I must say, I didn't do my homework very well prior to our trip to Beijing.  I bought two guide books to help us during our week long stay but I didn't really have time to read through them until we arrived in China.  It was only the night before our sightseeing or right in the morning before we left our hotel did I really leaf through the pages of the guide books and decided what we were going to visit.

One night, as I was looking at the postcards I bought at Wangfujing Bookstore, I came across a nice looking Chinese Street called Qianmen.  I told my partner, Marc, about it and he looked it up in a map.  He looked it up and soon enough, he found where it was.  "It's not far at all!", he exclaimed.  "Really?  Where is it then?", I asked. "Right behind Tianamen Square.", he added.

So, off we went to Qianmen Street.  Boy, was I impressed by the area.  It seemed like what used to be there was bulldozed and  the place was rebuilt.  It looked so, so new.  In fact, it had a Disneyland-esque feel to it given that the street was lined by new stores and boutiques.  There were lots of brass statues of local Chinese dressed in the traditional garb and in different daily life situations.

This is what we found.

Qianmen Street

There was even a small trolley traveling up and down the street.

Some locals panning for gold?

These are all stores selling souvernirs for tourists and branded clothes for locals.  Stores the like of ZARA, H & M, Tudor, Sephora, QUICK SILVER, and UNIQLO can be found here.

Speaking of UNIQLO, this Japanese version of the GAP, has many branches all over Beijing.

Here I am after buying some slacks on sale in their store.

I was quite surprised to see the very same winter coats and jackets I saw in the Uniqlo stores in Tokyo last year both for and on sale in the Uniqlo stores in Beijing.  It seemed to me that what was in excess in the Tokyo stores, the store was trying to dispose off in their Beijing branches.

Marc pointed this sign out to me.  We all know what it tries to say but it sure made us laugh.