An eagerness to explore and a Beijing map are all you need to discover the best the capital city has to offer.

Traditional shopping, entertainment and industrial centres are easily accessible along the subway's loopline, which fits largely within the Second Ring Road. To the south of the loopline lies a prosperous old business world.

"The layout of Beijing has been influenced by the Eight Banners," said Yan Chongnian, director of the Beijing Association of Manchuology and a Beijing Academy of Social Sciences researcher.

When the Eight Banners entered Peking in 1644, they chose to live in its inner city, which the subway now follows, and drove all other residents to the outer city in the south.

The two cities were separated by the Qianmen, Chongwen and Xuanwu gates.

Since members of the Eight Banners were not allowed to hold jobs outside the military, there was little industry or commerce in the inner city. But the outer city was swarmed with people skilled in various industries, all eager to earn money.

Today traditional shopping and entertainment centres dashilar can be found outside Qianmen Gate.

Traditional handicraft factories producing carpets, cloisonne enamel, silk flowers, kites and lacquer wares are outside Chongwen Gate.

And traditional cultural centres like Liulichang Street, Anhui Huiguan (provincial guild) and Huguang Huiguan can be found outside Xuanwu Gate.

But this layout has caused problems as Beijing urbanizes, Yan said.

The problems focus on the dense former barracks of the Eight Banners, which were home to more than 100,000 soldiers and their families.

"I have lived here for 80 years, and I can't bear to see so many people rushing in from outside Beijing. They have made the whole area slums," said Guo Heyuan, 80, a descendant of the Eight Banners and resident of the Huoqiying community.

The community is now filled with people from outside the capital who are searching for jobs in the capital.

The layout of Beijing also posed a problem at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty for the protection of relics concerning the Eight Banners.

To solve the modern-day problem, parts of the Huoqiying community will be demolished and replaced by modern residential buildings, said officials from the Real Estate Administration of Beijing.

"It's very difficult to protect the former barracks since the dense dilapidated houses take up so much space in downtown Beijing," said Xi Zhiqun, associate professor at Capital Normal University.

"Besides, people in these houses have longed to live in modern buildings."

The historian is working to protect the former office of the general commander of the Inlaid Red Banner, one of the Eight Banners.

Xi has recently ridden on bike around the inner city in search of former offices of the 24 dutong (generals) of the Eight Banners.

These 24 generals, of Manchu, Han and Mongolian descent, had 23 offices in the inner city.

"Among the 23 offices, four still have traces left in the hutong, and the other 19 have vanished," Xi said.

The central government carried out a secret investigation in the 1920s on the 23 offices.

Xi based his research on the results of the investigation, which are kept in the No 1 Archive of Historical Documents in Beijing.

After the secret investigation, "the former offices of the generals were sold and became private properties in the 1930s," Xi said.

( China Daily August 14, 2002)