For a "Beijing Duck" you have to go to a restaurant specialized on "Beijing Kaoya". Ask at the reception of you hotel if there is a good one nearby. In famous restaurants you should make a reservation. The duck is served at the table while the chef cuts thin strips of the crispy skin. Put the duck strips and some sliced vegetables into a pancake with sauce and enjoy.

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Grilled lamb on a spit (kao yangrou chuan) can be found on every corner in Beijing. The deliciously seasoned meat is a very popular snack, especially in winter. Lamb skewers can be bought at street stalls, at the market on Wangfujing or in restaurants. Restaurants that sell lamb skewers have a red glowing character in front of the restaurant, which consists of two squares that are pierced by a line in the middle. The meat skewers are very tasty and typical of Beijing and northern China.

"Baozi" are steamed dough buns with different fillings. Without filling they are called "Mantou". "Rou baozi" have a pork filling, "cai baozi" are filled with vegetables. Those with sweet fillings, made of bean paste are called "dou sha bao".

"Jiaozi" are steamed dough pockets with a filling of ground beef, ginger, chives and garlic. To eat just dip the "Jiaozi" briefly into a bowl of brown vinegar or soy sauce. On street markets "Jiaozi" ist often fried.

The night market at "Wangfujing" offers a very wide selection of food stalls with barbecue skewers, soups, Jiaozi and everything else you can offer on a stand. You can find many bizarre delicacies like snakes, grubs and other stuff.  

Donganmen Dajie

On the night market at the Wangfujing you can find everything on the spit. Living scorpions, seahorses, snakeskin, beetles, grasshoppers and other animals people elsewhere won't even touch.

Wangfujing Snack Street

A popular sweets are glazed apples "liuli pingguo" and other fruit with icing. This is very typical for Beijing.

At ghost street "Gujie" there are countless restaurant. Unusually for China you can even sit outside. The whole street is decorated with red lanterns, in the evening it looks very enchanting. The "Ghost Road" is close to the metro station "Beixingqiao" on Line 5.

Guijie, Dongzhimennei Dajie

"Cha" tea has roughly the same status in China as wine in Europe and can also be very expensive. Green tea "luecha" is the most popular drink in China. Black tea is called "hong cha", the most expensive tea is the oolong tea "wulong cha". The jasmine tea "hua cha" is also very popular.

Caution trap!

If you are invited or persuaded by young women to a tea ceremony, you should refuse this offer. It is a overpriced tourist rip-off. The ladies pretend to be tourists as well, but are decoys of the tea shop. At the end there is a hefty bill to pay.