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Long Peace Street: A walk in modern China
Through the centre of China’s historic capital, Long Peace Street cuts a long, arrow-straight line. It divides the Forbidden City, home to generations of Chinese emperors, from Tiananmen Square, the vast granite square constructed to glorify a New China under Communist rule. To walk the street is to travel through the story of China’s recent past, wandering among its physical relics and hearing echoes of its dramas.
Long Peace Street recounts a journey in modern China, a walk of twenty miles across Beijing offering a very personal encounter with the life of the capital’s streets. At the same time, it takes the reader on a journey through the city’s recent history, telling the story of how the present and future of the world’s rising superpower has been shaped by its tumultuous past, from the demise of the last imperial dynasty in 1912 through to the present day.
Long Peace Street recounts a journey in modern China, a walk of twenty miles across Beijing offering a very personal encounter with the life of the capital’s streets. At the same time, it takes the reader on a journey through the city’s recent history, telling the story of how the present and future of the world’s rising superpower has been shaped by its tumultuous past, from the demise of the last imperial dynasty in 1912 through to the present day.
264 pages, Hardcover
Published November 19, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 12, 2021
4.5 rounded up
A highly enjoyable journey along one street in China through which the author delves into various important historical events which have shaped China to make it come the place it is today.
Jonathan Chatwin chooses two scorching days in August 2016 to walk twenty miles across Beijing along Chang'an Jie in a west to east direction: starting in Shijingshan (石景山) in the city's eastern suburbs and travelling to the infamous CCTV headquarters in the CBD in the west of the city, ending his journey at Sihui East (四惠东) subway station. Chatwin documents what he sees en-route and the people he meets and interacts with, but the strength of the book is the way he interweaves this with a number of pivotal historic events which are linked to Chang'an Jie.
I thought this might feel a bit contrived or gimmicky but it worked really well, and it's impressive how many stories are linked to the street and buildings around it, although I guess not all that surprising given the length of the street and the areas of the city it travels through: Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City, the old Legation Quarter (more on this in Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China), Babaoshan Cemetery and Zhongnanhai (the Communist Party's central headquarters), to name but a few. The section about Wangfujing was interesting, too -- the street is now a soulless shopping street where tourists go to eat deep-fried starfish and scorpions, but turns out it used to house the home of George Morrison, an Australian journalist who I'd never heard of before and lived in the city in the late 1890s/1900s. Even though Chinese (language and history/culture) was my major at university I still learnt a lot from the events portrayed in the book and Chatwin's writing.
This book combined two of my favourite things - walking and China (incidentally walking around China used to be one of my favourite things to do on days off in Nanjing and Shenzhen!) and it felt quite flâneur-esque at times (possibly even verging on psychogeography, another fave of mine. My only real complaint is that it was too short and I could’ve read a book double the length on the topic.
A highly enjoyable journey along one street in China through which the author delves into various important historical events which have shaped China to make it come the place it is today.
Jonathan Chatwin chooses two scorching days in August 2016 to walk twenty miles across Beijing along Chang'an Jie in a west to east direction: starting in Shijingshan (石景山) in the city's eastern suburbs and travelling to the infamous CCTV headquarters in the CBD in the west of the city, ending his journey at Sihui East (四惠东) subway station. Chatwin documents what he sees en-route and the people he meets and interacts with, but the strength of the book is the way he interweaves this with a number of pivotal historic events which are linked to Chang'an Jie.
I thought this might feel a bit contrived or gimmicky but it worked really well, and it's impressive how many stories are linked to the street and buildings around it, although I guess not all that surprising given the length of the street and the areas of the city it travels through: Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City, the old Legation Quarter (more on this in Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China), Babaoshan Cemetery and Zhongnanhai (the Communist Party's central headquarters), to name but a few. The section about Wangfujing was interesting, too -- the street is now a soulless shopping street where tourists go to eat deep-fried starfish and scorpions, but turns out it used to house the home of George Morrison, an Australian journalist who I'd never heard of before and lived in the city in the late 1890s/1900s. Even though Chinese (language and history/culture) was my major at university I still learnt a lot from the events portrayed in the book and Chatwin's writing.
This book combined two of my favourite things - walking and China (incidentally walking around China used to be one of my favourite things to do on days off in Nanjing and Shenzhen!) and it felt quite flâneur-esque at times (possibly even verging on psychogeography, another fave of mine. My only real complaint is that it was too short and I could’ve read a book double the length on the topic.
