"Midnight In Peking"

As a teacher, I often have students in my class who can't put down a book they are reading in English class.  This year, the book that fit that description was "Midnight in Peking" which retold the story of an unsolved murder of a young British girl on January 7th, 2015.

Here's a map of the walk.  1) Is the Beijing Railway Station  2) Armour Factory Alley (Werner Home) 3) Fox Tower (Body Found)  4) Original Beijing City Wall  5) The Badlands  6) Soochow Hutong  7) French Legation  8) British Legation  9) US Legation

Since the book takes place in Beijing, the author has a walking tour of the sites of the book.  This past Friday afternoon, I downloaded the audio guide to the book and took a walk.  The major sites lie in the areas between Tiananmen Square and the modern day Beijing Railway Station.  We start here on what used to be called Armour Factory Alley.

The hutong is exactly the same as when Pamela Werner (the murdered girl) and her father, E.T.C. Werner lived here in the 1930's. 

The hutong layout is the same, but the out classic courtyard houses have been subdivided into smaller residences.  This is #1 Armour Factory Alley, the Werner residence.

The other half of #1 Armour Factory Alley is not a printing shop.

Just down the road at #13 (now #6) is this hotel.

But it was the residence of the Snow's, who were huge proponents of China and Edgar Snow wrote, "Red Star of China" when he lived here.  The Snow's played a large role in the attempts to solve the murder mystery.

Inside the courtyard of the hotel, you can see the layout of a typical hutong home, which is centered around the open space in the middle.  Back then there would have been one story, not three.

Just a few hundred meters away from Armour Factory Alley, just to the southeast is what was then named the "Fox Tower".  This still standing tower is one of the few remaining gates into the city of Beijing.  Between where this picture is taken and the tower are the railway lines that lead into Beijing Railway Station.

Now looking at the tower from the Southern side, it was in the ditch/canal in front of the tower that Werner's body was found the morning of January 8th, 1937.

Extending west from the "Fox Tower" is the only part of the original city wall that encircled Beijing that still stands today.

The wall, which stood for 500 years, was 20 meters thick at the base and 12 meters thick at the top.  The city wall was nearly completely dismantled in the 1960's when the 2nd Ring Road was built and when the original loop subway line (Line 2) was built.

Just to the northeast of today's Beijing Railway Station and east of Tiananmen Square was the former no man's land called the Badlands.  This hutong, Chuanban, was the heart of the Beijing "Badlands."

It was along this hutong where one could find gambling dens, brothels, drugs, pornography and cheap lodging.  This was the place where underworld Beijing was found.  It was in the Badlands that the police went looking for murder suspects.

A few streets to the north is Suzhou (or back then Soochow) Hutong.  It was the northern border of the Badlands and was known for the numerous food stalls.  It was here that Pamela Werner was known to have had her last meal.

Is this Europe?  Nope, it's Beijing.  Just to the west of the Badlands, one crosses into what was the Legation (Embassy) Quarter.  In the old days, one would have needed to show papers (to keep local Chinese out) to get into the quarter.  It was here that all the western countries built western style buildings for their embassies and other commercial interests.

This grand entrance was the gateway to the French Legation.  Inside the French Legation was an ice-skating rink.  It was here at the rink which was where Pamela Werner was last seen by her friends before being murdered and found the next day, a few kilometers to the East at the Fox Tower.

Across the street from the French Legation is the apartment building in which the dentist, who was a main suspect (and totally sketchy) lived.

Just down the main East-West Street of the Legation quarter is the corner where a number of banks were housed.

The entrance to the British Legation, now the home of a government security office.  It was here in the 1900's that foreigners were housed during the Boxer Rebellion.  It was also where the British citizens of Beijing were sheltered once the Japanese invaded Beijing later in 1937.

That's my friend Milan from Serbia.  We are walking along the tree lined parkway that bisects the main North-South street of the Legation Quarter.  Close your eyes, the somewhat quiet and you might think you are in Europe.  Kind of....

I love this juxtaposition here of the Greek/Roman archway which stands in front of the monstrous modern building which is a Beijing courthouse.

A building with Ionic columns, now repurposed with Chinese Characters on the front.

The wide streets in front of the former American Legation.

And a few steps to the west, we're at the eastern end of Tiananmen Square with Qianmen standing over the southern side of the square.

Milan and I at the end of our nice walk.  This walk finally got me into the Legation Quarter, which I've been meaning to go and see since I moved to Beijing.

This building at the southeastern corner of Tiananmen Square is the former Beijing Railway Station.  This is where the trains entered Beijing before the 1950's.  It's now the Beijing Railway Museum.