Straat met douaneposten te Peking before 1883

This engraving by Hugues Krafft depicts a street with customs posts in Peking, capturing a moment of regulated exchange and transition. Notice the signage indicating the customs area: this symbolizes not just the control of goods, but also the demarcation of cultural and economic space. Consider how borders, represented here by these customs posts, appear throughout history. In ancient Rome, boundary markers were sacred, protected by the god Terminus. Similarly, the checkpoints in Krafft's image evoke a sense of crossing thresholds, laden with psychological weight. Are they barriers, or gateways to something new? Even today, we see echoes of this symbolism in airport security or border crossings. They reflect our ongoing negotiation between the desire for openness and the need for control, revealing how deeply ingrained these cultural symbols are in our collective consciousness. These customs posts in Peking connect to a long, non-linear history of defining and defending territories, continually shaping our perception of self and other.