Beijing - Legation Quarter

East of Tian'anmen Square a few important witnesses to the imperialist era remain along Dongjiaomin Niang Street (formerly Legation Street), Zhengyi Lu (formerly Rue Meiji) and Taijichang Jie roads (formerly Rue Marco Polo). Following the Second Opium War, England and France had won the right to establish permanent embassies in Beijing, this was the area where the first diplomats' quarter of the capital appeared. The original buildings, however, were destroyed in the year 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion. Afterwards the quarter was almost completely rebuilt.

The Chinese were not allowed to live here, and Chinese policemen were not admitted.

In its center is the French cathedral St Michel with its two towers built in the neogothic style. To the north of it the house of the former Peking Club remains intact; opposite to the south the buildings of Belgian Embassy still stand, the only one to have preserved its original appearance.