Well, some of the foods listed here may originally from other regions of China instead of Beijing, but their popularity among tourists and local people and their authenticity made them deserve a spot in my top list here.

Beijing is one of the most frequented travel destinations in the world. Millions of visitors are flocking into the city every year. It is so popular among travelers mainly because it is the capital city for both ancient and modern China for more than 2000 years which inherited an unbeatable richness in historical features that wow travelers from not only Asia but all over the world.

However, UNESCO World Heritage sites are not the only attractions in Beijing. Beijing has also one of the widest varieties of light foods or snacks on offer which often been overlooked by tourists. If you are visiting Beijing in a packaged tour, you will probably miss out on many of those good foods since your tour guide will not bring you to those alleys or stalls that far away from the hot tourists spots. I was lucky to have more time on my self guided tour to Beijing that I was able to walk more and found more great authentic Chinese foods around the city.

Here are some of the top local foods I would recommend to those foreign travelers should try in Beijing (I had actually tried more foods than these but only those I think are good deserved my recommendation):

1. Beijing Roast Duck – Perhaps the most well known local dish of Beijing, Beijing Roast Duck is the ‘must-try’ delicacy for those coming to Beijing. However, there are too many restaurants selling it everywhere in Beijing, so choosing the best can be a headache. Quality of Beijing roast duck is all about the taste of the duck itself and the crispiness of its skins that being sliced to serve separately. I’ve tried a couple on my Beijing travel recently. Quanjude is the most famous restaurants chain selling roast ducks. They have many branches in Beijing. They even sell them as vacuum packed roast ducks in supermarket! The other equally popular restaurant chain in Beijing is Bianyifang which is slightly cheaper at around RMB200 per whole duck and they claimed to be the oldest. Both restaurant serve slightly different taste of Beijing Roast Duck but they are equally great and they are the best roast duck that I’ve ever eaten (I’m not really craving for duck meats but I do eat quite a lot of them everywhere.)
   
2. Candied Hawthorn – Or being called BingTangHuLu (冰糖葫芦) in mandarin, candied hawtorn is really popular among locals and tourists in Beijing. It is traditionally a stick of Chinese Hawthorn fruits wrapped with candied , though you can find other fruits are being sold as an alternative. The most important ingredient to me is the hawthorn. The quality of hawthorns justify the quality of the Bingtanghulu, which is why the same food I tried in Shanghai didn’t taste as good! It should cost around RMB2 to RMB4 per stick which is cheap!
   
3. Deep Fried insects – Have you ever seen live insects being sticked but still crawling? You can see them in action when you pass by Wangfujing Snack Street or other marketplaces in Beijing. These sticks of various live insects are displayed in front of their store. You ought to choose any of them and the vendors will deep fry them for you! Want to try? It costs RMB5 per stick (RMB25 for scorpions). You can also find them in DongHuaMen Night Food Market.
   
4. Goubuli buns – Tianjin Goubuli (狗不理) buns is arguably the most famous juicy pork meat stuffed buns you can find in Tianjin. Now you can try them in Beijing too! Served in a steam tray portion of 9 buns and cost RMB45 that comes with a bowl of plain porridge, it was the most expensive buns I’ve ever tried in Beijng, albeit they are really tasty. Goubuli buns restaurant that I went to is located at Wangfujing street opposite the Quanjude Beijing rost duck restaurant. You can choose other cold salads as appertizer as well.
   
5. Roasted local nuts – Wang Lao Tou is arguably the best shop selling all sorts of roasted nuts including chestnuts, almond, hazelnuts, flower seeds and others. A lesser known shop to foreigners located along Tiantan East Road, this more than 100 year old little shop is always packed with patrons coming from all parts of Beijing. According to its owner, Wanglaotou used to be the exclusive nuts roaster for the ancient Chinese imperial family! I’ve tried the chestnuts and almonds and they taste marvelous! Their roasted chestnuts are as good as, if not better than, the Qiulixiang Chestnuts, which is next.
   
6. Qiulixiang Chinese chestnut – Qiulixiang chestnut shop is the most celebrated little shop selling only Chinese chestnuts in Beijing. Located at the Southern end of Nan Lou Gu Xiang Road, you will always see long line of people queuing up for the chestnut. Selling for RMB15 per 500g, they are definitely not the cheapest chestnuts you can find in Beijing, but they are among the best. I still personally think Lilixiang of Suzhou is slightly better, cleaner shells and sweeter.
   
