Photography Fortress at the City Gate

A black-and-white photograph showing a side view of the fortress at the city gate. It is a typical architectural element in China. The fort or guardhouse is built of bricks. Below it is the city gate.

Imperial Beijing consisted of three main parts separated by walls from each other and from the areas outside the city. The Outer City (Waicheng 外城) was located in the southern part of the city. In the north stood the Inner City (Neicheng 内城), which enclosed the third part, the famous Forbidden City (Gugong 故宫 or Zijincheng 紫禁城).

The photograph is the 95th 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 Blockhaus eines Stadttores. (DZ, MV)

Information
Object history

Place of manufacture: Beijing

Manufacturing technique: black-and-white photograph

Dimensions: length: 11.1 cm, width: 7.4 cm

No. of parts: 1

Current owner: Slovene Ethnographic Museum

Date of the last acquisition: 1963

Previous owners and periods of ownership: Ivan Skušek, Jr. and Tsuneko Kondō Kawase - Marija Skušek, National Museum of Slovenia, Slovene Ethnographic Museum

Object condition, handling and damage: trimmed right and top edges

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