Beijing Journey Tours Visits the New Qianmen Market Street

Located on the south side of Tian'anmen Square, Beijing's Qianmen Dajie was the city's busiest and most famous street during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. In recent years it has remained a popular shopping street, but definitely needed renovation. Using research and photos from the 1920's and 30's, it has been undergoing a massive refurbishing for the past year. Although not yet totally completed, it opened days before the Olympics. We visited it in late August. Many of the oldest, and most famous stores and restaurants of Beijing have located here. The restaurants were filled with both tourists and local Beijingers wanting to try dumplings and roast duck. We really think that Qianmen Street will be a worthwhile place to visit for travelers and and locals alike. We wandered through the old silk stores and were surprised by the reasonable prices and quality of the goods. This looks like it will become a good place to shop in Beijing when more stores move back here. We thought we would like to try the old theater, showing movies from the 20's, at a later date. It might also be fun to ride the restored trolley.