In the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795), Liulichang became the collecting and distributing center of curio, calligraphy and painting, ancient rubbing from stone inscription and the “Four Treasures of the Study.” After the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, it has been more like a cultural street. Rong Bao Zhai, China Book Store and other cultural relic shops successively set up salesroom there.

In 1982, Liulichang Cultural Street was repaired and rebuilt. After that, the 750-meter newly-built street, east from Yanshousi Street, west to Nan Bei Liu Xiang and passing Nanxinhua Street, is more like an ancient street with blue bricks and grey tiles and an air of great antiquity. The brick carvings and colored paintings have a strong atmosphere of ancient streets.

Maliandao Tea Street

When you drive a car going west along the famous Guang’an Street, passing the Crossroads of Guang’an Gate and then turning left, you will see Maliandao Tea Street, the most famous tea street in Beijing. Almost 700 tea merchants from all main tea-growing areas have set up tea stores here.

Maliandao Tea Street has become the largest tea distributing center in North China, supplying all kinds of famous, special, high-quality and newly-picked tea and achieving annual sales volume over 1 billion yuan accounting for nearly 10% of the national annual sales volume. The famous saying goes: “the quality of tea is as high as that of people, the old customer and the new ones are all customers.”

Niu-Jie

Niu-jie is a block of Hui ethnic characteristics, north from Guang’anmen Neidajie, south to Nanheng Xijie, Zaolin Qianjie, west from Baiguang Road and east to Jiaozi Hutong, covering an area of 35.9 hectare. The planned commercial buildings along the street cover an area of nearly 80,000 square meters. As the largest assembling residential area of the Hui people in Beijing, Niu-jie has a long history and inhabits over 20 minorities.

The region gathers food and drink, clothes, tourism and commerce with Muslin cultural characteristics. With the successive move-in of Tulufan Restaurant and Donglaishun Restaurant, the establishment of Niu-jie Muslim Supermarket as well as Huimin Primary School and the Street of Snacks with full-bodied Muslim characteristics, Niu-jie has become an area with increasingly distinct ethnic features.