Guijie is located near Dongzhimen. This 1.5-km street is lined with over 100 restaurants, many of which are open around the clock.

Business is particularly booming at night, when the street is lit-up by red lanterns, and the fragrance of chili and prickly ash is all-pervasive. Though the restaurants here serve a great diversity of dishes, including Sichuan, Shandong and Canton dishes, as well as snacks, barbecue, and ethnic minority dishes, it is hotpot that is the street specialty. The hotpot currently in vogue is Shaojigong -- an import from Sichuan Province, and its main ingredient is home-reared cockerel. After being pickled, fried and stewed with hot spices, the cockerel is plunged into the hotpot with other vegetables and condiments, and has a savory, spicy and succulent flavor.

Guijie serves everyone's favorite dish, and hot savory crab is one of the most popular. Here, Mr. Yan can be seen waiting with friends at the door of a hot savory crab restaurant, in the chill wind of early winter. They have driven all the way from the North Fourth Ring Road just to try this dish. Asked how the crab tastes, a diner jokes: "It is as delicious as can be imagined. It has even cured my stammer." Formerly offering Guangxi food, this restaurant made the wise decision to participate in "crab fever," and invited cooks from Shanghai, home of hot savory crab, to ensure they could provide this dish in all its authenticity. In order to woo more customers, it offers an extra 500-gram river crab free for every two kilograms ordered, and an extra 500-gram sea crab free for every one kilogram ordered. Business is brisk, and the restaurant is always packed. In the evening five more tables are set up in the neighboring air-conditioner shop, and still more are placed outside in the summer months, but they still fail to seat all their customers. "We receive the most customers at 2-3 o'clock in the morning," one waiter told us.

A taxi driver told me that at peak time it can take 40 minutes for a car to drive down this 1,500-meter street.

Reference details

Laitai Flower Street opens from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm.

Lady Street opens from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm.

If going by bus, take the Te3, No.707, 405, 416, 300, 302, 847, 831 or 830. Parking is difficult, so it is best to go by taxi or bicycle. If you should feel like having lunch or dinner here, try the Herdsman opposite Flower Street -- a restaurant until 9:00 pm and a bar from then onwards. Serving mainly Northeastern China dishes, it also offers snacks. Prices of fresh flowers on Flower Street are much lower than average, but the clothes here are slightly more expensive than those on sale at Wantone, Guanyuan and the Zoo clothes wholesale markets.

Tea Street opens from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm.

If going by bus, take No. 609, 414, 708 or 339. There is parking available at Tea City, and at Carrefour to its south. There are restaurants at the northern section of Maliantao Street.

Guijie Street is open around the clock.

If going by bus, take No. 107, 106, 24, 116, 13 or 124 to go there. By subway, get off at Dongzhimen Station and leave from the northwest exit, or at Yonghegong Station. Most restaurants do not have parking lots, but there is some parking available along the roadside at night. Customers can order a half or even one quarter of each serving in any of the restaurants here.