Nanluogu Xiang is a neighborhood which has traditionally housed merchants, the wealthy and the powerful, and it's well on its way to reclaiming that heritage today. It existed in the Yuan dynasty, though its alleys were mainly nameless and it wasn't until the Ming that it began to assume its current form. Because of the multitude of branching side-alleys, it was apparently also known as Centipede Street. Before 1750 its official name was Luoguo Xiang (罗锅巷, Arched or Humped Street), but following a city-wide mapping project in that year, it's present name was adopted.
Nanluogu Xiang has always been home to great personages – Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Dun, various princes, Pu Yi's concubine Wan Rong, the present remnants of Pu Yi's family, and so on. That tradition continues today, with various politically powerful personages living in the area. Despite the wealth of beautiful courtyards it can be difficult to actually get a look inside anything – they're generally occupied either by the privacy-minded upper class, or by considerably larger numbers of the less fortunate. That's Nanluogu Xiang: home to Beijing's crustiest old-timers, and its newest elite. Plus the French.
Since the turn of the century Nanluogu Xiang has become out-and-out trendy, hosting bars and cafes and backpacker hostels. It got a makeover in 2006, with new paving stones, and they're calling it a 'quiet bar street' (静吧街), presumably to differentiate it from the discordia of Sanlitun.
Locks
It's probably six times that I've gone to spend time admiring Wanning Bridge (万宁桥) – the great slabs of stone, the tāotiè (饕餮), the way the balustrades go from brand-spanking-new to decrepit and then back again. And yet only now did I realize: not only is the bridge still there, but the Yuan-dynasty locks (闸门) are still there! Right next to the bridge, in plain view – 700-year-old hydro-engineering.
Great slabs of stone once stood out over the canal at an angle, supporting ropes which were used to raise and lower wooden gates in stone slots. There were eleven locks between the springs in Changping County and Tongzhou, where the canal let into the Bai River (白河), but hardly any remnants are left; I can't believe I overlooked these for so long…
June 15, 5:10p.m.
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WE HAVE INFILTRATED THE UNDERGROUND
One of Beijing's little semi-secrets is that it's hollow: during the sixties and seventies, when it seemed the Russians might be a threat, they dug fallout shelters beneath the city as a precautionary measure. The goal was to be able to get everyone in the city underground in less than an hour (!); most of the city within the Second Ring Road, and much within the Third, is tunneled. The entrances to the tunnels (there are many) are locked, except for the tourist section east of Qianmen, and where the tunnels are still of use to certain personages…
Not to geek out about this too much, but ever since I heard about the tunnels it's been a minor obsession of mine to get in there and run around. Finally, via the good offices of Dominic Johnson-Hill (proprietor of Plastered T-Shirts), who has been absolutely invaluable in providing insider information about Nanluogu Xiang – and yet who should not be held liable for any potential legal damages arising thereof – the day has come. I and an anonymous band of doughty explorers descended into the murky, flooded depths, to bring back these stunning images of the netherworld. Sadly all the tunnels leading off into the great unmonitored unknown were bricked up or choked with rubble (including the one that made a beeline to Zhongnanhai), but the itch was mostly scratched.
Seriously, this was probably item number one on my checklist of Unfinished Business With Beijing.
February 24, 6:10a.m.
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Boats in the river
If you're the type who likes peering over fences, and you spend time in the Di'anmen area, you've probably noticed that a chunk of neighborhood due east of 后门桥 (hòuménqiáo, also called 万宁桥, wànníngqiáo, the tiny bridge between Ping'an Dajie and Gulou) is completely flat, and has been so for a while.
The bridge dates from the Yuan dynasty – in 1292 it was a little wooden affair, but was rebuilt in stone before the Ming began. The canal which ran beneath it, called the 玉河 (yùhé), once went south past Ping'an Dajie, east to Huangchenggen Street, and south all the way to Changpuhe (昌莆河) next to the Forbidden City. By 2000 the bridge was more or less buried, and the canal long since filled in. In 2000 they excavated the bridge, discovering the stone gargoyles on the sides of the canal in the process, and also dug up a bit of the canal itself.
A year or two ago, planning to extend the old canal further east, they continued digging. Almost right away they discovered that in the sediment of the old canal there were boats from the Qing and Ming (and possibly Yuan, have to confirm that) buried in the silt. That made the whole thing a prime archeological site, and work halted while the Ministry of Culture decided what to do. So yes, it's an eyesore, but there's very good reason to leave it as an eyesore for the time being, if it means the site can be excavated properly later. I'll see what more I can dig up on this…
February 14, 7:27a.m.
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Xinhua Bookstores get all the good buildings
This looked like an awfully fancy building for a bookstore, and a little poking around revealed that it was once the northern branch of the Ruifuxiang (瑞蚨祥) silk shop, the famous laozihao from the Qianmen area, responsible for making the very first flag of the PRC. Incidentally, the tiny bookshop stuck on the north side of the Xinhua giant is a little 内部 (insider) bookstore for government cadres, to get their politically sensitive material. I'm not sure if regular folks can get in there, I'll give it a shot tomorrow.
Update: No, the cadre bookstore was not thrilled to see me.
February 13, 12:14p.m.
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