Red Beijing Architecture: Stalinist Spires and the 1959 Ten Great Buildings

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Half-day

5 stops · Half-day

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My Trip

The city that New China built in the 1950s, beyond palaces and hutongs. A Stalinist-spire exhibition hall gifted by the Soviets and the Russian restaurant inside it, through to the 'Ten Great Buildings' of the nation's 10th anniversary. A course for enthusiasts reading socialist urban planning and Cold War architecture.

Half-day5 stopsEst. budget 30,000 KRW

Itinerary

1
Beijing Exhibition Center北京展览馆
Architecture · 50 min stay
A symbol of Stalinist style, built in 1954 with Soviet aid. The central spire topped with a red star and the imposing colonnade look as if Moscow were transplanted whole. It shows early New China's 'Beijing facing the Soviet Union' in a single building.
Walk 3 min
2
Lao Mo (Moscow Restaurant)莫斯科餐厅 (老莫)
Restaurant · 70 min stay
Beijing's oldest Russian restaurant, opened in 1954 inside the Exhibition Center. The high ceiling, chandeliers and columns remain intact, so you time-travel to Cold War Beijing over borscht and beef stroganoff. The restaurant from the film 'In the Heat of the Sun.'
점심
Taxi 15 min
3
Cultural Palace of Nationalities民族文化宫
Architecture · 35 min stay
One of the 'Ten Great Buildings' of the nation's 10th anniversary (1959). An eclectic style grafting Chinese traditional beauty onto a Soviet frame, with a teal glazed-tile roof atop a white-tiled tower. The starting point of the line of Ten Great Buildings along Chang'an Avenue.
Taxi 15 min
4
Great Hall of the People人民大会堂
Architecture · 30 min stay
On the west side of Tiananmen Square, a flagship of the 1959 Ten Great Buildings, built in just 10 months. The colossal colonnaded facade creates the square's authority. Symmetrical with the National Museum to the east, it shows the pinnacle of socialist square urban planning.
Taxi 12 min
5
Beijing Railway Station北京站
Architecture · 25 min stay
Also one of the 1959 Ten Great Buildings. A masterpiece combining socialist modernism with Chinese traditional eaves, with twin clock towers and round arches. Still an active railway station, so you see 'living 1950s architecture' in everyday use.