Qian Men Street 前门大街

QianMen Street (前门大街) is one of the famous streets in Beijing. Here, you can find a lot of the Beijing’s old-timer restaurants, all kind of Beijing snacks (北京小吃) and many of the local souvenir gifts.

Qian Men Street Plague

One of the representative structures of Qianmen Street is the street plaque (街匾). It is called the ZhengYangQiaoFang (正阳桥坊) or WuPaiLou (五牌楼) in common. It is titled with “ZhengYangQiao” on the center plaque. It is called the Wupailou because of its structure consist of five tablets.

Zheng Yang Qiao from Starbuck Coffee

Night at Qianmen

Special Street Light Design

After the 2008 renovation, the Qianmen Street became a walking street and new commercial shopping street. The architecture style of Ming's and Qing's Dynasties is still re-presented in Qianmen St. It is now a good and comfortable street for walking, shopping and eating.

Street view @ Qianmen

Bookstore - Zhong Guo Shu Ju

Yue Sheng Zhai

Most of the Beijing old-timer restaurants’ branches can be found here, such as the QuanJuDe (全聚德), YueShengZhai (月盛斋), DongLaiShun (东来顺) and so many more. Quanjude is one of the famous restaurants for roast duck. You have to be there early to get a queue number in order to dine in the restaurant. I remember I was there at about 3pm, and they have already given out all their queue ticket for dinner that day. However, they also have a more commercial branch for lower cost roast duck. Vacuum packed roast duck is also available there. You can try this if you are under budget. But as an advice, Beijing is a town famous for roast duck, nice and special roast duck can be found everywhere.

There are a lot more famous restaurants along Qianmen Street, I have not tried any of those yet. Please share and feedback you experiences on these restaurant if you have any.

Starbuck Coffee @ Qianmen

Haagen Dazs @ Qianmen

Besides the old-timer restaurants, there are also fast food and café such as Mc Donald’s, Starbucks Coffee in Qianmen Street area. When we were in Beijing, we normally look for fast food restaurants such as McD and KFC for toilet. Although in some tourism places the public toilets are clean and convenience, but there are still some toilet with no water and less clean. So, in this case, look for fast food restaurant, they should have better ones.

All kinds of MaHua

Tang Er Duo

Beijing snacks, food and souvenirs can also be found along the neighbour alleys, Hutongs and streets, for example the DaShiLan Street (大栅栏街). Snacks like TangErDuo (糖耳朵), LvDaGun (驴打滚), AiWoWo (艾窝窝), and BingTangHuLu (冰糖葫芦) are a few common snacks can be found along these streets. There are many packaged snacks which visitors can buy back for souvenirs. The Tang’erduo is also called Honey MaHua (蜜麻花), it is much bigger than those we can find in Malaysia. They also have other flavors such as original and pepper salt.

Sunflower Seed Biscuit

I bough some Lvdagun and Aiwowo back for souvenirs. It is some thing like mochi. There are a few snack shops along the alley, you can easily find these. They come in several flavors too. However, I basically think they are the same thing, cannot really find the differences between Lvdagun and Aiwowo.

Tram - the Dang Dang Che

Tram starts from street plaque

In the tram

Another representative of Qianmen Street is the Dang Dang Che (铛铛车). It is modified tram based on the original tram in Qianmen St. It runs hourly for visitor to travel from the street plaque to the ZhuShiKou Street (珠市口大街).

Dang Dang Che

S. DEER concept shop @ Qianmen

ZARA @ Qianmen

Besides food and souvenirs, Qianmen St is also a shopping street with several brands of fashion wears, bags and shoes.

Ming Fu Ju Restaurant

 

Food at Ming Fu Ju

In Qianmen Street, we had lunch at MinFuJu Restaurant (民府居) located at one of the alley; walked along the street; bought some paintings and souvenirs; took the Dang Dang Che down to the Zhushikou Street; had dessert in Mc Donald's; and after that we took bus to go to LuGouQiao (卢沟桥). In my next blog, I will share more of the photos and information about this heritage bridge. Stay tune.

Travel Tips:

Dang Dang Che Tram ticket price (per trip): RMB 20

Reference Website:

正阳桥坊:
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%A3%E9%98%B3%E6%A1%A5%E5%9D%8A

前门大街:
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%89%8D%E9%96%80%E5%A4%A7%E8%A1%97

Reference Map:

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