Chinese on the Cheap

Affordable Chinese food is everywhere in Beijing, and not all of the places that provide it are an offense to Western hygiene standards. As with shopping in this city, high prices don't necessarily guarantee high quality in dining, and cheap restaurants often provide better food than expensive ones. Down-market dining also offers the best chance to connect with the average Beijing resident.

Most convenient is a stable of adequately clean Chinese fast-food restaurants, many of which deliberately try to rip off their Western counterparts. Menus typically offer simple noodles, baked goods, and stir-fries. Top chains include Yonghe Dawang (with KFC-style sign) and Malan noodle outlets (marked with a Chicago Bulls-style graphic), both with locations throughout the city.

A better option is to visit one of the point-to-choose food courts on the top or bottom floor of almost every large shopping center. These typically feature a dozen or so stalls, each selling snacks, noodles, or simple pre-cooked selections from different regions. Prices are reasonable, making it easy to sample a wide range. Just point to what looks good. The food court in the basement of the Oriental Plaza, requiring purchase of a card you use to pay for food at each stall, is the most extensive. Others can be found in the China World Mall, the Yaxiu Clothing Market, and Xi Dan Baihuo Shangchang north of the Xi Dan metro stop.

One of the most enjoyable local dining areas in Beijing, the legendary 24-hour food street on Dong Zhi Men Nei Dajie known to most as Ghost Street (Gui Jie), took a severe hit from the wrecking ball in 2001 but is still there in abbreviated form. Beginning around the Dongsi Bei Dajie intersection and running east, dozens of small eateries offer hotpot, mala longxia (spicy crayfish), and homestyle fare through the lantern-lit night.

Where to Buy Picnic Supplies

Picnicking is perhaps the most neglected tradition among travelers in Beijing considering the city's wealth of picturesque parks and scenic areas. In the past, this was due to a paucity of the necessary components, but the availability of nearly any food item from nearly anywhere now means there is no excuse.

You can purchase basic groceries and Chinese-style snacks at local markets and the xiaomaibu (little-things-to-buy units) found nearly everywhere. Several fully stocked supermarkets and a handful of smaller grocers now carry imported wine and cheese, pesto sauce, Frito-Lay junk food, Newcastle Brown Ale, and just about anything else you could want, albeit at inflated prices. Supermarkets include one in the basement of the Lufthansa Center, and the CRC in the basement of the China World Trade Center. The Heping Market, in the first major alley on the left as you walk up Sanlitun bar street, has sliced meats, rare Western vegetables, and a full selection of familiar breakfast cereals. Much the same can be found at Jenny Lou's just east of the northeast corner of Ritan Gongyuan.

Among delis and bakeries, the best is the Kempi Deli (inside the Lufthansa Centre; tel. 010/6465-3388, ext. 5741). It offers satisfying crusty-bread sandwiches and a tremendous pastry and fresh baked bread selection that goes for half-price after 9pm. Charlotte's Butchery and Delicatessen (tel. 010/6508-3884), next to Annie's at the west gate of Chaoyang Park, serves sandwiches at lower prices that are almost as good and offers a wider selection of other Western food items.

Recommended picnic spots in the city proper include the Summer Palace, the "Old" Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan), and Ritan Park in central Chaoyang, as well as Chaoyang and Tuanjie Hu parks, also in Chaoyang. Outside Beijing, the Simatai and Huanghua sections of the Great Wall provide dramatic backdrops for an outdoor meal, as do Fragrant Hills Park (Xiang Shan Gongyuan), the Ming and Qing tombs, and the Tanzhe and Jietai temples in the western suburbs.

Night Market Nosh

Late-night dining is a favorite Beijing pastime, and the most convenient way to experience it is to visit one of several night markets scattered about the city. This is street food, government regulated but not guaranteed to be clean, so the weak in stomach or courage may want to pass. Gastrointestinal gamble aside, the markets are a vivid and often delicious way to spend an evening.

The markets are typically made up of stalls, jammed side by side, selling all manner of snacks that cost anywhere from „0.50 (6¢) to „5 (60¢). Most legendary are the little animals on sticks, a veritable zoo of skewers that includes baby birds and scorpions. There are popular markets on Longfu Si Jie (north of Wangfujing Dajie next to the Airlines Ticketing Hall) and west of the Beijing Zoo (at the Dongyuan Yeshi), but the most celebrated is the Donghua Men night market, just off Wangfujing Dajie opposite the Xin Dong An Plaza.

In a year of citywide cosmetic overhauls, even the Donghua Men has received a face-lift. With a history supposedly dating back to 1655, it was closed during the Cultural Revolution and finally reopened in 1984. Previously a charming mish-mash of independent operators each in their own battered tin shacks, it was "reorganized" in 2000. The stalls are all now a uniform red and white, each with identical twin gas burners. Prices have risen into the „10 ($1) range and the food has fallen a bit in quality, but the payoff is a rise in cleanliness and an increase in revenues from foreign tourists.