1892 was the eighteenth year of Guangxu and the fourth year of the 21-year-old Guangxu Emperor's pro-government.
The world is at peace. This is what Empress Dowager Cixi said. Although the country is in crisis, at least the beacon fire in Beijing has been gone for thirty years.
Beijing is too peaceful, Cixi is too peaceful, and the world is too peaceful.
Cixi even made a decree that the emperor was filial and obedient, and that he would prepare for me the sixtieth birthday in two years, that is, the year of Jia Wu, of course, although the world was now happy, everything still had to be simple.
Cixi did not expect that Beijing would not be too long after the taiping, and that the great birthday two years later would be disrupted by the Sino-Japanese War, and that eight years later the iron hooves of the Eight-Power Alliance would shatter the last tranquility here.
This set of photographs, taken in 1892, truly shows the last tranquility of Beijing, although the city's appearance does not look so beautiful.
Great Clearing Gate
The Great Qing Gate, the national gate of the Great Qing Dynasty, the first gate of the Forbidden City, was not allowed to enter, but there were a few people sitting on the ground, like beggars, very unsightly.
Zhengyang Gate Tower
Zhengyang Gate, also known as Daqianmen, a Guanyin Temple and a Guandi Temple under the gate tower, through this city gate, is the most prosperous business district in Beijing at that time, eight years later, it was burned clean by the Boxers.
On the city walls
The walls of Beijing are also in disrepair, and from above, they are also overgrown and dilapidated, no less than the Great Wall that the Qing Dynasty never repaired. However, in the gengzi state disaster, the Qing army still relied on this tattered city wall to give the Eight-Nation Alliance a fierce counterattack. Only later, the British Indian Army took the lead in sneaking through the hole in the water gate.
Haidaimen Avenue
Haidai Gate, also known as Hade Gate and Chongwen Gate, is the door through which talented people must enter Beijing to rush to take the exam, and it is also the door to transport wine to the emperor. The streets were muddy, full of mud, no drains, and littering, which was the way roads in Beijing were at that time, so after the Eight-Power Alliance entered Beijing, it said that Beijing was the dirtiest and messiest city in the world.
Dongjiaomin Lane
Although the embassy area of Dongjiaomin Lane has developed over 20 or 30 years, there are not many Western-style buildings. Xu Tong, a university scholar, lived here, hated to see foreigners, and when he went out, he had to close his eyes, saying: "Mountain ghosts have limited tricks, and the old monks don't see or hear." "In the Gengzi Incident, he supported the Boxers, and committed suicide after the fall of Beijing.
Minister of the United States
The Qing Dynasty stipulated that officials in Beijing were not allowed to sit in eight large sedans, and more than three pins could sit on four people, and after leaving Beijing, they could carry eight people. Therefore, the courtesy given by the four people sitting on the palanquin of the foreign minister is also very high.