5Days Treat in Beijing

Set off on a guided culinary tour along Guijie Street, also known as Ghost Street, one of Beijing’s most popular food districts. While now famous as a hub for street food stalls and restaurants, Ghost Street was once the home of Beijing’s funerary industry and crematoriums, adjacent to the only city gate through which corpses could be transported. With a lively nocturnal atmosphere and endless lines of dimly-lit food stalls, the aura around Ghost Street still maintains a certain spooky charm. If you ask Beijingers where to eat in summer nights, most of them would give the same answer: Guijie! Located at the northeastern side of the Forbidden city, “Ghost Street” stretches 1,442 meters from Dongzhimen cloverleaf junction in the east, to Jiaodaokou East Street in the west, and its structure is like a dumbbell—bigger both ends and smaller in the middle. With a sea of red lanterns hanging over the street, “Ghost Street” hosts over a hundred restaurants, becoming one of the most unique streets in Beijing. There are many stories about the origin of the name Guijie. One version says the name is derived from Beijing’s old “Ghost Fairs”, where traders sold groceries, vegetables and fruit through night. The lights that these vendors used formed a ghostly effect, therefore earning the name “Ghost.” Later, the Commerce Commission changed the Chinese characters of “Ghost” (鬼) into “Gui” (簋). While the pronunciation remains the same, the meanings are completely different. Gui refers to a round- mouthed food vessel with two or four loop handles used in ancient China, and this name further emphasizes the characters of this food street.