plans were shelved.

"The 300-year-old Qing Dynasty ended yesterday:
Yesterday at 12 a.m., Feng Yuxiang sent Lu Zhonglin together with five hundred armed soldiers and many policemen into the Forbidden City through Shenwumen Gate. Lu told the emperor that by the order of the government and the Commander-in-chief Feng Yuxiang,

A hundred years ago optography a "technique" that could allegedly extract the last image a deceased person had seen before death, was used in murder cases across the world. The infamous Pamela Werner case in Beijing was no exception.

Pamela Werner, daughter of the former British consul in Fuzhou E.T.C. Werner who now lives at No.1 Mapichang Hutong, was murdered on January 8th. The police now have several suspects including a dentist named Wentworth Prentice who is living at Dongjiaominxiang.

Beijing’s first permanent Legation or Embassy Quarter was established in 1862 after the second Opium War. The establishment of the Legation Quarter granted easier access to the capital not only for diplomats but also for journalists, bankers and merchants…

Although ”The Eight Allied Nations” has become a set-phrase used to describe the allied forces that quelled the Boxer Rebellion, only troops from four nations actually made it to Beijing at first. Even though the multinational force was labeled ”allied”

The British Legation was the safest compound during the siege. Located centrally in the besieged area and a fair distance from the city wall it was difficult for enemy fire to reach the premises. That was why a good part of the diplomatic society chose to settle here in the summer of 1900.