Beijing Walking Tours

Being the most well-known commercial and shopping district in Beijing, Wangfujing Street has won a world-wide reputation. To some extent, it is the symbol of the city like the Great Wall.

Wangfujing Street is the deposition of a strong history and culture. It is home of many time-honored brands such as Shengxifu Hat Store, China Photography Studio, Dong Lai Shun Muslim Restaurant as well as some old-lined famous markets and stores such as Dong’an Market and Wangfujing Department Store. It also follows the time’ s pace and gets a modern and high-grade street with the skyscraper, luxurious shopping malls and grand hotels. The street receives thousands of hundreds of travelers every day.

It would be very convenient for you to take a leisurely walking tour on Wangfujing Street if your hotel is located just on or near it. Or you can take bus, subway or taxi to go there. The main buses reaching Wangfujing are Bus 103, 104, 111, 108 and 803. The main subways are Line 1 and Line 5.

Starting south from East Chang’an Street, north to the intersection of Wusi Avenue and Dongsi West Street, Wangfujing Street is with an overall length of around 1500 meters. Thereinto, it is the pedestrian street of around 810 meters from South of Jinyu Hutong till north of Dongdan 3rd Alley.

Begin the walking tour from south end of Wangfujing Street, the Gongmei Building. Located No. 200 on the street, it is a high-end arts and crafts based integrated commercial building which was opened in 1954 with a business area of 5000 square meters and is also the first franchise store dealing in arts and crafts in Beijing. Not only the Four Famous - jade article, ivory carving, cloisonné enamel and carved lacquerware are managed, others like the traditional carved filigree inlaying, silk flower, archaize ceramic, carpet as well as costume, jewels, antique, calligraphy, paintings and thousands of kinds of goods are available there. It is really worthy of visiting especially if you are interested in arts and crafts.

Then next to Gongmei Building, you will find Dong Lai Shun Muslim Restaurant at No. 198 of the street. The restaurant is famous for its Mutton Hot Pot of traditional special flavor, which is quite popular among Chinese people, especially in winter days. The other kinds of Muslim cooking dishes are also available. The average cost is around CNY100.00 per person.

Continue your walking tour, you will find Shengxifu Hat Store at No. 196, near to Donglaishun Restaurant. Both of them are well-known time-honored brands in Beijing. Just as its name implies, Shengxifu mainly sells various kinds of hats. It was opened in 1937 as a subbranch of Tianjin Shengxifu and its founder was Xisan Liu (1885-1969). Mr. Liu paid great attention to the quality of the goods. The varied woolen, felt and straw hat of elaborate imitation and invention had won awards during the World’ s Fair as well as other international medals. Shengxifu used to make formal top hats for the former State Leaders such as Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou.

Walk forward around 80 meters, you will stop at China Photography Studio at No. 180 which is a distinguished large-scale studio. In 1937, a man called Jianping Wu established a photostudio named “China Photography” in Shanghai. In 1939, the famous movie Mulan Joins the Army was projected at Shanghai Huguang Cinema with the famous star Yunshang Chen, an influential actress in the 1930s in China. Mr. Jianping Wu and the Cinema banded together to make fifty thousand photos of the actress and gave them away for those who purchased the movie tickets, which made a great stir at the time and promoted China Photography instantly. In 1956, China Photography studio moved to Beijing. During almost ten years after its arrival, the studio was full of clients all day long. Some clients even queued up from 4:00 to 5:00 am in the early morning outside its door. At that time, it was kind of fashion to have a photo with the name of China Photography printed on it.

Outside of China Photography Studio, it is an intersection. Shuaifuyuan Hutong is just on the right alley. It starts west from Wangfujing Street to Xiaowei Hutong on the east with a total length of 211 meters. It is said that Shuaifuyuan Hutong used to be the mansion house of Yi Luo who was a great soldier in the Tang Dynasty.

The famous Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant is located at the start of the Hutong which is one of the three mainstay restaurants of Quanjude Group. It is a 5-floor building and can hold around 800 people for meal at one time. On the east end of the Hutong is Gallery of China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), the former site of CAFA. Nowadays, the artistic products collected in the Gallery are mainly used for teaching and exhibiting.

Walk back to the intersection and head north on the Wangfujing Street around 180 meters, you will stop at Dong’an Market at No. 138. It got the name for it is near to the Dong’an Gate. Dong’an Market dated back to the Qing Gangxu Dynasty (1903) and was the earliest comprehensive market in Beijing. To the 1930s, it had been a large market with more than 900 commercial tenants.

Across from Dong’an market, it is Wangfujing Department Store at No. 255. It was built in 1954 and opened in 1955 as the first large state-run retail department store invested by the government of new China. The bronze statue of Binggui Zhang, the national model worker, erected before the store. He used to be a salesman of the store and was awarded model worker due to his efficiency and service spirit at work.

If you have more time, you may go on your walking tour on Wangfujing Street to explore the local flavors and to feel the lively atmosphere of the bustling street.

Walk north straight for around 400 meters, you will see the East Catholic Church at No. 74 on the right side of the Street, also called St. Joseph's Church. Built in 1655 AD, it is the second Catholic Church in Beijing after the South Xuanwumen Church. The church sits east towards the west and it is with baroque style as well as traditional Chinese architectural feature. It is now the site of Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. In 2000, the church was renovated completely by the government of Beijing and it became an important view on the Wangfujing Street.

The next stop of your walking tour is Laoshe Memorial Hall. Walk north around 130 meters to an intersection of Wangfujing Street and Dengshikou Street, turn left to West Dengshikou Street, walk around 220 meters and turn right to Fengfu Hutong. Laoshe Memorial Hall is at around 20 meters at No. 19 courtyard in Fengfu Hutong. It was the former residence of the famous writer Lao She and was opened to tourists from 1999. Lao She created numerous works of over 9 million letters during his life, among which the master works are the novel Rickshaw Boy (Luo Tuo Xiang Zi) and the drama Tea House.

The last visit will take you to Beijing Theater of People's Art. Walk back along West Dengshikou Street and turn left to the Wangfujing Street. Walk around 300 meters to Big Boge Hutong, then turn right to the Small Boge Hutong, Beijing Theater of People's Art is at around 72 meters at No. 22. It was built in 1952 and came into use in 1955 as the first professional place for drama performance. In the 1950 to 1960s, the theater was well-known for performing plays of Moruo Guo, Lao She, Yu Cao and Han Tian which were outstanding writers in China.