AreaNanluoguxiang, the Lama Temple & the Eastern Hutongs
WANGFUJING STREET · WANGFUJING DAJIE
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VERIFIED2026.09.11Nanluoguxiang, the Lama Temple & the Eastern Hutongs · 39.913°N 116.405°E
No ticketing
Beijing's department-store street since the 1900s and the pedestrian mall every first-timer ends up on: 800-odd metres from Dongdan to Dengshikou lined with the 1955 Beijing Department Store, the Foreign Languages Bookstore, the Oriental Plaza mall at the south end and St Joseph's Church halfway up. It is where you buy a suitcase or a duck at Quanjude, not where you see old Beijing — and the famous 'scorpion-on-a-stick' night market visitors still ask about closed in June 2016; the indoor snack street that followed it shut in 2019. Free, always open, and hutongs start two blocks east.
AdmissionNo ticketingPublic pedestrian street, no ticketing; stores keep their own hours
HoursStreet at all hours (city page); stores ~10:00-22:00 (observed)Verified · 2026-09Source ↗
LandmarkPedestrian section: East Chang'an Avenue north to Dengshikou West Street; the full street runs about 1,600 m, with its north end at the National Art Museum (tourism-bureau page)
EntranceLine 1 / Line 8 Wangfujing station at the south end (Oriental Plaza); Line 5 Dengshikou or Line 8 Jinyu Hutong at the north end
Last verified 2026-09-11
Beat the crowds
Weekend evenings are the crush; weekday mornings before the stores open it is a wide empty avenue. The side lanes east (Shuaifuyuan, Dongdan 3rd Alley) are quiet at any hour.
Language
The Foreign Languages Bookstore (235 Wangfujing St) is the one place in central Beijing to buy English-language books and maps; store staff at the big names speak some English.