Beijing Snack Street in Guijie

Guijie was founded by Xiaolin Hot Pot; it is a bustling food street that emerged after the 1980s, and has nothing to do with ancient history, nor with the bronze Gui. The origin of Gui Street goes back to the 1980s, when China was in the early stages of reform and opening up, and the atmosphere of "big pot rice" was still very strong, and the place to eat was the public restaurants of state-owned enterprises, and there were no state-run restaurants in Dongdan and Xidan, not to mention individual restaurants. But the power of social change has shown its first signs, Li Xiaolin is looking at the prospect of the upcoming construction of embassies and trade zones outside Dongzhimen, "when they build up, I'm sure this is the main road. At that time there is no need to worry about the source of customers." He chose to work as an individual restaurant. At that time, Dongzhimen was far from being as prosperous as it is today, and the road leading to the Agricultural Exhibition Center was still a dirt road, and Dongzhimen was also depressed and cold, with almost no individual restaurants.

After a year of arduous preparations, "Xiaolin Restaurant" finally opened in the spring of 1988. 3 yuan a plate of shredded pork with fish, fried rice, 10 cents a head of chicken in the sauce, the hottest seller 1 yuan a plate of cold dishes; cyclists from work to the end of the day, the most important thing is that they can't afford the price of the food, but they can't afford it. Cold dishes; cyclists from work will want a plate of mixed bean curd, a bottle of wine ...... opened just over a month, the couple thought about opening a 24-hour store. Xiao Lin said: "At that time, I thought that here on the street, the road is full of cars, there must be dinner at night, let's wait." Just opened, during the day around some guests; the night a guest did not, the whole street here all night lights, lose money to make money, when the whole of Beijing is also difficult to see 24 hours of business, people passing by word of mouth, "Dongzhimen that there is a do night snacks," a few months after the Xiaolin restaurant at night more than the daytime guests.

Soon, the 24-hour restaurant has a second, third, to ten or so when the formation of a small night market here, the word of mouth, "kid city" reputation soon spread outside Dongzhimen, Qianmen Street, Coal Market Street, Sijiu City, Jiuxianqiao. Chaoyang District, the Sun Palace, many people rode more than an hour on a bicycle to Xiaolin restaurant to eat a late-night snack. Later, with the white small noodles and the Japanese Huang Dafa, guests from far away would have the luxury of taking a taxi to come over for dinner.

There are many versions of the origin of Guijie, and its name is often written as Ghost Street. As for the origin of the name, many versions are catching wind, there is no official verification of the statement, perhaps the only real understanding of the origin of the name Guijie is the old residents of the Dongzhimen neighborhood.

Legend has it that during the Qing Dynasty, each city gate in Beijing had its own specialized purpose and could not be used at will. For example, when the court sent out troops, it took the Deshengmen Gate, and when executing prisoners, it took the Xuanwumen Gate, and so on. The Dongzhimen Gate was used to transport timber to the city. Older people who live in Dongzhimen can still remember playing games on the gate tower with their friends when they were young. Along the gate is a straight road inside the city, opposite the Drum Tower. On the other side of the city was an endless cemetery. As Dongzhimen was a combination of urban and rural areas at that time, the original morning market was naturally formed inside the gate, where vendors selling miscellaneous vegetables and fruits began to squat and sell in the latter part of the night, and then dispersed at dawn. These vendors to kerosene lamps for light, the light from a distance on the hazy, coupled with the surrounding everywhere you can see the coffin store and kong room, very creepy feeling. Therefore, this place is called "Ghost Market". And the strange thing is that after the beginning of the market tide Dongzhimen Street on both sides of the many merchants began to carry out a variety of business, but almost all lost the shopkeeper's coffin,

Even the only state-run department store had to close down the business, the evil of this place is very puzzling. But then people found that in this street only open restaurant business can be successful, and the restaurant here during the day almost no one patronized, but at night but the door of the city traffic has another prosperous scene. As for whether it is like the local old people say, to the night ghosts have to come into the city to eat and formed such a prosperous who can not explain it.

Because of the formation of the hot market at night, Guijie has become a household name in Beijing, and of course many people have seen the huge business opportunities here, even the local government from the beginning of the exclusion of the strong tube to the later support, the district business committee also named this place "Dongnei Dining Street". Just because the word "ghost" is not elegant, so the staff of the Dongcheng District Committee began to think hard to change the name of the ghost street, but most of the bosses operating here do not agree, saying that they are afraid to change the name of the bad feng shui, the future of business here will not be able to do. At this time, the staff found the dictionary has the same sound with a different word "gui", and this word can also be related to eat, so began to publicize and also in the Dongzhimen Overpass Ghost Street side of the bridge to do a "gui" of the large bronze statue, so the civilization of the "gui". The civilized "Guijie" came into being.

