In 1900, due to the corruption and incompetence of the late Qing government, Beijing was eventually attacked by eight countries, Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Austria, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled west with the Guangxu Emperor. This photo was taken by the Japanese army occupying the city of Beijing at that time, and the place in the photo is the city gate of Beijing.
After Empress Dowager Cixi escaped, the Qing troops who remained in Beijing city also walked and fled, and almost overnight, the magnates in Beijing were gone clean, and the whole city of Beijing became dilapidated under the destruction of the Eight-Power Alliance, just like the building in the picture, the gate was damaged, and there was a Japanese flag in front of the door.
This is one of the gates of the former Qing Dynasty Imperial Palace, and we can see from the pictures that the imperial palace at that time can be said to be quite dilapidated, not only did the patent skin on the city wall fall a lot, but also many places were weeds reborn, and there was no sense of the golden splendor of the palace in the past.
There is a curtain on the door of the east eaves of the Kunning Palace of the Forbidden City, and the East Pavilion has been used as a cave room for the emperor's big wedding since ancient times, and as the marriage room of the former emperor, it became a ruin when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China.
This is the countryside outside Beijing, and we can clearly see from the photos that after experiencing the sweeping of the Eight-Power Alliance, these villages can be said to be a scene of house destruction and road collapse.
This is a picture that can arouse public outrage, because the burning in the picture is the most luxurious ancient architectural complex in China, the Yuanmingyuan. When the Eight-Power Coalition invaded the city of Beijing, it wantonly looted the city, and the most brutal of them was the Yuanmingyuan.
The commercial street of Beijing, which was robbed by the Eight-Nation Alliance, was no longer prosperous, and only a pile of broken walls and ruins remained.