The forgotten temple

No. 19 (or maybe No. 15) may boast of housing Johnston, but that's not the only historical space of note in Zhangwang Hutong. In No.4, there is a place the local people call Hong En Temple or Niang Niang Temple (Princess Temple). But instead of a princess, it was actually owned by a eunuch called Liu Suyun, a servant of the Empress Ci Xi.

Local resident Chen Cunrong played around in this temple when she was a child, and she said that this temple and No.19 were for awhile inhabited by eunuchs and concubines after they were expelled from the Forbidden City with the emperor. But today No.4 seems to have become a forbidden place of its own, bearing a note that says, "Private place, no visitors here."

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