Taking a stroll in Beijing can be hard work. The main boulevard, Chang’an Dajie, is a soulless and windswept thoroughfare, and the rest of town seems to be a huge construction site choking on dust and car fumes.
You’ll need to keep your wits about you. No one in Beijing seems capable of walking in a straight line. Pedestrian crossings are decorative, and newly installed crossings with traffic lights are often ignored by motorists. The car, particularly the four-wheel-drive, dominates both the road and the sidewalk.
Another great way to explore the city is by walking tour. An array of tours are available, highlighting such topics as history, culture, architecture, gardens, food and nature.
The walking tour itineraries is as follows:
Hou Hai Walking
Hou Hai (pronounced HO-hi) is a manmade lake surrounded by a rambling maze of hutongs, shops, and cafes. Start at the former residence of Madame Soong (46 Hou Hai Beiyan), on the northwest bank, just east of Deshengmennei Dajie. The wife of Dr. Sun Yat-sen (“the father of modern China”),
Avoid the pedicabs and their pesky salesmen, and walk south along the northern edge of the lake to (2) Silver Ingot Bridge (Yinding Qiao). Before crossing the bridge, turn left and then a quick right onto (3) Yan Dai Xie Jie, or Slanted Pipe Lane, an alleyway formerly known for a shop that sold long Chinese pipes. The pipes that are left are souvenirs, but the street—with its wooden pushcarts, snack vendors, and courtyard homes with lacquered red doorways—is still a charming way to reach (4) the Drum Tower (Gulou) on Gulou Dajie.
A nominal admission fee (about $2.50) gives you access to the Drum Tower, and the steep, ancient steps leading to the fabulous view of the lakes at the top. Find your way back to the Silver Ingot Bridget, a white marble bridge that divides Hou Hai from Qian Hai (“front lake”).
Cross the bridge and turn right onto Hou Hai Nanyan, Hou Hai’s willow-shaded southern frontage. Turn left onto Liuyin Jie; your final destination is Number 17 (6) Prince Gong’s Mansion (Gong Wang Fu), the former home for a Qing dynasty emperor, Qianlong, as well as Heshen, his corrupt eunuch. The house and grounds are extensive, although not entirely accessible (Heshen’s pleasure palace is closed off). The pricier admission fee (about $8) includes a performance of opera and acrobatics in the Mansion’s Grand Opera House.
Wangfujing Walking
The Wangfujing area is the closest that Beijing has to a bustling midtown. Start in a quiet place: (1) the beautiful former residence of writer Lao She (19 Fuqiang Hutong), often billed as China’s Charles Dickens (Rickshaw Boy, Lao’s most well-known work, is an epic novel about China’s laboring class). Read about his early years abroad, then view his study and library, left untouched since the day he disappeared, prior to his supposed Cultural Revolution suicide.
Exit the home and walk south on (2) Fuqiang Hutong: note elaborately carved roofs and doors. Turn right onto Dongshikou Xijie, enter Donghua Fandian on the right, and go to the second floor to (3) the Loving Life Massage Center.
“Tui-na” style massage (an acupressure-based massage technique) was often performed by blind people in China. For about $10, you can get a full body massage without any bells or whistles (no candles, no oils, a semi-private room, Chinese pop music blaring). The massage therapists are highly skilled: in addition to their supposedly innate skills, average training is three years.
Continue down Dongshikou Xijie to Wangfujing Dajie, and turn south (right). You’ll see (4) Dong Tang (East Church) on your left, a Gothic cathedral with a park-like entrance. Fire, earthquake, and war put this 17th-century cathedral through multiple incarnations. After your visit, re-cross Wangfujing Dajie and continue south until you reach the massive (5) foreign-language bookstore, worth a stop if you need books.
Continue south three blocks. You will begin to see hawker stalls to your right. Follow the crowds (at any time of day) to (6) Wangfujing Xiao Chi Jie or known as Wangfujing Snack Street(Note: This snack street is already closed since 2016), a clean pedestrian plaza that’s a culinary map of China, from remote Xinjiang to fiery Sichuan to seafood-centric Canton.
