As with most tour packages, we didn't get much free time to go wandering on our own while in Beijing, so one evening, we decided to skip one or two side attractions that the tour had offered, and headed downtown to Wangfujing Dajie, which is the Orchard Road of Beijing!
The Street gets its name from a 15th century well which was used to supply water for the Emperors living right next door in the Forbidden City. These days, it has become a pedestrian mall selling anything and everything from designer handbags to iPod knockoffs to aromatic pu-erh tea.
When we arrived at the place at about 6.00pm it was already quite packed with people, mostly tourists out for a stroll in the freezing cold.
In the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics, city officials have set up hundreds of souvenir shops to sell 'official merchandise' (read: expensive). We had also encountered many street vendors rushing up to us selling cheap knockoffs for around RM1 for a set of five keychains/ bookmarks/ crayon/ caps/ nipple rings. (Just kidding).
Why five, you ask? Well, true to Chinese entrepenuership, the Beijing Olympics has not one but FIVE mascots. I guess they figured people would more than likely buy the whole set of five thus making quintuple profits for the organisers. Personally I like JingJing the Panda the most.
This is Master Sheng's Hat Store. It's renowned throughout China and all of East Asia. You can find just about any type of headgear you can think of, from the ubiquitous Chairman Mao green cap to the black French beret; they even have a selection of 'authentic' cowboy hats. What's more, most of them were priced very affordably between 50元 - 200 元!
Mom had told me to buy some chrysanthemum tea for her, so I decided to pop into this shop to get some. (
Mom, Malaysia cheaper lah!) When I enquired about it, the sales lady asked me which type I preferred. There are different types of chrysanthemum???? I thought there was only one. And don't get me started about their variety of green teas.
This bookstore is five stories tall and has only two toilets - one for the ladies and one for the men
and the handicapped combined. And don't even dream about finding any English language books here. It's all in Mandarin, even the books about learning Mandarin!
Thanks to basketball superstar Yao Ming, basketball is now the second most popular sport in China after badminton. And Nike is quick to capitalise on the potential that is the 1.3 billion strong Chinese population.
This is Wangfujing Snack Street. Tucked away in a corner of the street, this narrow alley boasts the most varied street food and eateries in all of Beijing.
And when I said varied, I meant roasted-seahorse-on-a-stick varied.
Or would you prefer a light and crunchy scorpion instead?
Ooh... sausages....tofu....cockcroaches....silkworms....
Well, actually, it's silkworm pupae... I think. I heard it tastes like crunchy peanut butter.
Now, this I loved. It's called Pingtanghulu and is essentially candied fruit (usually cherry or grape) on a stick. Prices vary from 1元 (RM 0.50) for a stick of eight to ten pieces from the subway vendors to 5元 here in Wangfujing. Well, truth be told, even at 5元, it's still cheaper than in Malaysia (RM5), so what the heck, I got two.
Popiah, Beijing style. They use pretty much the same ingredients as in Malaysia except it is at least three times as big as the Malaysian one.
As we turned the corner, we found ourselves in souvenir street! All types of cheap chinese arts and crafts plus some not so chinese items can be found here. But buyer beware. These are 100% NON original products and bargaining is a must. Unless of course if you're a rich Mat Salleh who doesn't mind paying US$100 for a chinese tea-set. ;)
If my house was not filled to the brim already with local artwork, I would bought this whole shop! I have to say, the quality of the artwork here is far better than the ones in Malaysia or Singapore.
I was so tempted to buy some of these souvenirs home, but was luckily reminded by Aaron that they would almost certainly become dust-gathering junk in one month's time.
Erm... is this the nightmare shop, perhaps? What was with the scary facemasks??
Ah... something fengshui-ish for dad. After all, it'll make for a nice Chinese New Year decorative piece in the living room.
I really really wanted to get one of these chinese tea cups, but Aaron said that they are cheaper in Malaysia. Ok Aaron, please tell me where, cause I haven't been able to find anything remotely resembling them in all the pasar malams I've been to!
All that walking made us really hungry, so we decided to go look for something to eat. There were noodle shops, sushi bars, barbacued lamb stands and even a shop selling otak otak!
In the end, we decided on just some local kebab which was quite delicious if I may say so.
And for dessert, how about some hot grilled sweet corn?
Ok, time to head back to the hotel. As our legs were quite unable to carry us the whole five kilometres back to the hotel, we took a cab. I took this pic of Tiananmen Gate as we stopped at the lights in front of the building.
