Night meal market on Vanfujin Street in Beijing –
– Scorpions on a stick and dishes from all over China

In Beijing, several large markets, where you can try a wide variety of Chinese dishes. Vanfuzin market is the most colorful and, most importantly, convenient for visiting tourists. You probably have already seen it, as the local attraction with beetles and scorpions on a stick is very popular in television broadcasts about tourism.

We recommend that this market, since it is very conveniently located. It is a 10-minute walk from the main attractions of Beijing – Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. You can visit these places, and by evening to go to the market and dine there.

Vanfujin Market is near Wangfujing Peking Metro Station. Market names and metro station coincide, which is also convenient. Vanfujing Street itself is also called "Beijing Arbat". There is not only a meal market, but also shops and shoes. Vanfujsin is a whole shopping area in Beijing, but we will tell me about the food market in this article.

In this market, you can taste dishes of almost all provinces of China. The whole market consists of a set of trays with food, which is prepared right on the spot. Here you can meet desserts in the shape of nut pies, and fried with different ways of meat, and flour products, and even raging incomprehensible drinks.

There are real exotic in the form of insects and arthropods. We will immediately say, the Chinese do not eat insects. All larvae, scorpions and silkworms are a real "showing" and only for tourists. For the ordinary Chinese, they look like unappletently as for us with you.

Can I eat food from trays?

Many tourists are primarily worried – whether it is possible without fear of food from trays in China? The author of this article was in China many times, ate food from the trays, but never was the cases of poisoning.

This is primarily due to the use of spices that are added to food in large quantities. Over the past 6,000 years of the existence of civilization in China, many spices from plants were found, which are natural antiseptics and prevent breeding in food of pathogens of microorganisms.

This is primarily due to the use of spices that are added to food in large quantities. Over the past 6,000 years, the existence of civilization in China was invented a lot of seasonings from plants, which are natural antiseptics and prevent breeding in food of pathogens of microorganisms.

By the way, on the photo on the left you see chestnuts, which are also used to long preserve and disinfection of food. In the Vanfujin market they sell them 2 Chinese yuan apiece, prices here are quite high. Not all chestnuts are edible and even those that can be, you need to fry. In the raw form, these nuts are very tough, and dentistry in China is expensive.

In Chinese cuisine there are such dishes that have a terrible disgust. For example, the Chinese New Year is prepared by traditional tofu (soy cheese), which is incoming to rot in the ground for several months. It takes and eat in food, which shocks tourists in China. It would seem that this product is obliged to cause diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, but no one will deteriorate to them in China.

How to get

As we already wrote, to the Vanfujin market it is easy to get. Need to drive to the metro station Wangfujing on the 1st branch. This branch is most often depicted in red.

Navigate on the Metro map easy – look in the heart of the diagram image of a forbidden city in red. Wangfujing station is a little right. We showed its location in the diagram below.

When you leave the subway, you will see a pedestrian street with bright illumination. This is Vanfujin Street (in the photo below), it’s nothing to confuse. The market will be not on the most central street, but on parallel streets to the left. That is, turn left, walking on the central street some distance, and you will get to the main meal market in Beijing.

There are two popular food sale forms in the markets – from trays and cafe. Cafe here very small in size – no more than 10 tables. Of course, the trays are much more interesting, as the food here is exhibited. Many dishes on the Vanfujin market we shot on the video that will show further.

To shoot on the Vanfujin market was hard, since most merchants persistently banned to shoot, demanding something to buy something. To buy food from everyone was too consistent for the wallet, so I had to shoot, and then pretend that we do not understand either in English, nor in Chinese. It always managed to shoot only one double, and not always very successful. We ask "Tomatoes not to throw".

Interesting dishes

Next we will describe some dishes, and then immediately after the description you can watch a video. Click anywhere on the video for playback.

Food on the skewers is very popular. Most often, shrimps and meat are fried on the skewers. Ingredients in raw form exhibit on the show and fry when client. In the boiler in the center of the tray there is a sauce in which I can skip on a skewer if the buyer has such a desire. For tourists dishes on the skewers are convenient because they can eat without using chopsticks. Wilfs on the Vanfujin market you will not find, can’t take with you to China.

In China, they grow their fruits, but their assortment is small. China can not be called a hot country, only Hainan Island is located in the tropical zone. Fruits are grown on Canan, but not so much to have enough for the whole country.

The video below is removed in November, and most of the fruit at this time of the year is brought from Thailand. They looked appetizing, but were not sweet and very watery. Only kiwi turned out to be distinguished.

Baking in China is very diverse, and not only to taste, but also in color. Black buns for many European tourists look frightening. It’s not necessary to fear, the taste of them is immeasurably better than the appearance.

Pelmeni in China prefer to cook for a couple. It is not even a Chinese tradition, but a common Asian, recall at least Nepalese and Tibetan Momo. Dumplings are prepared in special wooden containers that can be connected with each other by forming a pyramid to 2 meters high in the market. Very convenient way to save food hot – such containers are well preserved heat.

To taste, Chinese dumplings differ from our. The dough looks like, but the fillings are completely different. There is no classic Russian filling of meat at all, the meat filling represents a mixture of meat with herbs and a lot of onions. Most Russians do not like it very much. The filling is very diverse, any edible ingredients are put in. The most delicious for the Russian tourist will probably be a shrimp filling.

