Skip to main content

Shopping in Beijing: Wangfujing Dajie(Alley) 王府井大街!

Ni hao!


Wángfujing Alley(Wangfujing Dajie) 王府井大街, located in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, is one of the Chinese capital's most famous shopping streets. Much of the road is off-limits to cars and other motor vehicles, and it is not rare to see the entire street full of people, turned into one of China's most attractive and modern boulevards. Since the middle of Ming Dynasty there have been commercial activities. In the Qing Dynasty, eight aristocratic estates and princess residence were built here, soon after when a well full of sweet water was discovered, thereby giving the street its name "Wang Fu"(=aristocratic residence), "Jing" (=well). In 1903, Dong'an market was formed. Prior to 1949, the street was also known as Morrison Street, after the Australian journalist George Ernest Morrison. Wangfujing has become one of the four traditional downtown shopping areas of Beijing, in addition to Dashilar, Xidan, and Liulichang. It starts from Wangfujing Nankou, where the Oriental Plaza and the Beijing Hotel are located. It then heads north, passing the Wangfujing Xinhua Bookstore, the Beijing Department Store as well as the Beijing Foreign Languages Bookstore before terminating at the Sun Dong An Plaza. Prior to the late 1990s trolleybuses, buses, and other traffic ran through the street, making it rather congested. Modifications in 1999 and 2000 made much of Wangfujing Street car-free (aside from the tour trolley and occasional milatary vehicles doing bank transfers). Now through traffic detours to the east of the street. Wangfujing is now home to around 280 old brands of Beijing, such as Shengxifu hat store, Tongshenghe shoe shop, Wuyutai tea house. A photo studio which took formal photos of the first Chinese leadership, the New China Woman and Children Department Store helped established by Song Qingling were also located on the street. Wangfujing is served by the Beijing subway networks, just one stop away from Tiananmen Square to the west. Line 1 has a station at the southern end of the street, which bears the same name. A word of warning, this street and the shops are so full of people that it´s hard to move yourself! Inside the shops there is no free area more than half a meter for yourself. So keep your money and valuables in a safe place. I had no trouble but if you are not careful it could happen to you. During my 30 day visit in Beijing I kept my money in my jeans and the latger amount in an inside pocket of my vaist coat. Though every chinese told me to be careful, I never had any trouble or heard of anyone having lost their money. OK!

Zai jian!

Peter



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The China Millenium Monument in Beijing 北京!

Ni hao! The China Millenium Monument in Beijing 北京. All over the world, celebrations and festivities to usher in Year 2000 make up one of the grandest spectacles at the end of the century, as mankind strides towards the new century and millennium. New opportunities, challenges, and hopes are emerging over the horizon of China of the 21st century. The Chinese nation, with its splendid civilization of 5000 years, is on the threshold of an epoch of great renewal, as a future of yet greater splendour is arising in the East of the world. At the turn of the century and millennium, the China Millennium Monument. with its oriental cultural overtones and contemporary architectural art, will promote the national spirit by embodying an original style, displaying a modern aestheticism, and expressing hopes of the future. The China Millennium Monument, as China' s symbolic and commemorative building to welcome the Year 2000, is a gift for the world of the 21st century from the Chines
Post a Comment
Read more

Beijing Hutongs 北京胡同 and Siheyuans 四合院!

Ni hao! Todays blog will tell you a little bit more about the Hutongs in Beijing. We all call it hutong. But when we talk abut them we really mean siheyuan. Siheyuan are the courtyard houses, and hutong are the streets or alleys inbetween them. So we should really talk about the Siheyuans inBeijing! Hutongs 胡同 are narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing, China. The word hutong comes from the Mongolian hottog meaning "water well." During the growth of towns and cities, wells dug by villagers formed the centres of new communities. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of Siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods. In old China, streets and lanes were defined by width. Hutongs were lanes no wider than 9 metres. Many are smaller; Beijing hutongs range in widt
Post a Comment
Read more

Dongzhimen 东直门

Ni hao! This day I will tell you about Dongzhimen 东直门 in the Dongcheng District, Beijing. Dongzhimen is the name of one of the gates in the old city walls of Beijing, it´s now a transportation node in Beijing. The 2nd Ring Road links with Airport Expressway. The Beijing Subway has a station at Dongzhimen, where Lines 2 and 13 connect. Line 13 has its eastern terminus at Dongzhimen. The Dongzhimen bus station is also situated here. For me it feels and seems like the central station in Stockholm! It really is near and we can walk there from home! Talking about minutes! We reach all corners of Beijing very easily from here during our 30 days visit. The subway station is only 8 minutes walk from our own apartment. West of Dongzhimen is Guijie, or "Food vessel street" (Dongzhimen Inner Street), extremely well-known to locals in Beijing as a food street. We go often to the restaurants on this street. There are so many different restaurants there. I think they must be 100 ones!
Post a Comment
Read more