The entrance to Nan Luo Gu Xiang
Nan Luo Gu Xiang (南锣鼓巷) is a small street in Beijing's DongCheng district, near the famous Hou Hai area.
It is a charming little street, or what the locals call "hutong". This hutong has been undergoing a facelift for the last 2 years and is now a pretty little street with cafes, bars, handicraft, clothing and other quaint little shops hidden with traditional courtyard-styled houses.
Nan Luo Gu Xiang was built 700 year ago in the Yuan dynasty and used to be where the homes of court officers and literates are. The walls and tiles on Nan Luo Gu Xiang are a grayish tone, not the royal red of the Forbidden City just one street away. Even with the relatively recent refurbishment, the place is still charming and has a slower pace compared with the rest of the city.
The hutong..
I went there this trip for coffee with a friend. Can't really remember the name of the shop we went to now, but I had very good coffee and a surprisingly good chocolate cake. It's a nice feeling to sit in the "open" courtyard in winter and have coffee and cake. Of course, the entire area actually has a clear covering on top and also heating to protect us from the cold.
Surprising good chocolate mousse cake
It is nice to sit in one of the cafes at Nanluoguxiang,
sip a hot cup of coffee and watch the world go slowly by..
sip a hot cup of coffee and watch the world go slowly by..
Oh... do post more about places in China. They're very informative and I can try to visit them when I go.
ReplyDeleteSure sure! And if you plan on going drop me an email... I'd give you a list of the places you can check out..
ReplyDelete