Unusual sights abound in the markets, temples, museums and odd little bars of Beijing. In a city of more than 20 million people with neighborhoods dating back centuries to the reign of Kublai Khan, a bus ride past modern skyscrapers to the ancient grounds of the Forbidden City can take you through streets filled with late model cars vying for space with bicycle-powered makeshift taxis and horse-drawn wagons filled with mounds of cabbages or new furniture secured with thick rope.
Dongyue Temple, built in the early 14th century by Taoist monks, celebrates ancient bureaucracy and the gruesome punishments that awaited those who didn’t follow the rules. The temple in central Beijing’s sprawling Chaoyang District, which also houses foreign embassy compounds, has departments of hell, betrayal and demons. Colorful statues depict the gory torture of victims with spiked clubs or other instruments. The temple, also known as the Beijing Folk Custom Museum, includes many rooms for the squeamish, too, with colorful folk art costume and jewelry collections.
The Forbidden City is a massive walled compound containing the palaces and homes of past emperors. On the grounds of what today is officially called the Palace Museum is the Hall for Ancestral Worship, which houses more than 150 unusual antique mechanical clocks and watches from around the world. One is made with intricate moving parts that model the solar system. Another of these clocks sits atop a gold rhinoceros. Most were gifts to 18th and 19th century emperors. At 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. each day, a worker emerges from a back office at what also is known as the Clock Exhibition Hall to wind up some of the clocks to show off their intricate movements.
Every sundown, tourists join locals at dozens of outdoor food stands at Donghuamen Market, located near the Forbidden City on the northern end of Wangfujing, a major shopping street with hundreds of stores. Sections of the street are closed to vehicle traffic day and night to accommodate the regular throngs of pedestrians. In addition to delicious bowls of noodle and vegetable dishes, the market's vendors sell bamboo skewers layered with snack foods ranging from fried starfish and charred seahorses to grilled silkworms and live scorpions squirming on the stick.
Panjiayuan Market near downtown Beijing is a massive flea market filled with hundreds of stalls and blankets spread out on the ground selling ceramic Chinese opera masks painted with grimacing faces, old Communist Party badges, ancient swords or replicas, and colorful crafts from Tibet. It’s not unusual to find used English-language paperback thrillers and other second-hand goods from America that have become part of the collections of local sellers. This market, which is nicknamed the Dirt Market, is as popular with locals as tourists, and it’s at its people-watching best on weekends.
Near Houhai, a lake in the heart of Beijing ringed by neighborhoods dating back to the 13th century, the 20th century Belgian comic book character Tintin is celebrated at Lotus Blue, a bar named after the Blue Lotus edition of the many comics written about the aspiring young journalist Tintin and his dog Snowy. You’ll find Tintin comic book covers on the walls of this bar built years before U.S. director Steven Spielberg filmed “Adventures of Tintin” in 2011. Tintin comics are popular in China, so you’ll also find Tintin toys at some Houhai area shops.
Inside Worker’s Stadium near Beijing’s Embassy District, Americans own a speakeasy-style bar patterned after the hideaway bars built during the Prohibition Era in the U.S. Walk into the entrance of Stadium Dog, go downstairs toward the bathrooms, and press on the prominent “brick” on the wall. The wall opens up into Fubar, a roomy tavern that’s popular among English-speaking expats.
