Qianmen Street, Beijing

Qianmen Street, Beijing

Qianmen street

 



        This is what happened when an amateur backpacker like me went to Beijing in winter without good preparation. I left my thick socks, knitted cap, earmuffs, scarf, even thermal underwear at home, didn’t want to believe when the pilot told me “I warn you, it’s  -15’ Celsius out there, young lady.” In my head, nah, couldn’t be that cold, seriously. But he was right… I ended up staying in my hostel room the whole evening in my first day in Beijing, skipped dinner, simply because it was too cold to get out of the hostel. The next day, I decided to buy knitted cap and scarf from this H&M store at the Qianmen street – still in Dongcheng district area, only 15 minutes walk distance from Sunrise Hostel or Tiananmen East, you can also take metro line 2 to Qianmen.

         Just like my previous post about Wangfujing Street, Qianmen street is another shopping street worth to visit while you're in Beijing. Even if you don't want to buy anything there, it's still very nice to have an afternoon walk with a cup of coffee, see the hutongs just behind the main street, a little bit of window shopping - as you can find not only H&M store, but also UNIQLO, Zara, Starbucks, and many more - pretty much those big stores you can easily find anywhere in the world, but again...as a tourist / backpacker / travel blogger, I love to see new places and share the info and photos with the readers, hope the postcards from Qianmen street helps for those making travel itinerary to Beijing. 



Thank you H&M for the knitted cap and scarf ;p

Qianmen street at night





Qianmen Street

Wangfujing Night Market

“Testicles ! Testicles ! Testicles ! Very good for you !”

               The Chinese stand owner wearing white uniform and red cap yells after me as I keep walking the Wangfujing street in Beijing. "Wow, never heard that fried testicles on stick is good for me. No, thank you." -13’ Celsius,  my hands keep shaking but the cold can’t  stop me and my friends from trying all those interesting food at the night market. We were very hungry and decided to leave our comfy hotel room to explore what everyone said as a must-visit night market for tourists in Dongcheng district area. Beijing does promise you lots of things to experience…

               Wangfujing night market is open everyday from 6 pm to 9.30 pm. The long night market has so many stalls selling more than 50 kinds of food,  not only Chinese food like Beijing roast duck, noodle soup, pork dumplings but also seafood, meat kebabs, desserts like fruits on sticks, and the wide selections of extreme snack that you may find it a little bit unusual like scorpions, silk-worms, starfish, snake, fried spiders even testicles on sticks. The boys were jumping excited when they saw all the extreme food at the night market. "Let's try fried testicles !"said Salim very enthusiast, even though in the end he didn't try anything but chocolate he brought from hostel. Walid pointed to snake and scorpions while talking to the stand owner in Mandarin mix with English and French when he got frustrated if the stand owner didn't understand his Chinese. Salah, Philippe and Jukka decided to try the fried starfish and silk worms - ohh just the kind of food I will never touch.  To make you easier recognizing the food’s name, each stalls has signs with both English and Chinese food’s name and price, very well organized and it’s pretty safe and convenient to eat there since they put the protected line that separates the main road from the food stalls. Remember to always bargain before you decide to buy.

Zaz, Walid and Philippe wondered which one to try first

Salah, Starfish and silk worms on stick

Scorpions, silk worms...anyone ?

Happy with snake

         The boys admitted the scorpions they ate didn't really taste anything, just salty, while silk worms tasted a bit funny, like...it's kind of hard to explain, but something tickle your tongue, perhaps that's not the worm dancing in your tongue and sliding inside your throat. Once you choose and pay your food, the stand owner will fry them for a while then give some salts. I really wish I had the guts to try fried spiders or those testicles, but no thanks...
         To continue the evening walk after the night market and those extreme food, the next thing you’ll see is the big pedestrian street of Wangfujing, also well known as one the famous shopping streets in Beijing.  Most of the shops and restaurants there close at 9pm. Either you'd like to burn some cash on clothes at Forever21 shop, try some more Chinese food, or just simply walk enjoying the colorful lights and the crowds, Wangfujing at night would give you a totally  interesting scenes  that only begins all the fun of your little adventure in Beijing.

Coming up next : Qianmen street, Beijing, and Shanghai ..