Today, Guijie has become a representative of Beijing's food culture and a symbol of fashionable dining. Guijie has also become a place of yearning, a place of joy, and even an after-dinner conversation. Many people's "night tour" of the capital began here; in Beijing many exciting days, people will coincidentally choose to spend time here, the success of the Olympic bid, China's soccer to the world, the Asian Cup defeat of Japan and so on, or major, or exciting anniversaries, people are here all night catharsis, we sing, drink, yell and scream together, and we have a good time. Singing, drinking, shouting, hugging and crying together, the whole street was immersed in the atmosphere of the time. This is now Guijie. Beijing has a lot of famous snacks, like haloumi huoyao, bao mou, goat scorpion, etc. Within a few years, a food chain featuring spicy crayfish has sprung up on Gui Street. Greedy frogs and Chongqing grilled fish are once again the mainstays of Guijie's diet.

Foreign tourists prefer Guijie because of its proximity to embassies, making it a good place for them to learn about Chinese food culture. In Guijie you can often see many foreigners gathering at a table here. Three or five Chinese people are interspersed in the middle, all talking together, and in the middle of the table might be a super spicy hot pot or a grilled fish with a strong aroma wafting out. The eating habits of foreigners here have also been assimilated into Chinese cuisine, which can be credited with successfully introducing Chinese food abroad. Much of Guijie's business stems from the popularity of the market. The variety of food on Gui Street, which is supposed to stick to its own specialties, has become less and less, and all the way down the street the same food is being served. This has made it much less fun to explore for many of the nocturnal wanderers who are used to scouring the streets at night. Even so, we can still find a lot of specialties from all over the country in Gui Street. For example, hot pots, boiled soups, and congee. Overall, Guijie is one of the most unique places in Beijing's food scene. Of course, we would probably prefer that Guijie be more open to flavors from other parts of the country, so that this competition for the same food can eventually become history and bring better food to the public and tourists. Specialty one: spicy crawfish

Gui refers to an ancient Chinese food container with a round mouth and two ears, and a street named after Gui is naturally a place to eat. Spicy dishes such as spicy crayfish and spicy meat crab are the mainstays of Gui Street. The spicy and numbing aroma attracts many repeat customers.

Featured two: civilian service

It is understood that in Guijie, the price of a spicy crayfish is about 3 to 8 yuan, according to the consumption standards of 3 or 4 people, 40 lobsters, plus 3 or 4 small dishes will ensure that you are full of food, and the required cost of about 150-350 yuan (RMB).

Feature 3: 24-hour business

Eight or nine years ago, there were only a few restaurants on the street, because there is always a set of customers after 9 o'clock at night to have a late-night snack, and a few restaurants have extended their business hours, and then simply changed to a 24-hour business. Guijie has become a part of the night culture of the capital, and its significance has gone beyond the scope of dining and drinking establishments, reflecting a side of the daily life of ordinary people in Beijing. Characteristic grilled fish theme culture restaurant: unique flavor of Wanzhou grilled fish

The unique flavor of Wanzhou grilled fish restaurant is the first Guijie grilled fish store, originating from Chongqing Wanzhou hot Beijing, can be said to be the originator of the Beijing grilled fish in 2005 to create a store so far. The main baked fish, its baked fish fresh, fragrant, spicy, spicy flavors, tender meat, unique flavor, since the launch has been the door of the city, well received by the consumer's praise. To Beijing must go to Guijie, to Guijie must go to the unique flavor, eat duck Quanjude eat grilled fish unique flavor. As a website market development department manager Eric said: "Now Guijie no matter what to eat is the same, popular crayfish everywhere on the sale of crayfish, popular grilled fish are grilled fish." Eric on Guijie's current situation can represent the state of Guijie business. Meng Qi, a music producer who used to live in Dongzhimen, said, "Guijie as a whole has always been okay, but now the food is more monotonous, and it's not as good now as it used to be."

Jerry, a construction engineer, has lived in Beijing for many years, and after comparing many places, he had this to say about Guijie: "Guijie is a market where a bunch of businessmen pile up, and only the big spenders and foreigners like it, and I only go there to eat if I'm forced to." Many returnees and foreigners, on the other hand, have a different opinion of Guijie from that of Beijingers. Du Mou, a returnee who works for an airline company, happily commented on Guijie: "The jianghu of food! Cheap, affordable, and a trend-setter for Beijing food."

So for a food street like Guijie, which has a certain history, the comments are all different. The key lies in the fact that the place may represent more of a way of nightlife in the capital. As this place is adjacent to the Workers' Stadium. In the nightlife of Beijing locals, this is the perfect place for many young people to go out and look for food after having fun in KTVs and nightclubs, and although they may be dissatisfied with the current situation of Guijie, they still choose Guijie as the preferred location for late-night snacks. A run-down alley where everything is normal in the daytime, pedestrians walk through, stores are booming, and when night falls, it's a different world. All the locals know not to enter in the dark. Parts of this book may be offensive, do not read if you are not happy.

Keywords: ghost street Chapter 1: Night Frights

Chapter 2: Night Frights

Chapter 3: Night Frights

Chapter 4: Life and Death

Chapter 5: Yellow Clay Alley

Chapter 6: Yellow Clay Alley

Chapter 7: Yellow Clay Alley

Chapter 8: Yellow Clay Alley

Chapter 9. Chapter 10: Female Ghosts in Red Clothes

Chapter 10: Female Ghosts in Red Clothes

Chapter 11: Female Ghosts in Red Clothes

Chapter 12: Female Ghosts in Red Clothes