East of the Forbidden City, how to play in 12 hours
10:00 Looking for elements of national fashion on Qianmen Street
12:30 Beijing-flavored fresh fish
14:00 Royal afternoon tea under the walls of the Forbidden City
16:00 Longfu Temple, the earliest hipster gathering place in Beijing
21:00 Hipster nightlife on Gulou East Street
23:00 The old alley and the new living method, living in a courtyard house in Nanluoguxiang
To the east of the Forbidden City, our national tide life
Speaking of the east of the Forbidden City, where do you think of?
Drum Tower, Houhai, Nanluoguxiang?
MAO, DADA, Yugong Yishan? (livehouse in Beijing)
Stir-fried liver, shabu-shabu, fried noodles?
The above are all my memories with this piece, where I have both my childhood and my youth. If, let me tell you the story here, it may not be finished in three days and three nights.
My family lives inside the second ring road
This is the place where I was born. When I was young, our family lived in the gray brick building on the former site of Duan Qirui’s executive government. My childhood memories are really vague. I only realized that I lived in an ancient building when I looked at old photos. The people in the building later moved out from that building in order to protect the ancient building. Returning to the compound on the Second Ring Road again, although the old neighbors are no longer familiar, the old Beijingers are old-fashioned and warm-hearted. Seeing the old photos here, I will still come over to strike up a conversation with you. I met a retired old man who told me about the history of this old building with great enthusiasm. This section of the compound where the former Qirui Administration was located was the site of the earliest Renmin University, which was later moved to Zhongguancun, and it became the family compound of Renmin University. The changes in the courtyard over the past 20 years are not too big, and I can still remember running wildly in the courtyard when I was a child. Now there is a bar and a music classroom in the compound, and next to it is a famous LiveHoues in Beijing——Yugong Yishan. Now when the word "Duan Qirui" is mentioned to peers, everyone will tacitly ask "Is there any performance today?" This has probably become a favorite place for Beijing literary and artistic youth to check in.
12-hour Beijing girl takes you to experience the culture of the East of the Forbidden City
10:00 Study fashion Beijing opera, study traditional Chinese medicine and natural history
When visiting Beijing, the starting point starts from the front door in the middle of Beijing, that's right. Qianmen Street should be a place where everyone who comes to Beijing will come to check in, but if you pass by in a hurry, you may overlook the trendiest and most in-game games hidden in this street. Then next, I, an authentic Beijing girl, will take you to dig out all the trendy places hidden deep in this street!
Walking past the Xinghua Garden Bathing Pool, there is a small carved building at the intersection of Xianyukou. Come here to listen to a play, which is very trendy nowadays. After all, many fashion blockbusters are also shot in this theater. When international superstars come to Beijing to experience Beijing culture, they also come here. Listen to Beijing opera. Listening to an improved Peking Opera excerpt here is like watching a concert. There is also a stage in the theater building, where you can change into costumes by yourself and enjoy yourself on the stage.
In addition to listening to operas, the theater building is originally a place for online celebrities to check in. All kinds of national trendy sets are blockbusters. There are also many Chinese designer brand clothing here, and even the national fashion clothes of the international fashion week. Here, it is the most popular interactive experience nowadays just to see where it is enjoyable, and to change into the clothes of the International Fashion Week for a walk. From time to time, there will be various intangible cultural heritage teaching activities, and this almost forgotten old theater is "live" again.
There was a medicine shop on Qianmen Street called Guangyuyuan, and at the beginning of the first semester, he couldn't remember who Guangyuyuan was, but he kept on talking about it, and suddenly the words "Dingkundan" popped out. After asking people from my mother's generation, I found out that Guangyuyuan is actually an older pharmacy than Tongrentang across the street. And "Dingkun Dan" and "Gui Ling Ji" are the signature pills of this old pharmacy that have been passed down for a hundred years. The current time-honored brand is not only for selling goods, but also for spreading culture. It goes up to the Guangyuyuan Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum on the third floor of the pharmacy, recording the historical changes of this pharmacy. There is also a Chinese herbal medicine showroom opposite. Many specimens of Chinese herbal medicine.
12:30 Take a look at the fresh fish mouth, and the national trendy food is also fashionable
Going east along Qianmen Street is an alley called "Xianyukou". The reputation of this alley is earlier than that of "Dashilan" on the opposite side. Because the canal in the old Beijing city used to pass here, and the street was directly connected to the Water Transport Wharf. This is a street that sells fresh fish, as the name says: Fresh Fish Kou. At that time, there were time-honored brands one after another on the entire street, and many ruins of time-honored brands can still be seen today. After the restoration, Xianyukou is still a time-honored gourmet street. The dandan noodles of Lili restaurant, various old Beijing snacks of Jinfang, fried liver buns of Tianxingju, siu mai of Dujia, the food of old Beijing, You can eat enough on this street.
