Address: Nanluogu Xiang, Xicheng District Bus: 13,118,823,850 and get off at Nanluogu Xiang station
Opening hours: all day
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Nanluogu Xiang, located to the north of the Forbidden City and the east of the axis of Beijing, was built at the same time with the Yuandadu (the Capital of the Yuan Dynasty) and so far has a history of about 800 years. The south end of the Nanluogu Xiang is Di'anmen Dongdajie, while its north end the Gulou Dongdajie (Drum Tower East Street). The lane measures 786 meters in length. It was not wide and the sub-lanes along with the lane were in pairs and facing each other, which still maintain the layout of streets and lanes in the Yuan Dynasty.
Nanluogu Xiang maintains the layout of typical buildings of the Yuan Dynasty, and so, it is called a living fossil of the city buildings of Yuandadu. There are a large number of cultural and historical relics, residences of celebrities, and is, therefore, one of the areas for protecting the old city's images and looks of Beijing City and the buffer area for the Conservation of the old Imperial City. At present, there are 28 units of protection of cultural relics at the national, municipal and district levels, including Keyuan Garden, residence of Wan Rong (the queen of the last Emperor Puyi), residence of Sengge Rinchen, residences of Rong Lu, Hong Chengchou, Kui Jun, etc. Each lane, yard and even a brick or tile are stamped with the signs of history.
Strolling leisurely along every lane of Nanluogu Xiang or gently opening old gates, you can still feel the traces of old Beijingers' life. The difference is that the people's life has changed and been added with more tints of the times. Private cars are parking along the quiet and long lanes. Neon lamp boxes show their shining signs of "Internet surfing". Pedicabs carrying domestic and foreign tourists pass ringing through the lanes. People with different complexions from different countries walk leisurely into pubs and coffee houses in the lanes, which have a heavy accumulation of traditional culture to taste refined hutong culture. All these have contributed to the building of a bar street with the unique Beijing Hutong Culture, and thus shown a beautiful scenery in Nanluogu Xiang with the integration of the oriental and occidental cultures. |
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AROUND
1."Magpie" Restaurant
It has been two years since "Magpie" restaurant started its business. No matter its fa?ade or internal decoration is featured by an out-and-out hutong taste. Coffee + PIZZA + sandwiches are the main attractions to re-visitors. Among all the attractions, the manually-ground coffee is the most famous, and the delicious tuna pasta is the first choice of every new client.
2. "The Role" Cinema
"The Role" is a cinema bar and has a T-shape layout which resembles a stage that implies anyone who enters the bar enters another stage of his life. Against the background of all movie posters, daily necessities are not important any more and only movies are the eternal topics.
3. "Here" Bar
An old-fashioned camera is displayed at the most striking place on a big shelf at "Here" Bar. The camera was used by Mr. Chen Nong, a noted photographer. There is no air-conditioner in the bar, but cooling comes from the natural ventilation and the old-style ceiling fan to relieve summer heat. What is the most attractive in "Here" is the fragrant but cheap coffee.
4. "Salud"
"Salud, which means Bottoms Up in Spanish, is one of the three bars in Beijing that are most culturally enriched and uniquely designed," commented Neighborhood Column of the Asia-Pacific News Channel, TV Singapore.
5. Yubang
Yubang (literally meaning fish's kingdom) is located in a quadrangle complex at the depth of a Beijing hutong of 750-years old. It serves classic British snacks, breakfast, purely Italian pizza and fish series, plus meticulously selected grape wines, beer and cocktails. The best way of enjoying yourself at this bar is to taste wine and food on the simple and exquisite flat roofs at clear and moon-lit nights and quietly kindle your endless meditations over this ancient land.
TIPS:
Creative Fair --- Concept
The Creative Fair is designed to meet the desire of youth in modern cities for an open and multi-variable ecology for artistic creation. It includes the exploration of a space for the presentation of their works and a platform for transactions. The Creative Fair is launched as a place for youth to sell their unlimited creative concepts. Give the Creative Fair an outlet. Let the slogan of "where there is creation there is reward" become a firm belief for all creative sectors.
Creative Fair ---Style
The Creative Fair has broken the regular way of thinking of the public in their appreciation of artistic works and designs. One hundred young artists and designers are engaging in artistic and literary creation with different styles.The whole Fair presents a picture of the fusion and conflict between the multi-elements of art, design, culture and business.
Creative Fair --- Content
The Creative Flea Fair
The creative flea fair, with youth as its principal part (stall vendors) and with a uniform stall arrangement, requires no investment from stall owners. However, all the products on sales in the fair should be fresh, trendy and creative, either alamode or nostalgic for old times, of every day use or seeking leisure and recreational, plane or three-dimensional, physical or video/network products…Any style is welcome, provided that it meets two basic conditions: One is original and the other is of commercial valuable. A participant, challenged by numerous competitors, should strive to produce a truly unique creative design in order to make a breakthrough from the besiegement of other stall owners in the Fair.
Through nearly half a year's selection of stall owners from a sea of competitors nationwide, 100 creative elites were finally singled out as winners who represented different stalls in the Creative Fair and became a large group of outstanding participants at the principal conference of the Guangzhou Design Week (November 27-29, 2006). They competed with about 100 design masters and about 10,000 professional designers the world over and displayed their skills and discussed their achievements and the intent of technical transfer with business leaders, enterprise elites and investors.
Creative workshop
The elite zone, which is designed to improve the professional level and the value for paying visits, also plays the role to encourage youth to display their alternative artistic creation and potentiality. In the zone, which exists by the side of the Fair but remains independent, the sponsor will invite the most prominent masters of artistic creation to exchange their firsthand experience and exhibit their latest original works.
Outstanding on-spot activities
We have all forms of expressions: The creative lecture hall, art bookstore, behavioral art, press conferences on the launch of creative products, show-off design competition, performances of original band, original trend show, theme party, COSPLAY, freehand T-Shirt, hip-hop dance, scrawling show, etc.
