Last year in the month of October, I was in Beijing for the first time. The weather was about 10˚-16˚C and windy sometimes. I stayed in a five star hotel called Peninsula Beijing which is located in the centre of the city, between the main shopping areas of Wangfujing and Dongdan. It is also within easy walking distance of the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and The Museum of Chinese History.

I just loved to stay in Peninsula Beijing because there is so much to explore in Wangfujing district, just within the walking distance! It is one of the busiest streets in Beijing and has long been known as “China’s No.1 Commercial Street”. When I stepped in the ‘pedestrian lanes’ (no cars are allowed on this lane), I was so impressed! You can find almost everything here, foods, clothing, banking, watches, Chinese medicine, jewelleries and many more! I went into one of the shopping mall called Sun Dong An Plaza. What attracted me was there is an old Peking food street located in the basement. You can actually find all sorts of traditional food inclusive of sweets, biscuits, dessert etc in here, something that you have never tasted and seen before. Further down the street, there is Wangfujing Bookstore which houses six floors of an extensive range of local and foreign books. Foreigners also can find another bookstore that offer foreign language books at the Beijing Foreign Language Publications Ltd. You will discover that the local publications are really cheap!

For the food lover, just beside the Haoyao Department Store, there is a very interesting place – Wangfujing Snack Street. You will find the buildings along the street vividly reflecting Beijing life in the past. You will get to enjoy free Chinese Opera too! If you are looking for authentic Beijing food, you must try the dumplings! There are two restaurants which offer delicious and various types of dumplings- Jiaozi Restaurant and Hundunhou Restaurant. There is one thing you must not miss – the famous Beijing Roast Duck! Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant is the famous roast duck chain in Beijing. On top of that, in the evening till night time, you will see about 20 over stores along the street selling some ‘special’ food – scorpions, starfish, grasshoppers, worms etc. Have you ever tried before?


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The Peninsula Beijing                    - Wang Fu Ban Dao Jiu Dian;
Forbidden City                                 - Gu Gong;
Tiananmen Square                         - Tian An Men Kwang Chang;
Sun Dong An Plaza                        - Xin Dong An Shi Chang;
Dumpling                                          - Jiao Zi;
Beijing Roast Duck                        - Bei Jing Kao Ya;
Old Street                                          - Lao Jie;
Pedestrian lanes                             - Bu Xing Jie