7. Yao Ji Chao Gan Dian – Yaoji Chaogan restaurant is especially famous among local Chinese since 30 years ago. Even the US vice president Joe Biden stopped by for a meal here. Chaogan, or stir-fried liver (炒肝), is the signature food over here, which is a bowl of pork liver and intestines is served in a mushroom broth thickened with mung bean starch, and topped with crushed raw garlic. Yaoji was by far the best snack restaurant that I’ve been to in Beijing. They serve great local foods that you can try them all at one place. Normally the restaurant is packed with local people who came from other parts of the city and other regions. It is located at the corner shop, Gulou Dong Dajie, Dongcheng district which is at the East side of Drum Tower. Definitely worth paying a visit!
   
8. Luzhuhuoshao and Ludagun – Luzhuhuoshao (卤煮火烧) is pot stewed pig’s intestine with baked wheat cakes. There’re three liangs of pig’s intestine and two liangs of pig’s lung in it. It’s a little bit salty and hot. You can try it in Yaoji restaurant also which tastes good, if you like animal insides. Ludagun (驴打滚) or Rolling Donkey is a kind of cake made of bean-flour and is a famous Islamic snack in Beijing. It is made from steamed glutinous millet or sticky rice, scattered with fried bean-flour and filled with red pea. Both you can try it in Yaoji Restaurant.
   
9. Spring rolls, fried stuffed Intestine and Fried Rings – Another 3 popular snacks that you can try in Yaoji Chaogan restaurant. Prices are RMB8, RMB 5and RMB1.50 respectively, which I think is reasonable.
   
10. Zhajiangmian – Fried sauce noodle, or Zhajiang Mian (炸酱面) in Mandarin, is a famous local food available in various regions in Northern China. We tried the Beijing variant when we visited the city last month. It is basically a bowl of thick local made noodle served with dark soy sauce mixed and fried with pork cubes. It is so famous in Beijing that you can find one shop or stall selling them at almost each and every corner of shops. It’s worth every visitor to Beijing a try.
    
11. Dao Xiao Mian - dao xiao mian (刀削面) or Knife Shaved Noodle is another famous type of noodle that one can find in Beijing. Different from other types of noodle that made by rolling and cutting by mainly machines, DaoXiaoMian are made by hand shaving off thin slices of a ball of dough by knife, and as such, none is identical, and they have a nice, chewy texture. You can find it in many local restaurants and they normally served in soup.
    
12. Wangfujing Snacks Streets – Wangfujing Snacks Streets is a tourist populated snack street located along the Wangfujing Shopping Street in Beijing DongCheng area. The entrance gate is beautifully crafted and built to resemble the ancient Chinese architecture. Combining 5 alleys together selling foods and souvenirs, tourists can find most of the local Beijing foods and snacks at one single place, albeit they are not necessarily authentic and tasting good. It should not have been included here but it at least give you a rough idea on how those foods are like.
    
13. Donghuamen Night Foods Market – Donghuamen Night Food Market is another food market in Wangfujing area located along DongAnMen Dajie on the West of Wangfujing street. There are nearly hundred food stalls lining up in a row selling only foods and drinks and you can have more varieties here than in Wangfujing Snack Street which is not too far away. Its opening hours is strictly from 6PM until 10PM at night. After which the local authority will come to block the street and start cleaning and washing up the place. The price is not the cheapest you can get but if you are lucky, you can grab last minute deal in half price or more when they are closing at 10PM. Visiting this place is not purely for good food but to experience the “Eat as you go” fun!
    

That’s all the top foods that I think is worth to try when you are visiting Beijing. Make sure you walk more and off the beaten track on your travel and you will discover more unexpected but greater foods than those appear in front of the famous tourist spots that are normally pricey and don’t taste as good. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Asia

Fried sauce noodle, or Zhajiang Mian (炸酱面) in Mandarin, is a famous local food available in various regions in Northern China. We tried the Beijing variant when we visited the city last month. It is basically a bowl of thick local made noodle served with dark soy sauce mixed and fried with pork cubes. It is so famous in Beijing that you can find one shop or stall selling them at almost each and every corner of shops. It’s worth every visitor to Beijing a try.

