Advertisement
Published: June 26th 2017
Edit Blog Post
Tram in Qianmen St
Tram in Qianmen Street Geo: 39.9056, 116.396
Today we decided to return to Qianmen which we had visited briefly on Wednesday. This is the reconstructed area south of Tian'amen square which was opened in 2008 just in time for the Olympics. When I first came here in 1998 it was a market area with outside stalls and was very run down and neglected. It has now been given a complete makeover and the glory of bygone Imperial days has been restored. The street is now a Mall along which trams run. Shopfronts proudly display signs in Mandarin and English claiming the longevity of the business and noting that it is a China Cultural Heritage Treasure. There are also wonderful bronze statues depicting activities of bygone years outside the shops showing their original purposes.
It is not just the single street either. There are Hutongs surrounding the main strip with the same style of shop fronts now being renovated and rebuilt. It will soon be a whole precinct of heritage shops, restaurants and galleries which I am sure in summer will be a centre of tourist activity. As it was Saturday the main street was buzzing, mainly with locals. We have seen very few non Asian faces in
the streets or the subway. I guess the 3 degree temperature has something to do with that. We walked up the main thoroughfare as the tram came rolling past. We then went down the famous side street along which we had strolled before. This was packed today with families buying sweets for the New year celebration. The shopfronts are great. This time we went into several of the stores to see the rich silks and clothes though the XL size looked as though it would fit a size 10!!
We detoured down a small side alley which seemed mainly lined with various eateries. We went back into the main drag and wandered down to the end. It is about 800 metres long. We returned slowly going into some of the shops selling cloissone and souvenirs. Most of the cloisonné bangles are too garish now but some of the vases etc are lovely. However, we already have enough. We branched off into one of the side streets. This was Taiwan street and what caught our eye was a tall tree which had a bizarre shape next to two railway carriages. At the end of the street was a building where officials from
Taiwan used to meet. An attractive gate guarded the entrance.
Back on the main street we passed the famous Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant where there seems to always be a long queue waiting for take away. By this time we were looking for somewhere to sit so we returned to the Starbucks at the top of the street. (Yes, I know, an American franchise instead of local but I really craved a coffee and there is nowhere else to get that!) After my caffeine craving had been satisfied, along with a focaccia for me and a ham/cheese croissant for Fletcher we explored further. There was a great food street we now discovered where street food as well as restaurants were abundant.(But still no coffee shops!!) This was crowded and led to another gate, this one decorated with fish. The skewered squid and dumplings looked inviting but the English translations offering stewed pig's liver and baked chicken feet didn't really start my saliva flowing!!
It was now 2-30pm and getting very cold so we headed back to the hotel. The smog is also hard to endure after a while.
For dinner we returned to the street at the back of the hotel. We had
intended to return to Aussino but instead saw the Hong Kong Style Food restaurant which had lots of people, so tried there. This proved to be a good choice as we had a great meal here. BBQ chicken, a whole fish in soy sauce and fried rice were all delicious, though the fish was exceptionally good. There was also a short wine list though the white was room temperature. We did get an ice bucket though. We noticed that many of the Chinese clientele were arriving with their own bottles of wine showing the shift in food culture here.
As you will have noticed we have not revisitedany of the usual attractions, having seen the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Tiantan park and the Great Wall before. Tomorrow is our last day in Beijing before heading to Xian.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0331s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb