Along with the Great Wall and Tian'anmen Square, Qianmen Street is one of the "must-see" places listed in many tourist guides. The street lies on Beijing's historic central axis just south of the Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City, the imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Famous for its ancient architecture, Dashilan street was a commercial center of Beijing more than five hundred and eighty years ago. The name Dashilan comes from the large gates built at either end of the street during the Qing Dynasty to prevent street crime at night and as a safeguard against riots by the local Han people against the Qing. The fences built here were quite peculiar and kept for a long time. 

The commercial street, Qianmen Street, took shape about 570 years ago and reached its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, garlanded with restaurants, theaters, silk stores and tea houses. The famous shopping area is where the old meets the new, and China specialties meets Western brands. You can sip Starbucks after tasting the famous Beijing roast duck at Quanjude Restaurant. A dozen local brands, such as the Quanjude roasted duck restaurant and the Zhangyiyuan tea house, were originated from the 840-meter-long Qianmen Street in the past century. Traces of traditional Chinese architecture and history can be seen in the stores' gray facades, elaborate wooden archways, rattle-drum street ornaments and bird cages.

Dashilan is situated on south of Tiananmen Square, west of Qianmen Dajie, where many century-old shops and Restaurant stand. It has been home to many time-honored Chinese brands with histories as long as the buildings. Liubiju pickled vegetables, Zhangyiyuan tea, Yueshengzhai stewed pork and Ruifuxiang silk and fabric are household names locally. Tongrentang drugstore is a good place to learn about traditional Chinese medicine. Its founder was Emperor Kangxi's royal doctor back in the Qing Dynasty. You can see how shopkeepers weigh and mix different kinds of herbs in accordance with doctor’s specific recipe to make one package of medicine for a patient.