Dashilar and Yangmeizhu Byway: Guild Facades and Bookshops

Immediately southwest of Qianmen Street and Tiananmen Square, the warren of alleys known as Dashilar (written Dazhalan, but always pronounced Dashilar in local Beijing dialect) has served as the capital's lively mercantile, theatre and publishing quarter for more than five centuries. Under the Qing dynasty rule that separated the inner Manchu bannermen city from the outer Han Chinese city south of the wall, Dashilar grew along the diagonal drainage channels of an ancient riverbed, giving its hutongs an unusual crooked, slanting geometry rather than the strict north-south grid found around the palace.

Yangmeizhu Byway (Yangmeizhuxiejie)

While the main pedestrian strip of Dazhalan Commercial Street stays busy with historic silk, shoe and medicine emporiums, walking one block north brings you into Yangmeizhu Byway (Yangmeizhu Slanted Street), one of the most thoughtfully revitalised historic lanes in Beijing. During the late Qing and early Republican eras, this 496-metre diagonal street was the heart of Beijing's progressive publishing world, holding seven major book houses including the World Book Company and Chung Hwa Book Company, where writers such as Lu Xun and Shen Congwen met editors.

Instead of demolishing and rebuilding the lane, urban conservationists kept existing residents in place while inviting independent designers, letterpress printers and ceramicists into empty courtyards behind original grey-brick republican facades. Today you can step into old printing halls converted into quiet bookshops, watch woodblock and movable-type printing demonstrations, admire vintage floor tiles and carved brick lintels, and pause at calm specialty tea and coffee counters.

Tan'er Hutong, Beijing Fun and the PageOne rooftop

Branching off the eastern end of Yangmeizhu Byway and Dashilar lies Beijing Fun (Beijingfang), an open architectural quarter linking restored early-twentieth-century baroque and neoclassical merchant bank buildings with contemporary brick pavilions:

• PageOne Bookshop (Qianmen branch): step inside this three-storey bookshop at the northeast corner of Beijing Fun and climb to the second- and third-floor floor-to-ceiling windows, which frame an extraordinary close-up view of the Ming-dynasty Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower and Qianmen Gate across the avenue.
• Time-honoured shops on Dazhalan Main Street: look for the gilded wooden facade of Ruifuxiang Silk Store (founded 1862, famed for eight-brocade silks), Neiliansheng Shoe Shop (founded 1853, makers of multi-layered cloth soles) and Tongrentang Pharmacy (founded 1669, supplier of herbal medicine to the Qing imperial court), plus historic cinema facade of Daguanlou, where China's first domestic film was screened in 1905.