Peking/Beijing, China in the 1920s - Film 1000323

This film is available to license from our website at Huntley Film Archives, by searching for film 1000323 in our Film # search bar:
www.huntleyarc...
Peking, Beijing, China 1920's
Map showing China in the middle with Siberia and India to the outside. City on map marked Peiping, the Imperial City.
High POV of Clock tower and Railway station, pan down to main road in front with rickshaws. Pan along street away from station. Colonial type large building. Waiting horses and carriages. Sacks of produce are piled up in the centre of the street. At the end of the street there are tents of a street market. Lines of rickshaws. Fortified building of several stories high. Procession of pack animals walk in front of fortified building. View at street level. A procession led by musicians. Some people walk on the tram tracks in front of a tram. Funeral Procession. Coffin draped in embroidered cloth carried on a bamboo frame by many men. Man waves at camera and smiles so obviously not too upset by the funeral! Man leading a donkey that is pulling a small cart decorated with flowers follows the funeral procession. Cars, bicycles and rickshaws in busy street scenes. Rear view of funeral procession, across the road Chinese troops walk in the opposite direction. Bicycles. Men carry goods and produce. Beggars dressed in rags. Pan down the beggar to see his feet wrapped in rags. Little girl in a hat smiles at the camera. Two street workers throw shovels of water from a bucket onto the street to keep the dust down. The workers see the camera and pick up their bucket and run away.
Imperial Palace in the Forbidden city of Beijing, temples. Pedestrians and rickshaws. View of temple with sweeping stairs going up to the main entrance. Pan along the building. View of circular three tiered building with steps up to the doorway. People come down the steps. Two guards patrol the steps. Old man in rags, obviously a religious man, walks towards the camera smiling. View from the circular temple. View down the temple steps which are lined with carved pillars. The other buildings of the Imperial Palace can be seen in the background. European man dressed in overcoat, homburg hat and spats or brogues with a Chinese guide in Tiananmen square. Chinese guide kneels down in front of Western man and raises his hands to the sky, as if he were praying, pleading?? Then Chinese guide gets up and starts pointing to the ground then at the surrounding buildings.
An old man sits on a stool and leans over a bowl of water in the street. A Chinese barber washes his hair, then ties it in a top knot on top of his head. The barber then sharpens a razor on a leather strap while he smiles at the camera. Barber shaves the mans head except for the top knot of long hair. View of Chinese pagoda and buildings from across a lake, tree with blossom in foreground. View of a temple across a park, water with a long bridge in foreground and bare trees. A group of people in dark peasant clothing walk along a dusty road. The women hobble along, they have very thick ankles and very small feet (obviously had had their feet bound and find it difficult to walk). Children follow. Children by the railway track. View of old man with shaved head except for his central long pig tail or plait. Old man with a beard. Man carries a large heap of straw on his back. Donkeys with packs on their backs pick their way through rocky terrain. Men walk with them. Last two men carry an empty sedan chair. Donkey train and men walk through large archway in town wall. Four Chinese men carry a European woman carried in a litter or sedan chair. She wears 1920's hat and smiles at the camera. The Great Wall of China - western man and woman on the wall. Views of the Great Wall of China as it winds its way up the hillside. High POV at people walking up a very steep part of the Great Wall. Chinese adults and children walk down the Great Wall of China. View of the Wall going up hill into the distance.
Huntley Film Archives is a film library holding tens of thousands of films. The large majority of the films are documentaries. Films cover a wide range of subjects and production dates range from the 1890’s to the 2020’s. As with all libraries we make no judgement on the content of our holdings and make them available for educational purposes for all to see. Films may have content or express opinions some may think inappropriate or offensive, but it is not the work of a library to censor educational resources. Films should be viewed with historical objectivity and within a context relevant to the times in which they were produced