14:00 Royal afternoon tea under the walls of the Forbidden City
The Dongyuan Theater Building next to Donghua Gate is probably the only place where you can enjoy the golden tiles and red walls of the Forbidden City on the roof of the Forbidden City. The Changpuhe Park, where the Dongyuan Theater Building looks at the Forbidden City, was historically part of the "Dongyuan". Dongyuan was originally a royal garden built by Ming Chengzu Zhu Di in the early Ming Dynasty. It is a royal garden for the royal family to "shoot the ball and shoot the willows" and entertain foreign envoys. After experiencing history and wind and rain, most of the historical buildings have been destroyed. Dongyuan Theater Building is a large house covering an area of 2,000 square meters rebuilt on this historical site following the specifications of traditional courtyard houses. The jujube trees in the courtyard of the theater are all over a hundred years old.
After afternoon tea, riding a bicycle from Donghuamen is also very pleasant. Shuttle along the moat on the tree-lined Nanchizi Street, and ride a few blocks from Donghuamen to Wangfujing. From Wangfujing, you can directly take the subway line 5 to Beijing's oldest hipster Gathering place - Longfu Temple. The old Beijing city, whether it is big or small, all the essence is concentrated in this square inch.
16:00 Longfu Temple, the earliest hipster gathering place in Beijing
Speaking of Longfu Temple, most people may not know that this is the birthplace of leading trends in Beijing. Its fashion status back then was equivalent to that of Sanlitun today. The trendy people in the 90s should still remember that if you want to find trendy brands and top-notch goods, you have to go to Longfu Temple. Longfu Temple can be regarded as the earliest gathering place for trendy people in Beijing.
The current Longfu Temple still attracts trendy people from all walks of life. Even the Cannes XR 360VR Film Festival, which landed in China for the first time this year, was chosen on the 9th floor terrace of the Longfu Temple Building. This is not a simple ordinary terrace. It can be said that the courtyard house in old Beijing has been moved to the sky. Now it can be said to be the most representative building of Longfu Temple. To the east, you can overlook the Guomao CBD, and to the west, you can see the sunset of Beijing City.
Longfu Temple is now the first choice for events in the hipster circle in Beijing. During summer nights on the weekends of August, the National Tide Book Fair, Cloud Queuing, and Cannes XR Film Festival are held one after another. When it comes to the book market, the first reaction of Beijingers is the Ditan Book Market, and the Guochao Book Market in Longfu Temple is quite different from the traditional book market. Literary books, wet plate photo studios, retro stationery, food, play, etc. What to wear, what you want.
The sky courtyard on the top floor of the Longfu Temple Building was originally a place where Beijing hipsters like to check in. Coupled with various activities from time to time, people will immediately think of this sky courtyard when mentioning Longfu Temple. On the first weekend of August, just in time for a "Party in the Cloud", accompanied by the sunset, psychedelic electronic music and recitations by old artists, sitting on the big lawn in the sky, listening to cross-border mix and match music, Dancing under the red wall.
Recommended event in August: Cannes XR Film Festival
21:00 Trendy nightlife on Gulou East Street
The night at the Drum Tower made many literary and artistic youth fall in love with Beijing instantly. Here not only has the strongest authentic Beijing flavor, but also the most international cultural gathering. Who hasn't had literature and art in their youth? The song "Bell and Drum Tower" by He Yong brought back so many memories. In Beijing, which is changing, every small alley has its own story, and our youth remains here.
I still remember the Live House on Gulou East Street—on the day of Mao’s last performance, loyal fans from all over Beijing probably came to bid farewell to it. Everyone drank together and took photos with the big rusty iron gate together. The online celebrity film store in the alley of Cherendian was about to move, and everyone came to help with a message. On the last day of the tavern's opening, everyone drank beer in the open air and imagined the future......
Times have changed, but the nightlife in Gulou still belongs to Beijing youth. In the evening, go to Yaoji Fried Liver to play fried liver, served with two liang of steamed buns, and after a full meal, wander around the square between the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower. Sitting on the stone platform beside the roadside of the Bell and Drum Tower Square with the old man walking around, watching the active residents in the square, quietly appreciating the various life styles of the people in the lower city.
At nine or ten o'clock in the evening on weekends, you will find all kinds of handsome men and women in fashionable and cool clothes flocking to a place called "Gulou Garden". Once I took a taxi, the taxi driver finally couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked, "What is this place for? Is there any activity?" That's right, there is such a place on Gulou East Street. On weekends, it becomes a meeting point for young artists and fashionistas. Every weekend, the DADA bar and Temple in the Gulou Garden will have various performances, suppressing the tension of the week, come here to vent, drink and dance, carefree.
23:00 The old alley and the new living method, living in a courtyard house in Nanluoguxiang
After playing for a whole day, Beijing's alternative trendy new way of playing is coming to an end. But the main event at the end must be left at the end. To say that staying in a five-star hotel is not an alternative experience. But living in a courtyard house in an alley is the most popular choice now. In the hutongs of Nanluoguxiang, there are many literary and artistic homestays that integrate modern design elements and old Beijing courtyards. These places also have their own stories. The owners of many stores here are also staying because they like Hutongs. It can be said that they try the most fashionable people in Hutongs. The old courtyard house has been designed into a boutique B&B where you can make a fashion blockbuster with just one shot.
Well, Jing Niu is tired after playing all day, so she has to take a hot bath in the courtyard bathroom with a patio and rest. The tradition and fashion of this old Beijing Forty-Nine City are still blending together, and I can be regarded as a generation that has witnessed the slow changes here and grew up together. The past time has become a memory, and the story under the red wall is not yet finished.