Go back out to Wangfujing Dajie, continue south one to two blocks (depending on where you exit), and turn left onto the major thoroughfare, Dongchan’an Jie. To your left you will see (7) Oriental Plaza, a huge indoor mall with foreign (Diesel, Esprit) and Chinese brands. Of particular interest is the basement-level food court: if you’re thirsty, buy a prepaid card ($5-6), then hit the fresh juice bar.
Oriental Plaza is connected to the (8) Grand Hyatt Beijing. Follow the signs and escalators to the lobby of the hotel. The patisserie is worth a visit, if only to gape at the Chinese gongs and urns—made of chocolate. If you’re in the mood for a drink, good options are Red Moon and Made in China, whose wine and sake lists (and accompanying food) are somewhat epic.
Dashanzi 798 Art District Walking
Political, cultural, and economic combustion have created an edgy, fascinating contemporary art scene—in Beijing. The city’s most thorough primer is at Dashanzi 798 Art District, a sprawling neighborhood of Communist-era factories and warehouses converted into art galleries, boutiques, coffee shops, and restaurants. Go to buy, or just to browse.
Ask to be dropped off on Jiuxianqiao Lu, near the Dazhong Electronics Market. Take an overpass across Jiuxianqiao Lu, and walk past the market and nearby Hongyuan Apartment complex. The neighborhood will begin to thin out. (Note: the numbered lanes aren’t necessarily labeled or easy to differentiate. Luckily, there are many business signposts to help you out, and most spots are within two or three blocks.)
Stop in the (1) Long March Space (www.longmarchspace.com) on Jiuxianqiao Lu no. 4, a rambling gallery with multiple rooms and exhibits and a fun sensibility. Exhibitions run the gamut from videos, sculptures, and paintings, to commercial art forms—media, magazines, BMW art cars.
Turn right upon exiting Long March Space, and take another right at the next intersection. Mid-block, on your right, you will see (2) Chinese Contemporary (www.chinesecontemporary.com), up a flight of red stairs. The focus of this small (3,300 square feet) but significant gallery is on established or fresh mainland artists with ardent, often political messages. The roster reads like a greatest-hits list, from avant-garde (Huang Rui) to political pop (Wang Guangyi), performance stuntsmen (Zhu Ming) to iconic realists (Zhang Xiaogang).
Continue to the end of the lane, and you will see (3) Time Zone 8, a bookstore. Order a cappuccino and browse through the art books. “This is 798’s cultural heart,” says Jonathan Haagen, a guide for ArtWALK Beijing (www.artwalkbeijing.com). This deep, well-stocked bookshop—run by longtime Beijing expat and avid collector Robert Bernell—has been around since 798’s auspicious beginnings in 2001: The adjoining café and photo gallery hosts occasional performances and lectures.
Cross Jiuxianqiao no. 4 and turn left. You’ll see a hulking complex to your right: Factory 798. Enter (4) 798 Photo Gallery (www.798photogallery.com). The curators of this gallery are well aware of 798’s purpose as a destination for both tourists and serious collectors; last year, it garnered massive attention for a quiet, riveting exhibit of photographs from the Cultural Revolution.
Just inside the entry of Factory 798 is a small tangle of boutiques. Find floor-length coats and gowns with kitsch Mao-era patchwork at (5) Feng Ling (www.fenglingart.com), or the less dramatic linen blouses and trousers in (6) Ying’s Studio, next door. To your left, go into (7) 798 Space (www.798space.com), one of Dashanzi’s largest galleries, a yawning concrete space with red writing on the walls. Not all Chinese contemporary art is political. “The world vision of the 35-and-under generation is all about economics,” says Karen Smith, author of Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China.
Once you’ve surveyed the exhibit, go up to the mezzanine and relax, or visit the small bookshop toward the back of the gallery, leading to Old Factory Café. Walk out the front door of the café to a narrow lane—a draw for Beijing’s art cognoscenti.
There are two good dining options here: (8) At Café (+86 10 6438-7264) to the left, a wild space of bombed-out brick walls and a small terrace, with great salads. The more spirited choice is (9) Sichuan Restaurant, to the right, where you can take your mind off the vivid images you’ve seen with mala beef stew—literally, “numbing” and “hot.”
