Guijie Street

Guijie Street is located in Dongzhimennei Street, with more than 150 restaurants open all day, making it one of the most famous and bustling food streets in Beijing. Guijie Street is surrounded by many embassies, so it is a good place for international friends to taste Chinese delicious food and learn about Chinese food culture. The origin of the name “Guijie” has an interesting anecdote. It is literally known as the “Ghost Street” because in ancient times, business activities usually started at midnight and ended by dawn, and the dim light of red lanterns and oil lamps added some ghostly sense to the street. In the late 1980s, with the purpose of weakening the mysterious and scary overtone and developing the food culture of the street, the Commerce Commission changed the name to Guijie Street (簋街, the pronunciation of 簋 is the same as 鬼 which means ghosts and evil spirits in Chinese). Besides, the character Gui (簋) refers to a kind of ancient bronze vessel to contain food. The change of the name also make it more culturally relevant to the food street.