The Search for a Vanishing Beijing: A Guide to China's Capital Through the Ages - Softcover

Aldrich, M. A.

4.14

7 ratings by Goodreads

9789622099395: The Search for a Vanishing Beijing: A Guide to China's Capital Through the Ages

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9622099394 ISBN 13: 9789622099395

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press, 2006

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The Search for a Vanishing Beijing weaves the genres of travel essays and travel guides into a comprehensive narrative about the cultural mosaic of the capital of China. The author leads the reader through palaces, temples, back streets and markets while bringing back to living memory forgotten or overlooked Peking customs, stories and beliefs. The text touches on everything under the sun as the reader walks from Tian An Men Square through the surrounding neighborhoods and further to sights in rustic settings. The narrative relates stories about imperial customs, street food, temple festivals, historic trees, Red Guard struggle sessions, Tibetan and Mongolian customs, hiking trails, political clashes, residences of famous Chinese and foreigners, ghosts, prisons, classical Chinese poetry, ice-skating, espionage, burial customs, old and new embassy districts, courtesans, restaurants and (even) Chinese liquor. Interspersed throughout the book are stories told by such diverse sources as Marco Polo and Bernard Shaw as well as 20th century Sinophiles like Juliet Bredon, George Kates and David Kidd. Commentary from Ming and Qing era travel guides are brought out for a Chinese perspective on celebrated locations in the city.

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From the Publisher:

"The stories are what make the book a compelling read, regardless of whether or not you actually make it to the sites he is describing. Some are fact, some are myth, and many span the grey divide between the two." - Rebecca Kanthor, Far Eastern Economic Review

"An indefatigable explorer and raconteur, Aldrich has peeked into and poked around every nook and cranny of contemporary Beijing to reveal the city's rich and fascinating past. His book is a treasure box of curios lovingly recovered from a world now out of reach. It is an indispensable companion for all thoughtful visitors to China's capital. A brilliant achievement." - Dr. Michael J. Moser, author of Foreigners Within the Gates: The Legations at Peking

About the Author:

M. A. Aldrich’s interest in Chinese culture began more than 30 years ago. He is a graduate of the Foreign Service School of Georgetown University where he studied under Jesuit teachers who lived in China before the revolution of 1949. He later took a master’s degree in History at SUNY at Stony Brook. After studying law at Columbia University, he has been an international commercial attorney in Greater China for 15 years. He works in the Beijing office of a London-based international law firm.

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