Author: Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Huge Daliushu market in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A real surprise

A friend took me to explore the huge Daliushu market in Beijing. I never heard about it, I knew about Panjiayuan, Hongqiao, Pearl Market, Silk Market and some other smaller and less well-known markets. Daliushu – see the map – is in the South East of Beijing between de 4th and 5th ring.
The market is open during the day, till late afternoon and is just simply huge, several buildings and several floors. Prices are incredibly cheap, see the pictures of the clothes where they sell each piece like for 20 and 30 RMB. Immense sections selling textiles, shoes, jewelry, decoration, electronics, kitchenware, professional kitchen equipment, small shops (a lot of Russian imports), birds, crickets, name it.
We also found some real antique shops, in one we chatted for a long time with the owner.

On Tuesday evenings, starting around 4 to 5 pm, there is a vast, mainly outdoors flea market, where you find about anything, antiques, old electronics, camera, watches, old tools, decoration, toys, whatever.
We chose the right day, arriving on a Tuesday afternoon and sticking around to see the evening market. It’s also called “The last ghost market”.

For the whole duration of the visit I was the only foreigner, and no, no any Africans shopping…

I bought boots

Except some Russian dark chocolates I bought nice leather boots, 550 RMB. Those normally sell for way over 1,000 RMB.

Panjiayuan is the most well-known “antique market” (or called flea market or curio market) in Beijing, on the southeast 3rd ring road. I haven’t been there since maybe 15 years. The stores in the market open every day while the street stalls just open on weekends according to Travelchinaguide. More about that market here.

Guardian Fine Art Asia

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

GFAA

On 2 November 2023 I visited the Guardian Art Center in Beijing for the GFAA (Guardian Fine Art Asia). The exhibition was held from 1 to 5 November to show Eastern and Western antiques, classic fine arts and more. One of the booths was done by Jan Hagemann, a German antique dealer coming to China for over a decade. We had a long chat and Jan joined our Old China Hands the next day.
See his website here.

In his booth some exceptional old letters, such as from Albert Einstein (my hero!), Richard Wagner and more. Also a unique and beautiful silverware collection with a rich history that only Jan can explain in vivid detail.

An impressive exhibition

I went around to visit other booths, many beautiful pieces, see the pics after the Einstein letter. As a collector myself, what a show to admire.

Sadly the present Chinese generation has mostly lost interest in collecting, be it antiques, stamps, name it. It is sad to notice how little they value their own Chinese culture and heritage. Seems they are more into expansive Swiss watches and lady bags, the LV, Dior, Delvaux, Rolex and other luxury brands. Interesting to note: Delvaux is a Belgian manufacturer of fine leather luxury goods founded in 1829 by Charles Delvaux. The company is the oldest fine leather luxury goods house in the world.
For unknown reasons the Delvaus shop in Beijing Taikooli is gone as for now.

Old China Hands 3 November

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Our members are busy!

Our Old China Hands 3 November lunch had a moderate attendance of 26 people, we had many last-minute cancellations with many stuck in meetings, trips or simply too busy. Or with the flu…
With COVID restrictions gone our members are more back on the road and catching up with business.

Anyway, all had a good time as always, chatting and enjoying the food. The tongue in madeira sauce reminds me of my Mum’s great cooking.
Next lunch: Friday 1 December.

Bonne Maman

Our friend Quentin had a surprise for all, giving away the home-made jam he makes from fruit he collects from his garden near the Great Wall. See some of his samples. Very professional and really good – I have been the lucky guy enjoying his jam since quite some time. Thank you, and now I can continue to call you “Monsieur Confiture”!

As you can see, his jam reminds us all of the famous Confiture Bonne Maman, see here the background and more pictures.

Ming City Wall Ruins Park

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Walking along the old city wall

As mentioned in a previous post after the Observatory talk, we had lunch and then journey south to the Ming City Wall Ruins Park and walk along the base of the walls with in-depth commentary and historical anecdotes provided by Jim Nobles. The tour of the corner tower was not possible that day due to another event. We started at the east section near the railways station where you can see the inner structure of the massive wall. We then went south turning around the corner tower.
Starting 10:30 AM the tour concluded at Chongwenmen subway station around 5:00 PM. It was another great event by The Royal Asiatic Society of Beijing.

The Beijing Ming City Wall Ruins Park is a park in Beijing with the longest and best preserved section of the Ming Dynasty city wall. The park is located 3 km from the city center and extends east from Chongwenmen to Dongbianmen and then north to near to Beijing Railway Station East Street. The park features a 1.5 km section of the Ming city wall and the Southeast Corner Tower, which are over 550 years old and surrounded by a lovely green park space to the south and east, where people gather to relax and play music.

