Lying 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) west of Tiananmen Square, Xidan Commercial Street is called 'the second Wangfujing' in Beijing.Starting from Xuanwu Gate in the south, the commercial street is 5.4 kilometers(3.4 miles) long. The history of Xidan can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644). At that time, it was an essential crossing leading to the downtownarea from southwest of the city. Since then, this area has blossomed as a commercialcenter in the western part of Beijing City
Now, Xidan Commercial Street is known as one of the three most famous commercial centers in Beijing, together with Wangfujing Dajie and Qianmen Da Zha Lan. It consists mainly of food markets, clothes stores and commodities. The street is an international, modern, commercial combination of shopping, dining, recreation and culture. The center part of the commercial street is an entertainment square. There are a great variety of activity places prepared for you underground from the square, including a cinema, bowling alley, swimming pool and even an indoor rock climbing wall. There are also many modern buildings like the Xidan Department Store, the Xidan Shopping Center and the Chung You Department Store which can offer you middle and high class fashions, cosmetics and other goods. You can find many special counters for well known, world-wide brand names, such as Dior, LV, Chanel and Gucci. They will certainly dazzle your eyes.
There are many entertainment places along the street, such as the Beijing Concert Hall and the Capital Cinema. Apart from that, Xidan Culture Square, which covers an area about 35,000 square meters (8.65 acres), is the largest comprehensive entertainment place in downtown Beijing. It balances with the beauty of Capital Times Square to the south on this busy commercial street, offering ideal resting places for the visitors.
Xidan Shopping Market
