The larger of That’s Mandarin’s two Beijing Chinese language schools is located in Dongzhimen. Dongzhimen is close to the city centre and on subway lines 2 and 13, as well as the Airport Express line, making it a very convenient place from which to get around and explore the city. Dongzhimen is also a central transport hub for buses and has a long-haul bus station with services to various places, including the Badaling Great Wall, as well as destinations outside of Beijing. Like Wudaokou, Dongzhimen is one of Beijing’s main expat areas, yet as it is located close to central Beijing and the embassy area, it is home to a slightly older crowd of professionals and families with children, rather than students. It is also a cleaner and greener area of Beijing, with more parks than you’ll find in Haidian district.
There is a whole wealth of different things to do in and around Dongzhimen for people of all ages. Here are just a few suggestions:
Eating
As a very international part of Beijing, Dongzhimen and its surrounding area offers a selection of food from across the globe, with a greater number of higher end restaurants than you will find in Wudaokou, but also cheap and tasty local food if you look for it. You can get pretty much anything you want here; just be prepared to pay for it!
Around our school itself there are a variety of small eateries offering cheap Chinese fare, as well as a reasonably priced Peking duck restaurant just one minute away. You can also eat in the restaurant of the Golden Pineapple Hostel right across the street, nothing special, but a cheap and convenient option if you need it. If not, there’s always 7-11 to grab something quick!
Not far from our school is one of the most well-known streets for Chinese food in Beijing, “Ghost Street”(鬼街), a 1.5km strip of over 200 Chinese restaurants, and “the only street in Beijing that truly never sleeps”. Cuisine from all over China is on offer here, from Sichuanese food to Peking duck and food from Yunnan, and all at reasonable prices. It’s a great place to take in traditional Chinese atmosphere and looks very beautiful all lit up at night, so it’s definitely worth a visit while you’re in Beijing.
Just a ten minute walk away are the many bars and restaurants of Sanlitun （三里屯）, a popular foreigner hangout and an area offering some of the best nightlife in the capital. There are various good restaurants on the top floor of Sanlitun Village, an ultra modern outdoor mall complex on Gongtibeilu (工体北路). There are burger restaurants, such as Blue Frog and Union Bar and Grill, a good Vietnamese place called Va Va Voom and a restaurant/café called Element Fresh where you can get an assortment of salads, freshly made sandwiches and smoothies. Expect to pay relatively high prices to eat in the Village though, perhaps not if you compare them to what you are used to at home, but certainly in comparison to most of the other food on offer in Beijing. There is also a nice Italian restaurant called La Pizza on Sanlitun Bar Street near to Red Club, which may not look like much from the outside, but offers authentic Italian pizza, albeit at similarly high prices.
If you enjoy cooking and want to get a taste of home from time to time, the international store, April Gourmet is just a couple of minutes away from our school. It is admittedly not the cheapest option for grocery shopping, but stocks a whole range of international food, so it’s perfect if you want to cook something special or just buy that chocolate bar that you have been craving.
Drinking
If you’re on a budget, then your best bet is to go to one of the small bars on Sanlitun Bar Street, such as Smugglers, where Tsingdao beer and various mixers are only 10 kuai each. In Beijing, this, of course, means that they are serving fake alcohol, so if you would like to get up the next day without a banging headache after only a few drinks, then perhaps try to avoid drinking too much here!
There are also a whole array of clubs in this area, many of which have no entrance free and offer cheap drinks. Try Bar Blu or Red Club on Sanlitun Bar Street or perhaps Mix or Vics, located on either side of the entrance to the Workers’ Stadium. There is something to suit everyone’s taste in music, whether it be R&B, hip hop, rock, electro, dance or pop, you just have to go and look for it. Definitely a far better place to go out than Wudaokou!
Dongzhimen is also quite close to Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷), a traditional Chinese hutong (胡同 small lane or alley which originate back to the Yuan dynasty, 1271-1368), which has recently been renovated and is now home to many small bars, cafés, restaurants and shops. Expect to pay a bit more for food and drinks down this alley, so you might be better off having a wander around and eating in a restaurant in one of the many other lanes close by, before heading to Nanluoguxiang to check out the bars. One very popular bar is Salud, a little larger than many of the other bars and with more reasonably priced drinks, although you might find it difficult to find somewhere to sit at the weekend. Many of the bars also have live music, so there’s something for everyone here. Not ideal if you want a big night out as there are no clubs here, but not far from Sanlitun, so you can always start off here and then move over to Sanlitun later in the night.
For live music, try Yugong Yishan, located on subway line 5 near Zhangzizhonglu station, one of Beijing’s best live music venues, hosting a wide variety of different performances every week.
Other
The Dongzhimen area has many other things to offer besides its restaurants and bars. There are various different parks in the area, the best of which is Chaoyang Park, the largest park in Beijing. This park not only has lakes, grassy areas, flower gardens and the usual things you would expect to find in a park, but even has its own fairground with a rollercoaster. You could also try out Tuanjiehu park, which has a outdoor swimming pool and artificial beach for the summer!
If you want to go shopping, you could try Sanlitun Village for more expensive, brand shops or Yashow market next to the Village, where you can haggle for your clothes (make sure you do though, because they often give you very high prices!) It’s a little further away, but you could also check out the Silk Market at Yonganli (Subway line 1) for better bargains.
Dongzhimen is also not far from many of the other popular tourist attractions in the city, such as the Yonghegong Lama Temple, just a few stops away on Line 2. The acrobatics show at Chaoyang Theater is also pretty impressive the first time you see it!
