Where the walls have ears

Diaoyutai has been the site of political plots, secret meetings and ... private film festivals. Picture / Reuters

It has been the site of intrigue and secret meetings, where scheming mandarins plotted palace coups.

No venue could be more appropriate for talks aimed at ending the North Korean nuclear faceoff than Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, its history as Byzantine as any of the machinations in the reclusive Stalinist Korean state.

Diaoyutai was built more than 800 years ago as a retreat for emperors.

Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing, used to watch Western films in one of the villas. In the mid-1970s, she met at Diaoyutai to plot the downfall of political rival Deng Xiaoping.

Late Premier Zhou Enlai opted for Building No 5, where Henry Kissinger stayed on his secret 1970-71 visits to pave the way for US President Richard Nixon's landmark trip in 1972.

The site became a guesthouse in 1958 in time to house foreign dignitaries attending celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the People's Republic the following year.

It has since opened its gates to non-VIP tourists and business officials. Room rates start at nearly US$300 ($443) a night, but the usual quarters for visiting heads of state - the two-storey Building No 18, where Nixon stayed - rents for much more.

Kim Il Sung, the late father of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, stayed at Building No 12 when he came to Beijing and planted a pine tree to symbolise friendship.

When US President Bill Clinton stayed there in 1998, American officials were warned "the walls have ears".

- REUTERS