May 13, 2020
Long Peace Street: A Walk in Modern China is a fascinating approach to history, travel, and literature. Jonathan Chatwin walks Chang'an Jie, or Long Peace Street, and leads you through Beijing's past and present in a thoroughly enjoyable journey.
The book is broken into a walk that takes two days and covers over one-hundred years of history in China's northern capital. By observing people and places of interest with a writer's eye, Chatwin offers valuable insights for people who are interested in China's past and present.
For me, it was a nostalgic trip back to a city I visited only once, ten years ago. From observations of ever-present security near Tiananmen square to imagining Mao outside of Zhongnanhai there is plenty here for people who want a deeper look at a nation frequently in the news.
I not-so-secretly hope that Chatwin's work starts a genre of similar literature that takes us through important roads to tell us about the past and present of a place.
To hear more, you can listen to a conversation I had with Chatwin about this book on the Hour of History Podcast here: https://www.hourofhistory.com/long-pe...
The book is broken into a walk that takes two days and covers over one-hundred years of history in China's northern capital. By observing people and places of interest with a writer's eye, Chatwin offers valuable insights for people who are interested in China's past and present.
For me, it was a nostalgic trip back to a city I visited only once, ten years ago. From observations of ever-present security near Tiananmen square to imagining Mao outside of Zhongnanhai there is plenty here for people who want a deeper look at a nation frequently in the news.
I not-so-secretly hope that Chatwin's work starts a genre of similar literature that takes us through important roads to tell us about the past and present of a place.
To hear more, you can listen to a conversation I had with Chatwin about this book on the Hour of History Podcast here: https://www.hourofhistory.com/long-pe...
August 4, 2019
In this fascinating book, Jonathan Chatwin takes us on a 2o mile walk along Chang'an Jie (Long Peace Street), a street that runs west to east, bisecting Beijing, all the way from the old Shougang Iron and Steelworks to the burgeoning new Central Business District. On the two day journey, as we travel on foot with the author while he endures the 'major heat' of the summer, we are taken not just on a journey through geographic space across the city, but also a journey through time: from the Ming Dynasty and the construction of the Forbidden City, to the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen) where Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and further on still to the building of the New China - whatever that might be! - under Xi Jinping. This is a remarkable story, full of kind but always clear-sighted observations. It is also highly moving in parts, especially when we learn of the fates of those who had lived in and around Long Peace Street; those whom perhaps life, as well as history, should have treated much better. Highly recommended!
July 22, 2022
I had no previous interest in China, yet I found this book fascinating. Superbly written.
October 12, 2024
Beijing is not the most walkable city, and Chang’an Jie—Long Peace Street—may be its least walkable thoroughfare. The street is massive, its many lanes of east-west traffic making a pleasant stroll almost unimaginable. In central Beijing, Chang’an Jie is lined with government offices and important sites, including the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership compound and Tiananmen Square, making long sections of it politically sensitive and intensively patrolled. Amid the dust and sun of a hot summer day, walking even a short section of the avenue can turn into a grim trek.
None of the above deterred author Jonathan Chatwin, who set out one August weekend in 2016 to walk the nineteen-mile length of Chang’an Jie and get a more intimate introduction to modern China’s most famous street. “This is a storied stretch of the Middle Kingdom,” Chatwin tells the reader, “littered with numerous reminders of the tumultuous and unrelenting drama of the country’s history.”
Chatwin begins his journey at the far western end of the street and works his way across Beijing to its eastern terminus. The narrative of Long Peace Street interweaves Chatwin’s experiences on those two August days with episodes from China’s past: the Boxer Uprising; the fall of the Qing Dynasty; the victory of Mao Zedong and the Communist Party; protests in 1919, 1976, 1978, and 1989. Layer upon layer of history lies along Chang’an Jie. Some of its stories are large and impossible to ignore, like those centering around the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square; others are smaller and half-forgotten, like the astronomical instruments on display at the Imperial Observatory, tucked away atop a small portion of the old city wall at Jianguomen.
Walking the length of Chang’an Jie gives Chatwin, and the reader, an appreciation for getting down on the ground and immersing oneself in Beijing at street level. At the end of his excursion, Chatwin reflects on what he has learned about the city through this exercise:
To temper this pessimism, Chatwin thinks of the tens of millions of people who have made their homes in Beijing: “It was they who had made the city; its story was their story.” Or maybe, he concedes, “that was merely the wishful thinking of a romantic outsider.”
