Beijing has seen a lot of changes this year, but is this something new? Beijing has always been in a state of flux. Sometimes the busiest areas in one era give way to quiet lanes in another. Danish historian Lars Thom of Beijing Postcards has spent over a decade researching the evolution of the capital, tracking the rise and fall of the city’s residential and commercial centers from century to century.
This article first appeared in the Nov/Dec 2017 issue of the Beijinger.