The Urban Edit
China’s a big old place – fourth largest nation on earth to be precise – and intercity ‘hops’ to the country’s highlights can easily exceed a thousand kilometers, so choosing your mode of transport is important. Once you rule out driving (seriously, no one wants to spend this long on China’s clogged highways, trust us on this) there are essentially two options – high-speed train or domestic flight – the pros and cons of which we have laid out below.
Bullet Train
A dining table smack bang in the middle of Tiananmen Square? Surely not. Well you better believe it, kiddo. We’re not going to lie, we were pretty excited when we discovered this one. Ok, so there may be a 20RMB entrance fee, but it’s a small price to pay for the views and total calm you’ll find atop the Zhengyanmen Gate.
That’s right, climb the steps to the (usually empty) battlements on this archery tower’s east side and you’ll discover several picnic benches perfect for a feast, with a vista stretching from Qianmen to Tiananmen. A word of warning though, there’s no cover up there so in summer you’ll need a hat and sunglasses at the very least.
One of our favorite things about China is having our minds broadened by having so many of our core beliefs brought into question. We can’t tell you how many times our notion that some things are ‘just universal’ has been completely shattered.
Ok, let’s jump right in. Why should fans of your book go on the Official Midnight in Peking Walking Tour
The original aim of the Midnight in Peking Walking Tour was two-fold – to bring the book, which is a true story, to life by visiting the major locations featured – the Fox Tower, Kuei Chia Chang hutong, the Legation Quarter, the old Badlands etc – and to see parts of Beijing perhaps even longer term residents haven’t fully explored…
Amazingly, Kuei Chia Hutong has survived almost intact and we can see the Werner courtyard. The Fox Tower, again amazingly, is the only corner tower on the old city wall to have survived and is magnificent up close. That Chuanban and Huoguo hutongs, the old Badlands and Heroin Alley, still survive and are actually being somewhat restored in the area around the old Methodist compound. The Legation Quarter is also still mostly intact though rather impenetrable – the Midnight in Peking Walking Tour is a great way to really examine this unique area of western architecture in the middle of a Chinese city.
