Despite the holiday and the beautiful weather this weekend, it might not be the best time for exploring the city. Walking tours and entertainment venues are on Covid hiatus, and most parks and historic sites require a 48-hour test result to even walk through the front gate. But Covid can’t stop the history enthusiast or the intellectually curious from wandering old Peking from the comfort of our couch.
There is no shortage of dishy memoirs, gossipy novels, and tales of Lao Wai behaving badly set in the period between 1912 and 1949. Here are some recommended books written by expatriates that will take you back to the days when the city was home to scholars, spies, sojourners, swindlers, and adventurers. We know it can be hard to buy specific books here in Beijing, so we’ve only included books available for e-readers.
Even in 2022, their sense of ennui mixed with fascination mixed with frustration mixed with adventure may even feel familiar to expatriates of more recent vintage. Replace the rooftop dancefloor of the Grand Hotel de Pekin with “Dada” and the bar at the Nord Hotel with “Jing-A,” and diarists from days passed can seem more like kindred spirits: The guy who loves China a little too much. The dude drinking at the bar who has been in China just a little too long.
The young person teaching English and looking to find themselves. The wannabe journalist. The guy who arrived 20 years ago to finish his dissertation and somehow is still here, still working on it, and doesn’t seem in much of a hurry. The shady middle-aged dude teaching at your school that never talks about his life before 2013. The career China hand. The guy who claims to be in thick with the government and is willing to sell his access. The wannabe artist. The actual artist. The person who never seems to have a job, yet somehow has a visa and always has enough money to go out every weekend. Yep. They are all here. Enjoy.