Ghost Street (Guijie): Red Lanterns and Late-Night Dining

Running for 1.4 kilometres east to west along Dongzhimen Inner Street between the East Second Ring Road at Dongzhimen Bridge and Beixinqiao Station (Subway Line 5 and the western terminus of the Capital Airport Express), Guijie (Ghost Street) is central Beijing's premier late-night dining boulevard. Every evening at dusk, thousands of crimson silk lanterns strung from the locust trees and two-storey courtyard eaves switch on simultaneously, turning the entire street into a glowing red tunnel that stays lively well past midnight when the rest of Dongcheng has gone to sleep.

How "Ghost Street" became "Treasure Bowl Street"

The nickname originated in the late Qing dynasty outside Dongzhimen Gate, the city gate through which timber carts entered and funeral processions exited toward the eastern cemeteries. Before dawn, peddlers selling coal oil, vegetables, coffin wood and secondhand curios set up dim oil lanterns along the road, flickering through the morning mist like ghosts (gui, ). When the street grew into a round-the-clock restaurant row in the 1990s, municipal officials cleverly kept the exact pronunciation Guijie while swapping the character for (gui), a round bronze food vessel used in Shang and Zhou dynasty ritual feasts, turning Ghost Street into an auspicious emblem of abundance.

Three signature dishes to order on Guijie

Unlike quiet Peking duck halls, Guijie specialises in bold, communal, spice-driven evening feasts where tables are covered in disposable plastic sheets and diners pull on plastic gloves:

1. Mala Xiaolongxia (Spicy Sichuan Peppercorn Crayfish): the undisputed king of the boulevard, known locally as Mala Xia. Freshwater crayfish are flash-fried and braised in a fragrant red broth of dried chillies, numbing Hanyuan Sichuan peppercorns, ginger, garlic and star anise at massive multi-courtyard institutions such as Huda Restaurant (which operates several branches on the street; pull a digital queue ticket on WeChat early in the evening).
2. Charcoal-grilled whole fish (Kaoyu): whole sea bass or Qingjiang river fish butterfly-split, roasted crisp in a clay oven, and brought to the table sizzling in a flat iron tray heaped with lotus root, tofu skin, celery and pickled chillies.
3. Copper-pot hotpot and barbecue skewers: several historic charcoal lamb hotpot houses and smoky lamb-kebab (yangrouchuan) grills line the western end near Beixinqiao, accompanied by ice-cold Yanjing beer and sweet arctic ocean orange soda (Beibingyang).