Old photos in the late Qing Dynasty: Is this the cultural face of the capital when Emperor Guangxu was 8 years old?

Southeast corner of Beijing inner city. The website of Cornell University in the United States issued a group of old photos taken in the late Qing Dynasty, with the time of Guangxu five years (1879), which recorded the humanistic features of old Beijing and was very precious. These frozen images provide first-hand historical data for us to know China 140 years ago, so that we can piece together the local social life scenes of that era.

Yuquan Mountain and Yuquan Tower in the west of the Summer Palace. 1879, Emperor Guangxu was only 8 years old, and Empress Dowager Cixi controlled the operation of the Qing Empire. In that year, the world was generally peaceful, the pace of aggression by foreign powers was not urgent, there was no large-scale civil strife, and the Westernization Movement was advancing in depth. Empress dowager cixi was on cloud nine and claimed to have created? ZTE's world? (Tongguang Zhongxing).

The landscape outside the Shenwu Gate of the Forbidden City. In the early years of Guangxu, the Qing Dynasty was actually in danger, so-called? Zhongxing? It's just rhetoric. The Westernization Movement has not changed the overall appearance of poverty and backwardness. A few years later, the Sino-French war broke out, and the Qing Dynasty exposed its true face of weakness.

Crowds of people gathered around the foreign photographers who took pictures. You can see the White Pagoda in Beihai in the distance, not far from the Forbidden City.

A commercial street in Beijing. From these old photos, we can easily see that Beijing, as the first good area, has been left behind by some cities in Europe and America. Why do you say that? Western cities are setting off the climax of asphalt roads, underground pipe networks, railways and telegraph lines, but the Qing government's management of Beijing is still the same as it was 200 years ago.

In the west garden of the imperial garden? Jinao? The arched archway has a royal style, but this dirt road is not so good. When it rains, there must be mud everywhere, and it is difficult for cars and horses to travel. When it doesn't rain, the wind blows and the dust flies.

Standing on a high place overlooking the capital. At that time, Beijing was a big city with a population of over one million. We didn't find the data of 1879, but in the eighth year of Guangxu (1882), there were 2 18000 households in Beijing (inner city and outer city) with a population of108000. This number is not huge, showing? The registered permanent residence is increasing day by day, and there is no spare money for people to eat, and the capital is also located there. Situation.