Qianmen & Dashilan

The area immediately south of Tian'anmen Gate has served as Beijing's main commercial district since the Ming dynasty, when the city plan pushed markets and theatres outside the Imperial City walls. Qianmen — the Front Gate, formally Zhengyangmen — marked the southern boundary of the imperial precinct; the streets beyond became the city's most active trading area, with guild halls, pharmacies, silk merchants, and entertainment venues clustered along Dashilar and the parallel lanes.

Much of this fabric survived into the 20th century, though the area suffered damage during the Boxer Rebellion and was later subject to repeated redevelopment campaigns. The current Dashilar pedestrian zone is a reconstruction completed in 2008, built in a stylised Qing aesthetic that has been compared, not always charitably, to a film set. The underlying street pattern is partially historic, but most of the architecture is new.

Despite this, several genuinely old businesses survive. Tongrentang pharmacy, founded in 1669, operates a large shop here; it remains an active dispensary for traditional Chinese medicine rather than a museum. Neiliansheng, a shoe shop founded in 1853, still makes cloth shoes to traditional patterns. These businesses, among a handful of others, give the area some claim to historical continuity.

Liulichang, a five-minute walk west, is more directly aimed at collectors: two parallel lanes of shops selling antiques, calligraphy materials, and art books. The quality ranges widely; specialist knowledge helps. The lane architecture here is consistently Qing-style reconstruction, but the bookshops in particular are worth time.