Photography Guangqu Gate

• Skušek's Collection (SEM)
• Slovene Ethnographic Museum

A black-and-white photograph showing the outer façade of the Beijing city wall with the outer Guangqu Gate (Guangqumen 廣渠門), better known as Shawo Gate (Shawomen 沙窝門). The gate provided access to the Outer City (Waicheng 外城) from the east. Above it stands a fortress with embrasures, and in front of it are smaller brick houses, trees, and a defensive moat with a flock of ducks belonging to the outer quarters. The Outer City was where the Han Chinese population lived. It was a completely separate world from the other two quarters, with theatres, restaurants, majiang 麻將 casinos, opium smokehouses, various street festivals and markets.

The photograph is the 105th of 449 photographs of Beijing and its surroundings in the album of Ivan Skušek Jr., purchased during his stay in Beijing (1914–1920). In the handwritten inventory of the album, the photograph is referred to as Tcha-Wo-Men. (DZ, MV)

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• Object history