Travel through time in the heart of Beijing
Taimiao is a peculiar pocket of peace just next to the Forbidden City. Starting off at this tranquil spot in the very heart of Beijing you can travel through time from dynasty to republic in the span of an afternoon, because even today the otherworldly feel of the imperial court is almost better preserved here than inside the actual palace. The emperor used to come at Taimiao to pray to his ancestors, at that time no commoner were allowed into this sacred compound, but in 1912 the son of heaven abdicated, and things changed.
Only a couple of hundred meters away the Zhonshan park opened as the first public park in Beijing. Suddenly Intellectuals, high society ladies, revolutionaries, and prostitutes became fresh ingredients in the melting pot of new republican society. It was a sensation that women and men could now mingle side by side free from the traditional customs that for thousands of years had kept them almost sacredly apart. Inside the park military coups were planned, fashionable photoshoots taken and political manifestos discussed.
The incessant turmoil did not stop till Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China from the rostrum of the Tiananmen Gate in 1949. This ignited the transformation of the area just south of the Gate into the very symbol of new China - the Tiananmen Square.
Join us when we will teleport ourselves through one hundred years of the Capital’s history in an afternoon, by visiting three of the most defining spaces of modern Beijing: Taimiao, the Central Park and the Tiananmen Square before we land in the Beijing Postcards hutong gallery for a well-deserved drink.
Where to start: 工人文化宫东门 (Beijing Workers’ Cultural Palace - East gate)
Cost: 300RMB/person; 150RMB/child