As with most tour packages, we didn't get much free time to go wandering on our own while in Beijing, so one evening, we decided to skip one or two side attractions that the tour had offered, and headed downtown to Wangfujing Dajie, which is the Orchard Road of Beijing!
The Street gets its name from a 15th century well which was used to supply water for the Emperors living right next door in the Forbidden City. These days, it has become a pedestrian mall selling anything and everything from designer handbags to iPod knockoffs to aromatic pu-erh tea.
When we arrived at the place at about 6.00pm it was already quite packed with people, mostly tourists out for a stroll in the freezing cold.
In the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics, city officials have set up hundreds of souvenir shops to sell 'official merchandise' (read: expensive). We had also encountered many street vendors rushing up to us selling cheap knockoffs for around RM1 for a set of five keychains/ bookmarks/ crayon/ caps/ nipple rings. (Just kidding).
Why five, you ask? Well, true to Chinese entrepenuership, the Beijing Olympics has not one but FIVE mascots. I guess they figured people would more than likely buy the whole set of five thus making quintuple profits for the organisers. Personally I like JingJing the Panda the most.
This is Master Sheng's Hat Store. It's renowned throughout China and all of East Asia. You can find just about any type of headgear you can think of, from the ubiquitous Chairman Mao green cap to the black French beret; they even have a selection of 'authentic' cowboy hats. What's more, most of them were priced very affordably between 50元 - 200 元!
Mom had told me to buy some chrysanthemum tea for her, so I decided to pop into this shop to get some. (Mom, Malaysia cheaper lah!) When I enquired about it, the sales lady asked me which type I preferred. There are different types of chrysanthemum???? I thought there was only one. And don't get me started about their variety of green teas.
This bookstore is five stories tall and has only two toilets - one for the ladies and one for the men and the handicapped combined. And don't even dream about finding any English language books here. It's all in Mandarin, even the books about learning Mandarin!
Thanks to basketball superstar Yao Ming, basketball is now the second most popular sport in China after badminton. And Nike is quick to capitalise on the potential that is the 1.3 billion strong Chinese population.
This is Wangfujing Snack Street. Tucked away in a corner of the street, this narrow alley boasts the most varied street food and eateries in all of Beijing.
And when I said varied, I meant roasted-seahorse-on-a-stick varied.
Or would you prefer a light and crunchy scorpion instead?
Ooh... sausages....tofu....cockcroaches....silkworms....
Well, actually, it's silkworm pupae... I think. I heard it tastes like crunchy peanut butter.
Now, this I loved. It's called Pingtanghulu and is essentially candied fruit (usually cherry or grape) on a stick. Prices vary from 1元 (RM 0.50) for a stick of eight to ten pieces from the subway vendors to 5元 here in Wangfujing. Well, truth be told, even at 5元, it's still cheaper than in Malaysia (RM5), so what the heck, I got two.
Popiah, Beijing style. They use pretty much the same ingredients as in Malaysia except it is at least three times as big as the Malaysian one.
As we turned the corner, we found ourselves in souvenir street! All types of cheap chinese arts and crafts plus some not so chinese items can be found here. But buyer beware. These are 100% NON original products and bargaining is a must. Unless of course if you're a rich Mat Salleh who doesn't mind paying US$100 for a chinese tea-set. ;)
If my house was not filled to the brim already with local artwork, I would bought this whole shop! I have to say, the quality of the artwork here is far better than the ones in Malaysia or Singapore.
I was so tempted to buy some of these souvenirs home, but was luckily reminded by Aaron that they would almost certainly become dust-gathering junk in one month's time.
Erm... is this the nightmare shop, perhaps? What was with the scary facemasks??
Ah... something fengshui-ish for dad. After all, it'll make for a nice Chinese New Year decorative piece in the living room.
I really really wanted to get one of these chinese tea cups, but Aaron said that they are cheaper in Malaysia. Ok Aaron, please tell me where, cause I haven't been able to find anything remotely resembling them in all the pasar malams I've been to!
All that walking made us really hungry, so we decided to go look for something to eat. There were noodle shops, sushi bars, barbacued lamb stands and even a shop selling otak otak!
In the end, we decided on just some local kebab which was quite delicious if I may say so.
And for dessert, how about some hot grilled sweet corn?
Ok, time to head back to the hotel. As our legs were quite unable to carry us the whole five kilometres back to the hotel, we took a cab. I took this pic of Tiananmen Gate as we stopped at the lights in front of the building.
1 comment:
The wierd stuff in Wangfujing was actually very nice. Crispy. I love the skewed roasted lamb.
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