I love Beijing, the colorful rainbow of international metropolis, and her simplicity, solemnity and grandeur. I love the resplendence of her royal garden, and I love the thick history and thick smoke and anger deposited in her Kuanzhai Lane.
For more than ten years, I have stayed in Beijing for countless times, witnessed these hutongs in Beijing, and used her bowls of hot porridge to accommodate and nourish countless people coming and going in the rain. They have white-collar workers who wander from nine to five, vendors and workers who get up early and go to bed late and work hard, and even a group of patients who have left their homes to seek medical treatment in Beijing.
In the early winter, on the streets of Beijing in the afternoon, the wind is strong and the sky is blue. Come out from the Union Medical College Hospital, cross Dongdan North Street with rolling traffic, and step into the famous "Ministry of Foreign Affairs Street" in the east.
Yangwu Street, formerly known as Shidaren Hutong, was named after the mansion of Shi Heng, the minister of the Ming Dynasty. Shi Heng Laodi later became the seat of Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry of the Qing Dynasty.
1928, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China moved here, and this hutong was renamed Foreign Affairs Street.
"Ministry of Foreign Affairs Street" is far less imposing than its name. It is not so much a "street" as an alley.
Hutong walked eastward 100 meters, and a big stone with the words "Shuangzhong Temple" on the north side of the road inadvertently came into view. "Shuangzhong Temple" is literally full of legends.
Shuangzhong Temple was built in the 16th year of Qing Qianlong (175 1), dedicated to two heroes, Fu Qing and Labudun. The original gate, the second gate, the main house, the monument, the pavilion and other integral buildings. Later, the hospital was rebuilt many times and the original house was gone.
Fuqing and Labudun, who sacrificed in Shuangzhong Temple, served as ministers stationed in Tibet during the Qianlong period and participated in the governance of Tibet. They were besieged to death by the rebels when they put down the rebellion in Jumotnanzal, and Gan Longte built "Shuangzhong Temple" for them in Tibet and Beijing.
Not far from the east is the "Shuangzhong Temple", and a door imitating the Arc de Triomphe in the west attracts people's attention with its magnificent style. This is a famous hotel.
In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1908), the pavilion was abandoned and a guest house was built to entertain foreign guests, which was completed on 19 10. The hotel was built by American architects in western style. The main building is on the second floor. There is an auditorium upstairs and some rooms that can accommodate 500 people. There is also an underground kitchen and dining room in the building. There will be another building in the west in the future, and there will be an overpass connecting the two floors. The courtyard is spacious, with lush ancient trees, and there are exquisite rockeries in the gate. Exquisite and gorgeous hotels were rare at that time. Later, the Shuangzhong Temple in the west was also incorporated. But it didn't take long for the hostel, and the Qing government was overthrown. When Yuan Shikai first became the interim president, he used it as his office. 1965438+On August 24th, 2002, Sun Yat-sen came to Beijing, was arranged to stay, met with reporters and gave a speech. After Dr. Sun Yat-sen left Beijing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs moved from the former Prime Minister's Office of Dongtangzi Hutong to the Guest House, and the "Shidaren Hutong" was changed to "Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hutong".
It was still used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but it was completely demolished in the 1970s and a new dormitory was built, leaving only an isolated western-style gate. The entrance of this hotel is an imitation of the Arc de Triomphe in the west, and the whole building is made of gray bricks. The volume is needle-shaped, and there are two stone pillars on both sides of the base. The pilaster is thick, without grooves, and has a cylindrical foundation. The stigma is Ionian and the eaves are made of gray bricks. There is a doorway in the center, and the stone waist line on the entrance is connected with the pilasters on both sides. There are stone arch coupons on the upper gray brick wall, which are connected with the eaves on both sides and become an important decorative line foot. The roof is a semi-circular vault, with flagpoles erected on it, stone railings around it, and stone balls erected on brick piers at four corners. The north and south facades of the gate are exactly the same, and there are guards on both sides of the gate. There are splayed walls on both sides of the gate and a pair of stone lions in front of it. After the gate was abandoned, the stone room was moved to another place, blocked the doorway, added doors and windows, and changed to the second floor for use as a shop.
Walking in this alley with a history of hundreds of years, that impetuous heart will gradually calm down with your steps.
Different people and different stories alternate back and forth in the depths of this alley. Alleys, like the picture scrolls spread by the years, the winds of the four seasons and the stories in the fleeting years are all deeply and beautifully depicted by time.