A walk through history: Foreign Legation Quarter
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The view from a rooftop in Chi'enmen 23 overlooks the old railway station and Qianmen gate. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com] |
![The view from a rooftop in Chi'enmen 23 overlooks the old railway station and Qianmen gate. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20110603/000cf1a48f870f5295d323.jpg "The view from a rooftop in Chi'enmen 23 overlooks the old railway station and Qianmen gate. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]")
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St. Michael's Catholic Church is built in the traditional Gothic style, but with a Chinese dragon head protruding between the two front doors to help drain rainwater. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com] |
![St. Michael's Catholic Church is built in the traditional Gothic style, but with a Chinese dragon head protruding between the two front doors to help drain rainwater. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20110603/000cf1a48f870f5295e039.jpg "St. Michael's Catholic Church is built in the traditional Gothic style, but with a Chinese dragon head protruding between the two front doors to help drain rainwater. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]")
An art gallery occupies the southeast building and visitors can access the roof for a stunning view of the busy Qianmen area. Across the street, near the Qianmen gates is the old railway station, now a museum about the city's railway history. The station was Beijing's first railway station, situated close to the Qianmen gate as a convenience to government officials and foreign travelers in the legation quarter. Operations moved to the current station east of Chongwenmen in 1959.
The tree-lined alley surrounded by elegant, historic western-style buildings is an unexpected departure from the rest of the city's traditional buildings but an inseparable part of Beijing's history. A living documentation of China's first formal relations with the West, however tumultuous, Dongjiaomin Alley represents a historical background for a summer promenade.
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