There are too many local or regional foods to try in Beijing. I had a really great time spending days and nights searching and tasting many of them on my Beijing travel recently apart from visiting some of the top places to visit in Beijing. I have listed out the top 10 places to visit in Beijing and am going to list some of the great local foods out here in my upcoming post in this travel blog so whoever plan to visit Beijing could use it as a little food guide. So watch this space guys! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Europe

Still flaming hot out of the oven, I love to share here my top 10 places to visit in Beijing, just days after I came back from Beijing! What made me so tempting to do it so fast is because of Beijing’s richness and uniqueness in historical and cultural attractions that made me fell for them so fast! I may have spent 2 to 3 days each to see most of the tourist attractions in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Suzhou 3 years ago, but not for Beijing! I actually spent 7 days in the capital and still haven’t got enough! I hoped I had another 7 days! There are so much more to experience as an avid traveler in Beijing!

Yes. Beijing is such a huge city. Not only it’s the second largest city in China after Shanghai, it was also the seat for more than 20 emperors of ancient China who lived in the city from Yuan, Ming to Qing dynasty from 13th to 20th century, or more than 500 years! In fact, well before that, it was also the capital city for State of Yan during ancient Chinese warring era 200o years ago and then served as an important prefecture during Qin, Han and Tang Dynasty, the first 3 notable dynasties of the united ancient China in between 1st to 10th century. Beijing was also the only capital to have witnessed both the fall of the ancient China and the rise of the current People Republic of China (P.R.C).

Besides these rich and complicated historical background, Beijing is also served as the cultural, political and educational centre of P.R.C today. All these characteristics have made Beijing a tremendous travel destination for any traveler to visit in China, and I’ve just visited Beijing last week!

There are too many places to visit in Beijing in 7 days for me, but I have at least visited some of the most significant sites in and around the capital. Here are the top 10 travel sites that I think without seeing them in person, no travel to Beijing would be complete. Here they are:

