Appreciating a Beijing staycation
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The area where I live, in Chaoyang district, is modern, increasingly international and can be very busy. It is significantly different from the city’s historic heart. I felt a personal need, a desire to spend time closer to the heart of the city, to be within what I refer to affectionately as ‘Old Beijing’.
For several of my earlier years I stayed in a hutong alley near Jiadaokou, a location whose history goes back to 13th century Yuan Dynasty. Often I would walk south from there to the area between Forbidden City and Wangfujing Street. So much of Beijing’s early story was there for me.
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