qianmen market street

NileGuide Expert tip:

Try the side-streets for bargain shopping

Description:

• Qianmen Market Street is a great place to go to snap a few pictures of what Qianmen Market Street apparently used to look like. Recreated prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this used to be a pleasant but simple shopping lane. Today, it is a bit overdone and gaudy, but if you cut into the side streets and walk around behind the main buildings you'll find great bargain shopping, amazing tea shops and affordable trinkets and souvenirs. The side roads used to be dirt, not five years ago. Today everything is cleaned up and a bit more refined, but sometimes the quaintness of the old way is missed.
  
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