Michael Aldrich on Fox Spirits, Gate Towers and Old Peking

While I’m plugging interesting bits that are found on my Midnight in Peking website I should note that Michael Aldrich, the great historian of Peking and author of the essential book The Search for a Vanishing Beijing, was kind enough to write a short history of the Fox Tower (now the Dongbienmen Tower), the superstitions surrounding fox spirits in Peking and around the Tower and the area around that corner of the old tartar wall. Michael knows more than just about anybody about this stuff and actually this information on the Fox Tower was originally meant for his The Search for a Vanishing Beijing book but got cut due to size limitations. When I first started researching Pamela Werner’s murder and wanted to know more about the Fox Tower, fox spirits and that part of Beijing, Michael was the only person who immediately knew what I was talking about!

The Search for a Vanishing Beijing by the way is now available in both paperback and (a very reasonably priced) Kindle edition

To see images of the Fox Tower and read Michael’s essay on the area click here