These drinks are cold, only it seems that they boil. We did not recognize the technology that is used to simulate boiling, most likely, this is something related to carbon dioxide. See the process of cooking these drinks We also failed, we were asked to leave or buy something.

On the Vanfuzin market there are always a lot of people, while tourists are not so much. Maybe tourists do not know about this market, and maybe the specific food scares.

The most interesting in the next video is a dish that is best called "Mega Chips". Potatoes are cut in a special way, it becomes like a big spiral. Then it is simply fried in oil, it turns out a big chipse. Very original. The taste of such a chip may seem strange, since the corn oil is preferred in China, and not sunflower.

In this place of the market you can find several types of tofu. Tofu is soy cheese. The Chinese almost do not use milk and dairy products, and soy cheese here is a national dish. A variety of types of tofu is just huge. From completely liquid to solid, like a stone. From quite neutral taste to saturated with spices. From white to black.

A variety of fried pastries differs from dumplings only outside. Dough taste is the same, and the fillings are similar. There is a feeling that these are the same products, only such piers are frying on the oil, and dumplings are prepared for a couple.

The next dish plunges in the shock of representatives of the fine floor. These are fried chickens. When we say "fried chicken" or "Tobacco chicken", we mean a large chicken – almost already a chicken or a rooster. In China eat little chickens. Do not think that the Chinese are kind of bloodthirsty, most of them are an unpleasant sight.

In the second part of the video, you see a traditional noodle with vegetables – wheat and rice. There is nothing special in it, very tasty even for Russians and other Europeans.

Fruit juices Chinese do not like to drink in pure form. They prefer them with pieces of fruit inside. Moreover, the fruit of juice and fillers should vary, so they seem tastier. For example, orange juice with kiwi pieces.

Red balls on a stick in the next video are fruits in caramel. This is the most popular Street Dessert in China. In the street version of this dish, Chinese apples, tangerines and kiwi pieces are used.

Also on the next video you see flat roasted pies. They consist of a thin layer of dough with a filling consisting of a third of meat and a large amount of onions and herbs. On our taste these pies are unpleasant.

Chinese sausages are very different from our. They are sweet, although sweet taste is not brightly expressed, rather can be called sweetened. Very tasty and looks appetizing. This dish we recommend that you will definitely try.

At the beginning of the next video, you will see seafood – shrimps, crayfish and oysters. All this eat boiled, and it seems that for seafood in China is the only way to cook. Almost everything can be easily identified, except for some black seafood.

Fried in fryer Cheese – this is a real milk cheese. We have already said that dairy products are unpopular in China, but in the Vanfujin market there is any food.

Dishes on the next two videos we could not even be accurately identified. Chinese cuisine is diverse, and often in appearance dishes it is impossible to accurately determine from what it is cooked. If you have ideas, then write them in the comments at the end of the page.

The last few tips. First, do not get lost. Vanfujin’s food market consists of many intersecting streets, it’s easy to minimize several times and lose the landmark. Be sure to keep the card with your address with your address and take a taxi if you get lost.

The streets here are quite narrow, and you have to pushed. Most passersby carry food to them, do not get dirty when colliding, be careful. Put the wallet away to the inner pocket for reliability, and buy food for pre-deployed money.

Photo from the Vanfuzin market we collected on a separate page. You can see the photo gallery for this link.

Chinese relations to food

Since this article is about the largest meal market in Beijing, it is worth talking a little about the ratio of the Chinese to food in general. This is a very interesting topic for conversation.

The Chinese love to eat, we can say that they are all gourmets without exception. Moreover, in food, they do not value the quantity, but a variety. Chinese residents believe that the more dishes they tried for dinner, the better. So they prefer to dinner and dine a large company. For example, there are 5 people at dinner, they order 10 different dishes, and eat them all together. An individual dish is only a portion of rice or noodles.

Rice or noodles are called "main meal". All meat or fish dishes are served at the beginning of the meals, and closer to the end everything is getting their rice or noodle plate. If you have to dine or dinner with the Chinese, we do not recommend abandoning the "main dish", it will be some sign of disrespect.

The first dishes are all eaten at the same time, and you should not take a lot at the table at once, even if some of them liked you. If something on the table was very excited by your appetite, and you want to eat this delicacy more, then you should order another portion from the waiter.

China is very developed "gastronomic tourism" – a special branch of the tourist business, when tours are organized into the gastronomic capital of the country. The purpose of the trip is the desire to try all local cuisine.

There are several such capitals in China. The first "gastronomic mecca" of the subwayless country is beyond. Paradoxically, but the fact. It is Taiwan Island, which is a separate state called Roc (Republic of China) or Republic of China. Here they want to go almost all the Chinese.

The second important capital of gastronomy in China is the city of Chengdu in the province of Sichuan. Local cuisine is very acute, some dishes Europeans are even difficult to eat. Dishes are very diverse here, which is only standing fried in a spice cow stomach. Each province of China is famous for its own local cuisine, this is another important difference between our countries from each other.

And in conclusion, we will tell how the Chinese belong to our national cuisine and to our dishes. Honestly, they consider our food tasteless. They are accustomed to different spices and combinations of tastes, and noodles with noodles taste for them seems incomprehensible.

We wish delicious dishes and pleasant appetite, and read our articles about China (Links below).