Wangfujing Street is one of the most shopping area, not only in Beijing but all over China.
Wangfujing, literally means " prince residence well ". In Ming Dynasty, there were 10 princes lived in this place, hence the name was 'Wangfu Street' , later in Qing Dynasty, a sweet water well was dug in this area and changed the street name to Wangfujing Street and kept the name until this present time.
This place is anchored with numerous shopping malls, from branded to brandless, name it all, Wangfujing has it all. It is a paradise for shoppers, it is filled with traditional Chineses arts and crafts and paintings, trendy boutiques and foodchains from Mc Donalds to peking duck restaurants.
The street comes alive in the late afternoon until evening. Dozens of food stalls were open and your stomach will growl. They sell everything, from fried scorpion, snake kebab, grasshopper to fried squid to less exotic food, chicken, pork, beef, dumplings, siomai, noodles, fruit, and congees.
We visited Wangfujing Street at night, according to our guide the place was most alive in the evening and we must try the local and exotic food here. As soon as our tour guide finished his instructions, my brother and I, went ahead to find a washroom because I really needed to pee. We went from right to left, fortunately we saw Mc Donalds and whoa! the washroom room was untidy and smelly. I don't have a choice but to used it. In anyways, it helped me to be comfartable scrolling around the area. After our peeing session, we walk around the area and the street were pretty busy. There's a lot of shopping malls from expensive to the cheapest items. The place was extremely crowded. We enter into one door to another. We hunt for items that we can use during our trip and some souvenirs.
In west part of the street, you can bustle around the different food market stalls. You can taste and smell the spices of the fried scorpion,fried grasshopper, huge squid, sweetened fruits and the smoke of a chicken-pork-beef barbeque. If your tastebuds are challenged and your stomach can absorb the baby scorpion, you can try eating them alive. I want to try the alive baby scorpions but I am worried that my stomach might grumble, so we opted that idea and went to grilled squid, the price was 25 YUAN/stick. The taste of it was fine, but it was salty.
My brother who was looking for a souvenir for himself, bought a clock necklace with a price of 35 YUAN. The vendor was friendly, so I told him if we could have a picture together as my remembrance. The only thing, I forgot was to ask his name. HAHAHA!
The street was full, from local vendors to foreigners, from shopaholics to food addict. We have also witnessed a Chinese couple singing on the street asking for a penny. We are able to stretch our budget because you can bid the price of an item, just tell them your price and be ready to type it in a calculator. You have to learn the art of bargaining until the vendor gives up.
TIP: As always, since the place was jumpacked, you have to be careful with your valuables. You may not know what will happen next. Never ever leave your bag open and always keep your cellphone on your bag. And count your change when your buying an item before you leave.
And if your stomach is weak. Its better not to try any of the exotic food in the stall. You might end up having a diarrhea. And one thing, the food sanitation was poor. Seriously, before we decided to buy a stick of grilled squid, we shop for a clean stall but none of them met our standard. Its just happen that we saw a foodstall that's quite tidy.
Wangfujing Street is still a must-visit area when you're in Beijing and a must-taste food night market for a little bit of local experience.
