Dongcheng District, Beijing — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Dongcheng District?

Dongcheng District holds Beijing's densest run of monuments. The Forbidden City and the Palace Museum fill its western edge, while the National Museum of China and the National Art Museum of China gather the country's collections a few streets away. Among the monuments, Dongcheng keeps its churches too.

St. Joseph's Church raises its towers over a shopping street, and quieter corners keep the Lao She Memorial Hall, the Ancestral Temple for Wen Tianxiang, and Prince Gong's Mansion behind their old walls.

What is the history of Dongcheng District?

Dongcheng District grew from the eastern half of imperial Beijing. Its ground carried the Forbidden City, the palace that became the Palace Museum, and around it rose the mansions and temples of the old capital. The court set the pattern.

The Ancestral Temple for Wen Tianxiang honoured a Song statesman long before the district took its present shape, and later the Shuntian Prefectural College and Prince Gong's Mansion joined the fabric that visitors still trace among its lanes.

Where is Dongcheng District?

Dongcheng District covers roughly 42 square kilometres of central Beijing, its grid of lanes wrapping the Forbidden City and reaching east past the National Museum of China.