Beijing 2024 - Night View of Qian Men (前门) Area

 

Since we managed to explore Dashilan and QianMen by late afternoon, I suggested that we took a walk after dinner to see how far Tiananmen Square was. Most of the main tourist attractions were clustered around here, hence that was one of the criteria for selecting our hotel too. We were supposed to visit the Forbidden City the next day, which was also a walking distance from there. I thought doing a recee of the area would be good as we needed to get there early in the morning.

Walking out of QianMen area, we found a few beautiful old buildings along some back alley ways. I always though such grand western style buildings can only be found in Shanghai. I was pleasantly surprised to see them here in Beijing. They were elegant and gave out such classic vibe.

Walking around the area, we also came across one of the old Beijing Railway Station. This was just a small one. The main Railway Station was huge when we went by it by bus one day. But the small station has such an elegant building structure that I just had to snap a photo of it.

The actual QianMen up close and personal. These 'men' or gates are typical features in Chinese, Korean and Japanese ancient cities. They are used as checkpoints and security post long time back. Since Beijing are separated into circular districts, with the Forbidden City at the center of it, there are a few gates to guard against people going in and out of the city.

Here is a night view of QianMen when it's all lighted up at night. I don't know why, but it reminded me of Seoul Korea, lol. Mainly cause my first encounter with such a structure was actually in Seoul when I was 23 years old. 

We also saw the People's Hall and Tiananmen Square area from a distance. There were so much security boundaries all over the place that it was almost impossible to walk there at all! On the map, it was a short 20 minutes walk to get to the square. But with all the security closed off, we couldn't get it. Too many detours and security check everywhere. Each security check point requires us to show our passport to get through. We later found out that there was actually a China-Africa Conference being held, hence the high security of the whole city. Yikes, I guess I have to find alternate route to get to where I need to be the next day!

But first, let me take a wefie! Us in front of QianMen before it got too dark.