Qianmen opens the gate to foreigners

When you're in Beijing and do what the Beijing people do, there is no other place to do that better than in Qianmen.

As the literal translation of the name, "Front gate", suggests, Qianmen was once the busiest commercial district in the imperial city. It was home to the empire's most venerable purveyors of clothing, haute cuisine, tea and herbal medicine.

Ruifuxiang, for instance, had outfitted generations of mandarins in the imperial court. These feisty officials wore only boots made by Neiliansheng and hats by Majuyuan.