1. 
   Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square (simplified Chinese: 天安门广场) is the 3rd largest city square in the world, measuring 440,00m2 in area. It sits direct in front of Tiananmen gate which separates the large square from the Forbidden city in the middle of Beijing city centre. There is a flag raising and lowering ceremony at dawn and dusk at the north end of the square facing the gate which attracts numbers of tourists everyday. Tiananmen Square is a highly frequented landmark in Beijing for both local and foreign visitors due to its political significance in ancient China as well as modern China with many important events happened here before. Perhaps the most remembered incidence among all was the pro-democracy movement on 4 June 1989 which involved thousands of students, troops of Chinese armies and the death of hundreds of protesters. Visitors to The Palace Museum must go through the Tiananmen Gate where a giant portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong is hung. A photo shot to the gate and its warden in front is a must.
2. 
   The Forbidden City. The Forbidden City (Chinese:紫禁城) was the Chinese imperial palace since 15th century from the Yongle Emperor of Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. The Forbidden City, also known as the Gugong (Chinese: 故宫) now, is the largest palace complex in the world covering an area of over 178 acres. It is where the Palace Museum is. Visitors will need at least half a day to briefly explore by strolling those accessible courtyards, various political and residential buildings, and the imperial garden within the almost 1km² rectangular city wall. The Forbidden City got its name from the fact that no one could enter or leave the palace compound without the emperor’s permission, so the Forbidden City was truly a city by its own. Visiting the Gugong is also for its brilliant architecture and the ancient structural engineering excellence. Once exit from the North Gate, you can climb up the Jingshan hill to have a great overall view of the Forbidden City.
3. 
   Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven  (simplified Chinese: 天坛; Tiāntán) was a Taoist buildings complex constructed in 15th century by the Yongle Emperor of Ming Dynasty. The main structure within the park is The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿). It was then used by the following emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasty to hold the annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. The complex covers a huge area of 2.73km² which comprises various buildings and recreational parks, with the intention of the emperor to have it larger than the Forbidden City since the Temple of Heaven is the residence for the heavenly gods while Forbidden City is for the son of the heaven (Chinese: 天子; tianzi). It is located 3km south of the Forbidden City and is easily accessible by Line 5 of Beijing Subway, 5 stops from Tiananmen Gate. After visiting the Temple of Heaven, you may as well try the famous Beijing Roast Duck dish at Bianyifang restaurant along Tiantandong street.
4. 
   Summer Palace. As its name suggests, Summer Palace (simplified Chinese: 颐和园; Yíhé Yuán) was the resort palace for the emperors and empresses of Qing Dynasty during summer. The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), who started the idea and commissioned the construction work of this imperial gardens since 1749. The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake, covering an area of 2.9 km², three quarters of which is water. The central Kunming Lake was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. The general layout of this imperial garden is believed to have been copied from what found in West Lake of Hangzhou, where the Qianlong Emperor fell in love and visited number of times. A number of various palaces, gardens, and other imperial style architectural structures were constructed in the garden, which also included reproduction of other towers and pagodas found in various parts of ancient China. If you have been to West Lake of Hangzhou, you will find identical structures, bridges, landscaping and lakes in Summer Palace. The prominent building in the garden is the Tower of Buddhist Incense (Fo Xiang Ge).
5. 
   Badaling Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China (simplified Chinese: 万里长城; Ten Thousand Mile Long Wall) is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups since the 5th century BC through the 16th century. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The majority of the existing wall was built during the Ming Dynasty. The Great Wall stretches 8,851.8 km (5,500.3 mi) from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west. The first section of Great Wall that being heavily renovated and opened for public visit is Badaling section, which is also the most accessible stretch of Great Wall from Beijing, with frequent express bus service (No.877, formerly No.919) running to and from Beijing Deshenmen bus station.
6. 
   Hutong. In Beijing only, hutongs (simplified Chinese: 胡同) are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighborhoods in ancient China. Today, many hutongs had given way for new development of modern Beijing, but some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history. One of the most frequented hutong area among tourists is NanLuoGuXiang (simplified Chinese: 南锣鼓巷) where you are find various shops and restaurants. Not far from there is the nightlife district of Houhai as well as Drum Tower.
7. 
   Bird’s Nest. Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest (simplified Chinese: 鸟巢), is the stadium designed and used for the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The stadium was designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in April 2003 after a bidding process that included 13 final submissions. The design, which implemented steel beams in order to hide supports for the retractable roof, gives the stadium the appearance of a “Bird’s nest”. Leading Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was the artistic consultant on the project. Located in the Olympic Green, other outstanding architectures within the park include the ”Water Cube” (水立方) swimming complex and National Indoor Stadium. You will need to take a cab or bus there at the time of writing as Beijing Subway Line 8 has ceased operation for renovation until further notice.
8. 
   Yonghegong Lama Temple. The Yonghe Temple (Chinese: 雍和宮) , also known as the “Lama Temple”, is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism located in the northeastern part of Beijing, which is easily accessible by Subway Line 5. It is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world, constructed in 17th century during the Qing Dynasty. It originally served as the court of the Prince Yong (Yin Zhen), who turned to become the Yongzheng Emperor. After Yongzheng’s ascension to the throne in 1722, the building was converted into a lamasery, a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism. After Yongzheng’s death in 1735, his coffin was placed in the temple. Subsequently, the Yonghe Lamasery became the national centre of Lama administration. The temple was constructed in similar design and layout as other imperial palaces with courtyards and various buildings serving different purposes. The prominent features of the Lama temple include the 18 Buddha luóhàn (Chinese: 羅漢) statues and the 26m tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha (Chinese: 彌勒菩薩; Mílè Púsa) carved from a single piece of White Sandalwood. The statue is  included in the Guinness Book of Records in 1993. Not far from the temple is another famous Beijing Temple of Confucius.
9. 
   Wangfujing Street. Wangfujing (Chinese: 王府井), located in Dongcheng District, Beijing, not far away from the Forbidden City. It is one of the most famous pedestrian only shopping streets in Beijing with shops selling all sorts of products. It is not rare to see the entire street full of people. The Wangfujing Snack Street, located in hutongs just west of the main street, is densely packed with restaurants and street food stalls. The food stalls serves a wide variety of common and exotic street food. Further north and perpendicular to Wangfujing is Donghuamen Street, which has a night food market of its own. There is also a church on the street which is highly frequented by the local Christians. Wangfujing is considered by many as the Avenue Des Champs Elysees of the east.
10. 
    Xiushui Market. Silk Street (Chinese: 秀水街; pinyin: Xiùshuǐjiē) is a shopping center in Beijing that accommodates over 1,700 retail vendors, as opposed to Wangfujing offering upmarket shopping experience, selling wide selection of counterfeit designer brand apparels. The Silk Street attracts approximately 20,000 visitors daily (from 9am to 9pm) on weekdays and between 50,000 and 60,000 on weekends as of 2006. This 35,000-square-meter complex replaced the old alley based Xiushui Market since Year 2005, and has since a popular shopping center especially for Western travelers. Besides the shopping center, more shops and restaurants are also gathered around the area. It is easily reachable by Subway Line 1. The shopping center is located directly above the Yong’ An Li subway station where you get direct access to Level B2 of the shopping mall from the station. While products in Wangfujing are mostly selling at fixed price, you need to bargain really hard with tactics in Xiushuijie market in order to get a good price. Travel Tips: As a common tactic, when the vendor offers you a price, you can first say ‘no’ and turn away to wait for him/her to call you back with a lower offer, then counter offer him/her with 15-20% of the initial asking price. Normally, you will get a good deal by then.

