Photography Annual Fair by the Yongdingmen Gate

A black-and-white photograph showing the annual fair in front of the Yongding City Gate (Yongdingmen 永定門) in the Outer City (Waicheng 外城). This was where the Han Chinese population lived. It was a world completely separate from the other two parts of Beijing, with theatres, restaurants, majiang 麻將 casinos, opium smokehouses, various street fairs, and markets.

Yongding Gate was the main entrance to Beijing. On the same north-south axis stood the city’s main gate Zhengyang Gate (Zhengyangmen 正陽門), better known as the Front Gate (Qianmen 前門), leading into the Inner City . Thus, Yongding Gate was also an important meeting place and the site of the annual fair. In addition to the stalls, rickshaw drivers and a settlement outside the capital can be seen. In the background above the city gate on the wall is a fort, and behind it an inner watchtower.

The photograph is the 118th 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 Jahrmarkt bei Yung-Ting-Men. (DZ, MV)