The haunted Beijing walking tour
With nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek (蒋介石) ensconced in Nanjing and a Japanese military ring tightening around the city, foreigners were fleeing for their once-privileged lives.
On the frigid morning of January 7, 1937, the mutilated corpse of an English teenager was discovered on the fringes of Beijing's disreputable quarter.
Her skull had been bashed in, her chest cut open and her heart and internal organs ripped out. Her ribs had been cracked from the inside. Was she an innocent victim, or had the Sinologist's pretty daughter been lured into an evil sex cult? The subsequent murder hunt was to transfix China, even though the entire country was embroiled by war.
In “Midnight in Peking,” British author Paul French probes the murder of 19-year-old Pamela Werner shining a light on Beijing’s then sordid underbelly.
Together with French, publishers Penguin have devised an audio walk (download here) of Pamela’s Beijing as it was in 1937.
See where and how Pamela lived and died in what French chillingly calls the last days of old Beijing.
Read the book before the walk; if you go at night, the stroll is particularly spooky.
Editor's note: The following map highlights the route of the walking tour. Click the blue pinpoints to learn more about the stops. Use the gray bar at the bottom to roll left or right. The tour starts at the right-hand side of the map.
Where to buy 'Midnight in Peking'
Beijing: RMB 200 at The Bookworm, No. 4, Nan Sanlitun Lu, near Gongti Bei Lu 南三里屯路4号, 近工体北路, +86 010 6586 9507, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. (bookstore); 9 a.m.-2 a.m. (restaurant), beijingbookworm.com
Shanghai: RMB 255 at Garden Books, 325 Changle Lu, near Shaanxi Nan Lu, 长乐路325号, 近陕西南路, +86 21 5404 8728, 10 a.m.-10 p.m., www.bookzines.com
Online: Taobao or Penguin AU