Map of Beijing’s Ming City walls (Wikipedia)

The city wall from Chongwenmen to the Southeast Corner Tower in the early 1900s overlooking the moat and the Huashi neighborhood. The Corner Tower in 1921, after a gate was opened in the wall for railway tracks when the Beijing–Fengtian Railway was built over the moat outside the wall.

History of the wall

Preserved is a section of the Ming city wall and the Southeast Corner Tower, that once connected Chongwenmen and Dongbianmen, two city gates that have been replaced with roadway intersections. A shorter section of the eastern city wall is separated from the corner tower by a railway out of the Beijing railway station. The Beijing railway station and its rail depots occupy the area immediately north of the park.

The inner city wall was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1419. The Ming city walls stood for nearly 550 years until the early 1960s when most of the gates and walls were torn down to build the Beijing Subway, which runs underneath where the walls stood. The subway’s inner loop line turned into the Inner City at Chongwenmen to stop at the Beijing railway station, and did not need to run beneath a section of the wall at the southeast corner of the Inner City. Of the 40 km of the original wall, only this 1.5 km section was spared.

In the late 1990s, the city government decided convert the remnants of the wall into a park and relocate the small businesses and homes between the foot of the southern city wall and Chongwenmen East Avenue. Construction began in November 2001. Large trees that stood in the courtyards were preserved. To preserve the historical integrity of the fortifications, the authorities solicited donations of Ming era bricks from city residents to use in the restoration. About of one-fifth of 2,000,000 bricks used in the restoration are from the Ming-era.

The Southeast Corner Tower was built from 1436 to 1439 and is a major state-protected historical site. The tower, which rises 29 m in height with 144 archery windows, is the largest corner tower still standing in China. The tower could house 200 soldiers and has ramps for soldiers and horses. Inside the tower is an exhibit on the history of the city’s Ming-era walls. The Red Gate Gallery, a privately managed, non-profit contemporary art gallery opened in 1991 inside the tower and operated for over two decades before moving to the 798 Art Zone.

The inner city wall stood 11.4 m high and were topped with battlements that rose a further 1.9 m. The wall, lined with brick and filled with rammed earth, was 19.8 m thick at the foundation and 16 m at the top. Bastions protruding on the outside face of the wall are locally known as mamian or “horse face”. The bastions were spaced about 80 m apart, allowed archers to fire at attackers from three sides. The restored fortification has 11 bastions on the southern wall and two bastions on the shorter eastern wall. Only the battlements of the corner tower and one bastion has been fully restored.
During its history the city wall was never breached and artillery could not bring it down due to its massive construction. The city was penetrated at the gates.

Also on the park grounds is a restored signal house of the Beijing–Fengtian (Jingfeng) Railway built in 1901.

Beijing Ancient Observatory

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The Royal Asiatic Society of Beijing

The Royal Asiatic Society of Beijing organized a journey back in time with a visit to the Beijing Ancient Observatory and Ming City Wall Ruins Park on 14 April 2019.
This the detailed overview as announced in my previous post.
The private tour of the Beijing Ancient Observatory was with commentary by a local expert on the history and the various astronomical devices.
This is the first part, about the observatory. Next post will be about the Ming City Wall Ruins Park.
The Beijing Ancient Observatory is located south of Jianguomen subway Exit C. See the view from the diplomatic apartments near the flyover, where I also lived for a few years in the eighties, see the red building. Some views from the observatory on the Second Ring and Chang’An Avenue.

Built in 1442 during the Ming Dynasty, this observatory is one of the oldest in the world. As the Emperor was considered the “Son of Heaven”, astronomy and the movement of the planets and stars were extremely important to Chinese cosmology. Later it was updated with the help of European Jesuits including Ferdinand Verbiest and Adam Schall von Bell.

The tour

See the pictures of the instruments with some of the explanations. We had a VIP visit to the observatory under a blue sky, followed by a tour of the exhibition halls, exhibits and statues in the courtyard. Some children were also visiting and making drawings of the instruments. See the pictures of the exhibition area.
As an engineer I was amazed by the complexity and ingenuity of the instruments. To be honest, no clue how those worked!
Our Ferdinand Verbiest is prominently displayed.

Recent book

Veerle De Vos wrote a book in Dutch about Ferdinand Verbiest “Ferdinand Verbiest en de ontdekking van China. Alles onder de hemel” published by Pelckmans.

See her interview here.
And her interview on VRT