Qualla: Dashilan Subdistrict

Dashilan Subdistrict: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nagyman, CC BY-SA 2.0. There was once a saying in Beijing: wear the hats of Ma Ju Yuan, stand in the shoes of Nei Lian Sheng, wear the clothes of Ba Da Xiang, and take your money from the Si Da Heng Banks. Every one of those shops stood on Dashilan, a narrow commercial street stretching just 275 meters from east to west, south of Tiananmen Square. The saying survives because the street does. Dashilan -- pronounced Dashilanr in the Beijing dialect, with the characteristic erhua suffix -- remains one of the capital's oldest continuously operating commercial districts, a place where brands founded centuries ago still do business alongside the inevitable modern additions.

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Image: Nagyman | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dashilan Subdistrict: Named for a Fence

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 郭友柏, CC BY-SA 4.0. The street did not always carry its current name. During the Ming dynasty, the area was known as Langfang Sitiao, one of several lanes west of the road outside Qianmen gate. Although the name Dashilanr did not yet exist, the location was already a flourishing commercial district ...

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Image: 郭友柏 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dashilan Subdistrict: Time-Honored Brands

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WiNG, CC BY-SA 3.0. Walk the length of Dashilan today and you pass shops that have been in continuous operation for well over a century. Tongrentang, the Chinese herbal medicine store, has been dispensing remedies since the Qing dynasty. Rui Fu Xiang still sells silk. Nei Lian Sheng makes shoes. Zha...

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Image: WiNG | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dashilan Subdistrict: Where Beijing Went for Entertainment

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WiNG, CC BY-SA 3.0. Dashilan was not merely a shopping district. For centuries it served as Beijing's entertainment center, with five grand Chinese opera theaters lining its short length: Qingle Yuan, Sanqing Yuan, Guangde Lou, Guanghe Yuan, and Tongle Yuan. Daguan Lou, the first movie theater in Be...

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Image: WiNG | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dashilan Subdistrict: Vanishing and Enduring

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit そらみみ (Soramimi), CC BY-SA 4.0. Michael Meyer, who taught at the nearby Tan'er Hutong Elementary School and wrote about the area in The Last Days of Old Beijing, found that even the school's own principal did not know its history. Meyer spent months assembling a narrative by talking to elderly residents in the ...

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Image: そらみみ (Soramimi) | CC BY-SA 4.0