Situated on Liulichang, Beijing’s antique street is the architecturally important Songtangzhai Folk Carving Museum. Privately owned by manager Li Songtang’s family, this gallery is a two-story building from the Qing Dynasty.
The uniquely cohesive exhibition hall and collection, including the stone stairs, gate screen and ceilings, are all part of Li’s functional, as well as beautiful collection.
Most of time during this season of the year, the weather in Beijing is just very nice. And today I visit the Tianning Temple, which is free of charge.
Southwest of outer Beijing City is the Xuanwu District, where you will find Niujie Street, formerly called Liuhe Village. In the past this street was ornated with vegetable and fruit gardens. Today, its main attraction is the Niujie Mosque. Built in 996 during the Liao Dynasty, it is the biggest and oldest mosque in Beijing. In 1442 during the Ming Dynasty, and in 1696 during the Qing Dynasty, the Mosque was repaired several times.
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Located in Xuanwu District southwest of Beijing, the present Grand View Garden is a replica of Daguanyuan the magnificent garden of an imperial family described in the well-known Chinese novel “A Dream of Red Mansions” by a Qing Dynasty writer Cao Xueqin (17l5-l763).
The site used to be a park dotted with willows and pines. In l984, the China Television Film Production Centre decided to use it as the setting to shoot garden scenes for the TV series “A Dream of Red Mansions”. The Xuanwu District Government then suggested that the temporary garden be turned into a permanent scenic spot. Thus the plan to build the Grand View Garden faithful to the writer’s description has come into being.
Liulichang is a small street lined with shops facades bearing Ming and Qing dynasty architectural features. With brightly painted doors and eaves and gracefully curved black-tiled-roofs buildings, a little of old Beijing’s lifestyle is retained here.
It was a 14 degrees day, no wind.
A poster telling people not to litter in the Hutong (or narrow alleyway).
A very narrow Hutong, used to be the banking street in the old Beijing.
Dashalan shopping street, where used to be the downtown area in the Qing Dynasty.
Ruifuxiang, an old silk shop.
Here could be the first movie cinema in China.
A hutong with lots of restaurants.
‘Hutong ‘renovation’.
A toilet in hutong.
A painting on the wall, teaching the kids how to help each other.
