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A Walking Tour of Beijing - The Eastern Route

1. Golden River Bridge (Jinshui Qiao)
2. Women of the Forbidden City
3. Donghuamen Night Snack Street
4. Wangfujing Street

If you are looking for a late-afternoon ramble, a good starting point awaits outside the Tian’anmen Subway station. Walk over Golden River Bridge (Jinshui Qiao), overlooked by a portrait of Chairman Mao on the Rostrum. Walk straight through the Rostrum’s passageway and head north. If you have already visited the Forbidden City and do not wish repeat the experience, turn east and exit through the red gate. You will immediately see the city moat and the Forbidden City’s famous Corner Tower, which is made entirely with a single nail or screw. It is held together ingeniously by wooden pegs and superb mortice-and-tenon joints.

Follow the route of the city moat until you reach the Donghuamen gate of the Forbidden City. A little to the east is Donghuamen Snack Street, where you can find virtually any snack ever created. There is: Yang rou chuan (skewered mutton cubes) all year round, while the winter special is tang hu lu (sugar-coated fruits on a stick).

Famous Beijing snacks include guan chang (deep-fried starch cake flavoured with garlic), bao du (boiled stomach pieces), jiao quan (deep-fried balls of dough), chaogan (braised intestines and chaliver), lu zhu huo shao (baked Chinese pancake with intestines, lung and deep-fried tofu or doufu) and cha or porridge.

Many snacks from other parts of the country can also be found here.

After eating, turn right and head for the “golden mile” of Wangfujing, Beijing’s premier shopping street where magnificent department stores and cosy shops offer a huge choice of goods. You will find Sun Dong An Plaza, Beijing Department Store, Wangfujing Book Store and the Oriental Plaza.