Guozijian Street, or the Imperial College Street, located in Andingmen in Dongcheng District, Beijing, is an east-west Hutong. It has 700 years of history and remains the old style Beijing alleys. It is one of the first "Chinese historical and cultural street". It was named "Chengxian Street" during Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is famous for the Confucius Temple and Imperial College. Also, it is known as the Imperial College Hutong.

Guozijian Street was designated as the Beijing-level cultural relics protection units in 1984. It is the city's only municipal conservation street which is named after its street name. This ancient street concentrates a large number of historical and cultural heritage of the national heritage conservation units like Imperial College, Confucius Temple, etc. It is also the only street with decorated archway reserved in Beijing city, which concentrates the essence of traditional Chinese culture. With its elegant, quiet, solemn, mysterious environment and the rich historical, cultural connotations, it has become a unique cultural area in Beijing.

Guozijian Street is the only archway street in Beijing. The banners of the both sides are inscribed by emperor, symbolizing that the country pays a lot of attention on education. Piyong Hall is the main architecture in the imperial academy. Located in the very central of the imperial academy, Piyong Hall has large doors in all directions, multiple eaves, pyramidal roof, and quadrate shape. Yilun Hall is located to the north of Piyong Hall. In the Yuan Dynasty, it has another name Chongwen Pavilion, and got the name of Yilun Hall after the reconstruction between 1403 and 1424 in the Ming Dynasty. Before Piyong Hall was built, it was the hall for emperors giving lectures and after that, it was used as a store house for books.

Ticket: CNY 30 (including entrance fee for Confucian Temple)

Location: No.15, Guozijian Street, Dongcheng District

How to get there: Visitors can take buses 13, 116 and 807 to get there and get off at Guozijian Station. Besides, visitors also can take subway 2 or subway 5, get off at Yonghegong Station, then get out of the station from Exit C (Southwest Exit), and the imperial academy is 200 meters away to the south.

Source: topchinatravel.com