The origin of the names Fuxingmen and Jianguomen in Beijing

The old Beijing city left over from the Ming and Qing Dynasties was originally composed of two inner and outer cities with a "convex" shape on the plane. There were 16 city gates, "nine inside and seven outside." Except for the Zhengyangmen Gate Tower, the Arrow Tower and the Desheng Gate Archery Tower that still exist, the other city gates no longer exist. Only the names of the original gates are retained as place name signs. But in addition to these 16 old city gates, there are also three more place names that sound like the names of city gates: Heping Gate, Fuxing Gate, and Jianguo Gate. Did any of these three places have city gates before?

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the city gates of old Beijing were not simple access channels, but a complete set of well-designed city defense fortresses. Each city gate is composed of a city tower, an arrow tower, and an urn that connects the two. The urn forms a closed space. Once the enemy breaks in, they will be "caught in the urn."

Heping Gate, Fuxing Gate, and Jianguo Gate did not have the above facilities. They were just passages opened on the old city wall for the convenience of transportation after the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

Heping Arch was opened in 1926. Its purpose is to connect North Xinhua Street and South Xinhua Street, which are blocked by the south wall of the inner city.

North Xinhua Street used to be a north-south drainage ditch in the Qing Dynasty. In 1913, Zhu Qiqian, chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Yuan Shikai's government, converted this drainage ditch into an underground ditch, and built a street on it from West Chang'an Street in the north to the south wall of the inner city in the south, named North Xinhua Street. Zhu Qiqian originally planned to open up the city wall to connect North Xinhua Street with the newly built South Xinhua Street in the outer city, and then connect it to the newly built Fuyou Street outside the west wall of President Yuan's Palace in Zhongnanhai, forming a new line. The north-south trunk road connecting the inner and outer cities. However, because the wealthy businessmen outside Zhengyangmen were worried that this would divert pedestrians and affect business in the commercial area outside Zhengyangmen, they bribed powerful officials and lobbied the authorities, saying that opening up the city wall would leak feng shui and be detrimental to the president. Yuan Shikai, who was superstitious about Feng Shui, believed it to be true and blocked the plan to open the city wall.

In April 1926, after Feng Yuxiang’s National Army general Lu Zhonglin took office as the commander of the Beijing Guard, he ordered that the city wall separating the north and south Xinhua Streets be opened, two door openings were opened, divided into upward and downward passages, and An iron gate was installed and named the Peace Gate. In 1958, in order to improve traffic, the Peace Arch was demolished, creating a wider gap in the city wall.

Fuxing Gate and Jianguo Gate were two gaps opened in the east and west walls of the inner city when the Japanese invaders occupied Beijing.

As you can see from the map of Beijing, Chaoyangmen and Dongzhimen on the east side of the inner city of old Beijing and Fuchengmen and Xizhimen on the west side are all located in the north. The southern part of the inner city does lack an east-west main road. . But in the era of warlords' melee, no one dared to open the city wall easily.

According to the "Overview of Urban Construction in North China During the Japanese and Puppet Rules" contained in the fourth issue of "Beijing Archives and Historical Materials" of the Beijing Municipal Archives in 1999, the Japanese invaders began to prepare for construction in the western suburbs of Beijing in 1939. The "West Market" for commercial and residential areas, and the "East Market" for industrial areas are planned to be built in the eastern suburbs. In order to connect "the two new market areas and the transportation within the city, a new city gate was built on the east and west walls of the city (called 'Qiming' in the east and 'Chang'an' in the west)... The new city gates were only There is no door leaf or door opening in the gap, and it is simple and unmodified, which is a symbol of its lack of material resources."