The city gates in retrospect

Gao Wei, director of the Beijing Society of History and Geography

The gate that impressed me the most was Qianmen. Since that was an assembly place of all the old gadgets for sale, I often went there to dig out treasures as a child. One time I found a delicate container of wine made from crystal. Also in front of Qianmen, there were many Beijing stores including a tofu store. People went to that store to get the best tofu in town. My friends and I also had lots of fun by Qianmen playing with kites, running around and catching crickets.

He Ying, a clerk at the National Academy of Education Administration

My home was not far from Fuchengmen and Xizhimen. The scenery outside the city wall was mostly farms or empty land with graves, a totally different scenery to what was behind the wall. In the 1960s when I was still in primary school, I used to play in the shallow moat outside Fuchengmen. At that time it was already partly demolished. Our exercise class was also sometimes held outside the city gate where we learned to throw fake grenades.

Xu Jianmin, a goldfish breeder

My primary school was not far from Xizhimen. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) my class was enlisted to help demolish the gate by removing one brick per day and burying it underground for constructing an air-raid shelter. We would also capture crickets and play around the city gate. I remember there were also many worms in the moat that I would catch to feed my goldfish. Now Xizhimen has long been demolished, which is a real pity.