Street Special: streets around the Forbidden City 

If you visited Beijing more than one hundred years ago, you would have found a lot of archways on the streets.

Dagaoxuandian used to be the Taoist temple of the royal family. An archway is a restoration. There used to be two more archways on the road, but with today's traffic, there is no way that they could restore the other two.

Dagaoxuandian is not open to tourists. The Taoist temple was built initially for Emperor Jiajing - a place where he could practice the Taoist rituals through which it's believed you can find immortality.

Dagaoxuandian sits at the northwest point of the Forbidden City. And from here Wenjing Street becomes Jingshanqianjie, the Jingshan Front Street.

The street between the Forbidden City and Jingshan, over the years, the street has and has not changed.

There is an interesting story about this street. One day a month the emperor would allow the venders from outside to come into this street, and people from inside the Forbidden City could come out and do some shopping here.