Wangfujing, the main shopping street, is about a 15 minutes walk from Tian’anmen Square. If you don’t enjoy walking, you can also take the subway: it”s just one station away from Tiananmen East. At Wangfujing you can basically get anything you need. Everything is pretty expensive though, so I am usually perfectly happy just window shopping. Right when you enter Wangfujing, there’s Oriental Plaza on the right side, a mall which also has a supermarket where you can get Western food, in case you’re desperate for cheese, chocolate, Western spices and the like. There’s Wangfujing bookstore, where you can also get a selection of English books if you’ve run out of things to read. Wangfujing is lined with shops selling shoes, jewellery, make-up, souvenirs, expensive brand clothes – probably one of the few places in Beijing without fake clothes – and so on. There’s also a Bank of China towards the end of Wangfujing, in case you’ve spent all your money shopping.
I first went to a small snack alley where you can have skewers, fresh coconut milk, egg rolls, and other snacks or even buy some bagged roast duck. There are also lots of small places were you can get lunch. I wanted to see whether it was possible to get a meal ordering in English, so I went to one of the little restaurants. There was no English menu available, but the waiter spoke English well enough that he could understand that I wanted him to bring me a Chinese menu and recommend a dish. If you want to eat in this snack alley, it’s always best if you have the person show you the price on the menu or tell you how much it is. I was cheated here before and charged an incredibly high price for a meal that didn’t even taste good because I blindly ordered something without asking for the price. I ordered fried noodles, and although the noodles tasted a bit like “Chinese food” in Germany and dishes are pricey, it is nice to go to the snack alley for some skewers or for lunch in case you get hungry while shopping at Wangfujing. Also, the atmosphere, especially at night, makes it worth coming, although you should keep an eye on your things, as the alley is usually crowded. After the snack areas, there’s an alley were the usual souvenirs are sold: fans, teacups, purses, tablecloths, chopsticks, paintings, etc. None of the hawkers are shy, so I was followed by shouts like “Hello Lady”, “Look!” and “I give you good price”. Just ignore them unless you want to buy something. Once you reach the end of the souvenir alley, you can either go back to Wangfujing, or continue for a short walk into a more genuinely Chinese alley.
I next decided to go into “Tenfu Tea Store”, a chain store with shops all over Beijing. On entering, I was immediately welcomed by a shop assistant who followed me around, offered me samples of tea, tea candy, cookies, and other snacks, and who ensured that I would not escape without having bought anything. I finally managed to get out by buying a pack of tea candy for 10 Yuan (a bit more than $1). I’m sure there are other ways of getting back outside though. You can do your tea shopping at Wangfujing, but it’s really pricey, and if you have the chance – and the guts to take a bus in Beijing – you should really go to Maliandao, an area with streets lined with nothing but tea shops. I am planning to go there sometime next week and will let you know how things went.
When I was asked whether I wanted to come visit an art exhibition yet again, I decided it was time to leave Wangfujing.
