Nanxin Granary Food Culture Street

Nanxin Granary Food Culture Street is another cultural street in Beijing with distinctive features, which can compete with the Shanghai New World. Every restaurant, tea house and club in the street is visited by many customers. There are art galleries and Latin dancing clubs in the ancient granaries and pseudo-classic architectural complex, with some Chinese and foreign specialty restaurants and bars as their neighbors, among which, McDonald's, Friday's, Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant and BENZ Car Exhibition Hall have their popularity outside. The culture and arts market combine the "culture" of Nanxincang and the "business" together. Here will be the new gathering place which integrates art appreciation and delicious food.

Nanxin Granary, a historic site located on what is now Dongsi Shitiao, was a storehouse for grain meant exclusively to be served to the royal family during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. It was built in 1409 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor (1403-1424) on the foundations of the Yuan Dynasty’s (120-1368) Beitai Granary. This makes it as old as The Forbidden City. The imperial granaries measured its volume in ao, which initially meant three store rooms and later, five. In its heyday, Nanxin Granary had 76 ao, the most in a Qing granary. The structure still has nine ao, making it the largest and best-preserved imperial granary in the country. Today, the vicinity of the granary’s has taken on a new life as a "culture street": it has become a base to more than cultural organizations, artist studios, tea houses, shops and restaurants. Some portions of the granary have been converted into warehouses.

Take Bus No. 42, 113, 115, 118, 406, 70 and get off at Dongsishitiao Station.