It’s Spring Festival 2023 and Beijing’s shopping streets are bustling with people and full of festive vibes. Qianmen Street, an area in Beijing with a rich cultural legacy, is elaborately festooned. Unlike the Spring Festival in the previous three years, when there were few visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is now overflowing with people busy sampling the time-honored food brands, selecting products from an assortment, experiencing intangible heritage cultures, and exploring the characteristics of this historical area.
This year, there are more cultural experience stores in the quaint Qianmen neighborhood, focusing on time-honored brands and China’s native fashion trends to create a traditional cultural consumption zone targeting the young generations. Public spaces have been remodeled while retaining the major features of the original location of the old business. In this way, a street of traditional Chinese cultural features and traditional etiquette has been resurrected, giving a fresh lease of life and continuity to Qianmen's unique cultural heritage and commercial function.
In the Year of the Rabbit, there are cute rabbit elements everywhere. Brands have launched a series of rabbit-themed products and rabbit-shaped marshmallows have become the new favorites of children.
A Spring Festival fair of domestic trendy products is unveiled in the Qianmen Street. Fusing traditional Chinese fashion with the dazzling visual design, the fair creates a Lunar New Year carnival in the ancient business area.
Visitors throng Dashilan Street with long queues seen in front of some time-honored brands.
In Beijing's nearly minus 10 Celsius degree weather, a cup of hot bubble tea can warm up the body and heart. A large crowd of customers wait for their orders in front of the Heytea store in Qianmen Street.
A strong festive vibe can be felt in Beijing during the Lunar New Year as businesses rack their brains to allure customers with novel designs and products and people indulge themselves in the long-awaited consumption spree.
The large rabbit-shaped colored light in front of a performance venue in Dashilan Street makes people stop and take photos.
Peepshows are a common performance in Beijing’s traditional temple fairs, where children can enjoy the performance of folk artists and the charm of traditional culture.
At the Page One bookstore, Peter Rabbit, the fictional animal character created by British children’s book author Beatrix Potter, stands wearing the traditional Chinese "rabbit head hat,” which is festive and cute, attracting youngsters to have their photos taken with it.
The restaurant at the "Theater of Dreams” in the Qianmen Street is a perfect match for the festive vibe of the Chinese New Year. A staff dressed as the Manchester United mascot "Fred the Red" plays table soccer with children.
A window display themed the Year of the Rabbit at a luxury store in the Qianmen Street.
Vivinevo Perfumery, a “fragrance art gallery,” adds a sweet aroma to Qianmen Street. Inside the store, which combines modernity and technology, a customer checks out a lavender fragrance in the interactive experience area.
After sunset, Qianmen Street’s flashing lights and colorful lanterns are reflected on the glass of a cafe.
The tree decorations for luck and elaborate lights bring back the memory of the past Lunar New Year vibes in the Qianmen Street, which sits right on the Central Axis of Beijing. Photos by Yu Xiangjun