There are many more attractions in Beijing which you can also visit, include Prince Gong’s Palace, Xidan, Qianmen, Drum Tower, Beijing zoo, Ming Emperor tomb and more, if you have more time traveling to Beijing. Besides sightseeing activities in Beijing, you may need more times to explore the vast selection of  local foods and snacks throughout the city. Watch this space for more update stories on Beijing – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Asia

Hi there! I’m back! I’m finally back from the breezy cool Beijing to my stuffy warm Kuala Lumpur. It was a perfect Beijing trip with plenty of joyful moment and memorable experiences. However, weather was far from perfect as Winter is approaching and travel sites were covered with thick fog, which made visibility much lower than what I would prefer. Otherwise, my travel plan for the hotel, the itinerary, the foods were all turned out nicely, if not as planned.

Here are my favourite 5 photos that I took on my travel to Beijing. All these 5 photos were shot with my Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 10-24mm UWA lens. Also included are EXIF information of each photo for your reference.

1) The Forbidden City.

Some EXIF info: Shot in Program Auto mode, Shutter speed set to 1/125 Sec and Aperture f5.0. Focus distance 10mm. ISO 100. Manual White Balance set to Cloudy. No flash fired and +1/3 exposure stop being compensated with Matrix metering.

2) Badaling section’s The Great Wall.

Some EXIF info: Shot in Program Auto mode, Shutter speed set to 1/60 Sec and Aperture f4.2. Focus distance 18mm. Auto ISO 360. Manual White Balance set to Cloudy. No flash fired and +2/3 exposure stop being compensated with Matrix metering.

3) Temple of Heaven.

Some EXIF info: Shot in Program Auto mode, Shutter speed set to 1/200 Sec and Aperture f7.1. Focus distance 24mm. ISO 100. Auto White Balance. No flash fired and +1/3 exposure stop being compensated with Matrix metering.

4) WangFuJing shopping street at night.

Some EXIF info: Shot in Program Auto mode, Shutter speed set to 1/60 Sec and Aperture f3.8. Focus distance 13mm. ISO 800. Auto White Balance. No flash fired and +1/3 exposure stop being compensated with Matrix metering.

5) Autumn scene in Yonghegong Lama Temple

Some EXIF info: Shot in Program Auto mode, Shutter speed set to 1/60 Sec and Aperture f3.5. Focus distance 10mm. ISO 125. Manual White Balance set to Cloudy. No flash fired and +1/3 exposure stop being compensated with Matrix metering.

Overall, Beijing is a great city to explore with full of attractions and places to visit. There are also overwhelming supply of local foods with stalls and shops selling them around each and every corner of Beijing’s streets. I will cover the story of my Beijing trip here in the short future. Make sure to subscribe to this blog’s feed for free story update. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Europe

Greeting from Beijing, China! I’m in Beijing right now for my one week travel to the capital of China. No travel to Beijing would be complete without climbing up to one of the nearby sections of Great Wall. I visited Badaling Great Wall today and climbed up to the famous 12th North Tower at 888m high.

This is my first Beijing travel photo posted in Travel Feeder. Heavy fog has affected the visibility at the wall really badly, which limited the photography opportunity. Anyhow, I have finally become a “Hao Han” (great guy) being successfully climbed up to the highest accessible section of Badaling Great Wall.

I’m going to sleep now. Bye for now! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to China