Wangfujing Street

Introduction

Wangfujing Street is one of the largest and famous pedestrian shopping street in Beijing. It is located on the south side of Wangfujing Haoyou Emporium and it is an 810 meters long walking street featuring a mix of large modern department stores, luxury brand name outlets, restaurants and small retail shops including big shopping malls like the Sun Dong An Plaza, Beijing Department Store, Oriental Plaza, the New China Woman and Children Department and many more. The houses up to 300 international and Chinese brand name stores selling a wide variety of merchandise. It also has two large bookstores the Beijing Foreign Languages Bookstore and Wangfujing Xinhua Bookstore

Things to see and do on a visit

Famous Snacks from all over China

Wangfujing street is the best place to try out a wide selection of traditional delicacies from all over the country. Visitors can try Steamed buns, fermented mung bean juice, fried dumplings, steamed rice cakes with sweet stuffing, pea cake, caramel treats, Jellied acorn, sugar-coated haws, stinky tofu of Hunan, coconuts of Hainan, caramel treats and mutton skewers of Xinjiang and many other delicacies.

If you are brave enough, you can also try unusual foods on a stick such as seahorses, tarantulas, giant centipedes, snakes, scorpions and anything that slithers or crawls mostly for tourists amusement.

Wangfujing Cathedral

Walking further north on the street you will see the Wangfujing Cathedral built in 1653 by the Jesuit Father Lodovico Buglio with strong pilasters with one high and two low vaults displaying grand architectural style.

Muslim food

On the west side of the street from the Oriental Plaza the food stalls are run by Beijing's Muslim Uigur community from Urumqi, Kashgar and other Muslim areas of western China. This street is the best place to taste Muslim food and also experience Muslim culture. There is tofu pudding, braised chicken, sautéed mutton, fried mutton, braised tripe, sheep and swine, Xinjiang's special and tasty snacks, Xinjiang style braised chicken and many more tasty snacks.