Openings: Qianmen and Gong Wangfu

Qianmen Dajie

After extensive renovation Qianmen Dajie has arisen from the construction dust as a Qing Dynasty Disney with only a few laozihao shops and restaurants to keep it going. At the northern end two trams provide the first photo stop, with posing and cries of “qiezi” also culminating from outside the Quanjude further south of the Dang Dang Che. As over ninety percent of the shop fronts currently lie vacant, the street only really offers one very long photo opportunity, if you’re after some shopping turn right onto Dazhalan (Beijingers say da shi lan'r), however, card-carrying philatelists should continue down to number 84 for the China Post Philately Hall. Unfortunately, we found that the few restaurants on the strip had already been booked out for lunch by 11.30am on a Tuesday, so it’s best to eat elsewhere. Although tea and jade stores seek to be the main draw, we preferred the scattered old black and white photographs, birdcage streetlights and door stone trashcans.

Due to the huge number of visitors that have been thronging the commercial street, the tram (Dang Dang Che), won't begin service until Sep 20. From when the street officially opened to the public on Aug 7 through to last Sunday, the street has alreadt received 1.84 million guests. Last Saturday the number of tourists reached 310,000. In order to control the huge numbers of visitors, police have announced the introduction of a four-tiered system that will limit the number of people wandering the pedestrian mall. The new system divides the crowd density into four separate levels; green is for when between 5-8,000 people are in the street, yellow indicates 8-12,000 are packed in, orange means that there are between 12-18,000 people crushed into the street. Once the number of people goes beyond 18,000, the street enters the fourth red level and no-one will be admitted. The number of police and security guards on duty will also be adjusted according to the color coded system.

Gong Wangfu

After 31 months of work and with an investment of RMB 200 million, Gong Wangfu finally re-opens tomorrow. When it does, the section known as the Gong Wangfu Fudi (Prince Gong's Mansion Residence) will be open to the public for the first time since the Princely Mansion was built in 1776. According to the Beijing News, from 1949 to 2005 the former mansion was occupied by a few danwei and only the neighboring garden has been open to the public since the late '70s.

The price of a ticket to enter Gong Wangfu has gone up to from the RMB 20 of the pre-renovation access-to-the-garden-only days to RMB 30. You can also buy a RMB 70 ticket package that aside from the two exhibition halls and main areas that regular tickets holders can explore, also gives you the chance to see some traditional Beijing stage performances in the theater and to enjoy some snacks and tea. The mansion is also wheelchair accessible, while, seniors, students and army personnel can get in half price.

The two exhibitions currently on display include a collection of 55 paintings from more than 20 mainland and Taiwanese artists that feature historical figures thatonce inhabited the princely mansion. Strangely, the other exhibition hall houses a collection from Denmark’s Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle that features objects from the Imperial House of Denmark.

According to today’s Beijing News the actual residence burnt down at the start of the 20th Century and little of the original building remained. As part of the renovations undertaken over the past 2.5 years, the residence has been reconstructed from scratch according to clues gleaned from historical documents and largely from old materials. However, traces of the mansions more recent history remains, slogans from the Cultural Revolution remain visible on the exterior walls of the building. The paper quotes a worker as saying that the slogans have been there for 40 years and have become a part of the site.

Finally, a good way to see the newly unveiled Wangfu is to head there in the evening and catch a Kunqu performance. Six Dreams in a Transient World (Fu Sheng Liu Meng) is one of the stand out events of the Meet In Beijing Festival and showcases a combination of six well-known Kunqu opera works. It stars up and coming Kunqu performers from Jiangsu's Kunqu Opera Theater. Until Aug 23. Call 8528 2222 for more information. RMB 600, 800.
7.30pm. Gong Wangfu (6616 8149)

Other recent openings of former imperial hangouts include Tai Miao located within the grounds of the Workers’ Cultural Palace, and a section of Yuanming Yuan called Jiuzhou, that was previously off limits to the public.

If you're thinking of paying a visit to any of these newly opened landmarks and want to explore the surrounding area and understand a bit of the history of the place, get your hands on Beijing by Foot. The boxed set of cards is the latest product from the Immersion Guides' team and has just hit Beijing’s bookstores where it’s available for RMB 100. For more information about Beijing by Foot see this earlier post on the Beijinger blog or visit the Immersion Guides website. You can also keep track of research and news in regard to the protection of Beijing's heritage over at the China Heritage Quarterly or the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center.

Links and Sources
The Beijing News: 游客超1.8万前门将禁入
The Beijing News: 恭王府邸明起开放
Xinhua: Beijing reopens historic Qianmen shopping street one day before Olympics
China Daily: Imperial mansion along Beijing's scenic lake to receive public
Xinhua: Old Summer Palace's core area to open to public
The Beijing News: 太庙重迎客
Official Site of Prince Gong’s Mansion (Chinese)
Danwei: The princely mansions of Beijing
China Heritage Quarterly: Wangfu, the Princely Mansions of Beijing
China Heritage Quarterly: Beijing, the Invisible City
China Heritage Newsletter: Beijing: The Fate Of The Old
Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center
The Dazhalan Project
Hutong to Highrise
The Beijinger Forum: Prince Gong's Mansion - Worth Going?
The Beijinger Forum: New Qianmen to be completed by May 1?