It’s difficult to find romance in the broad expanse of Chang’an Jie, and I’m not sure Chatwin has convinced me to take a stroll down the avenue the next time I find myself in Beijing (especially if that happens to be at the height of summer). Long Peace Street, though, offers readers a pleasant vicarious journey along one of the world’s most historic roads.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
None of the above deterred author Jonathan Chatwin, who set out one August weekend in 2016 to walk the nineteen-mile length of Chang’an Jie and get a more intimate introduction to modern China’s most famous street. “This is a storied stretch of the Middle Kingdom,” Chatwin tells the reader, “littered with numerous reminders of the tumultuous and unrelenting drama of the country’s history.”
Chatwin begins his journey at the far western end of the street and works his way across Beijing to its eastern terminus. The narrative of Long Peace Street interweaves Chatwin’s experiences on those two August days with episodes from China’s past: the Boxer Uprising; the fall of the Qing Dynasty; the victory of Mao Zedong and the Communist Party; protests in 1919, 1976, 1978, and 1989. Layer upon layer of history lies along Chang’an Jie. Some of its stories are large and impossible to ignore, like those centering around the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square; others are smaller and half-forgotten, like the astronomical instruments on display at the Imperial Observatory, tucked away atop a small portion of the old city wall at Jianguomen.
Walking the length of Chang’an Jie gives Chatwin, and the reader, an appreciation for getting down on the ground and immersing oneself in Beijing at street level. At the end of his excursion, Chatwin reflects on what he has learned about the city through this exercise:
Modern Beijing is a mess, a glorious mess. Noisy, endlessly sprawling, confounding to navigate, and echoing with the muffled shouts of those who chafed against its impositions: physical, spiritual, political. Rather than hearing those voices, the city seemed instead to rouse itself now only for the promise of more change; change without considered thought, without anything but a call to action, a picking-up of hammers and pickaxes and drills, and bang another new building bang another new road bang another lost hutong bang another accreted layer of concrete and steel ringing around it.
To temper this pessimism, Chatwin thinks of the tens of millions of people who have made their homes in Beijing: “It was they who had made the city; its story was their story.” Or maybe, he concedes, “that was merely the wishful thinking of a romantic outsider.”
It’s difficult to find romance in the broad expanse of Chang’an Jie, and I’m not sure Chatwin has convinced me to take a stroll down the avenue the next time I find myself in Beijing (especially if that happens to be at the height of summer). Long Peace Street, though, offers readers a pleasant vicarious journey along one of the world’s most historic roads.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
May 24, 2020
This is a really quick read, its an interesting concept, a look at Beijing and China as a whole based on a walk down one street, but in keeping things so quick and simple, it just seems like there are a lot of stories that are missing and would say a whole lot more about how China really is.
Focusing on Chang'an Jie (it's only later he mentions that Chang'an Jie is only the name of the road between the east & west 2nd ring road, there are plenty of great stories & Chatwin tells some, but only just mentioning the Oriental Plaza, leaving out the corruption that led to its being built & the execution of the Beijing mayor at the time, talking about the "Big Pants" but skipping over the fire, ignoring pretty much everything along the road east of the 3rd ring road, especially the new capital being built in Tongzhou just seems an oversight.
This is all nitpicking though, if you know a lot about the city, this book isn't for you, but if you're looking to learn about modern Beijing & China as a whole and need an easy introduction, this book is perfect.
Focusing on Chang'an Jie (it's only later he mentions that Chang'an Jie is only the name of the road between the east & west 2nd ring road, there are plenty of great stories & Chatwin tells some, but only just mentioning the Oriental Plaza, leaving out the corruption that led to its being built & the execution of the Beijing mayor at the time, talking about the "Big Pants" but skipping over the fire, ignoring pretty much everything along the road east of the 3rd ring road, especially the new capital being built in Tongzhou just seems an oversight.
This is all nitpicking though, if you know a lot about the city, this book isn't for you, but if you're looking to learn about modern Beijing & China as a whole and need an easy introduction, this book is perfect.
February 2, 2020
Fascinating premise and interesting nuggets throughout but Chatwin's prose (both in substance and style) is meandering.
January 25, 2021
Beautifully written, interesting way to approach change over time in Beijing.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews