Going in Qianmen Pedestrian Street 前门大街
I remember when I was at the archery tower of Zhengyang Gate 正阳门 I noticed that there was a fancy looking pedestrian street. I figured that I would try to find my dinner here after I was done exploring parts of the Zhengyang Gate area. It was already sunset and people were already out in full force. The pedestrian street was wide enough to accomodate everybody. The first pedestrian street I visited in Shanghai was the famous Wangfujing 王府井 shopping street. However, famous as it may be, I didn’t really like it. Perhaps it was because of the vibe the place was generating. There were a lot of people and lots of people tend to attract undesirable characters. Although I didn’t see anything happen there, I just felt that Wangfujing felt a little unsafe, meaning there was a lot of pickpockets.
Tram For Hire at Qianmen Pedestrian Street 前门大街
The Qianmen pedestrian shopping street on the other hand was a very pleasant place to visit. There weren’t large shopping malls on either side of the street but rather small shophouses, sort of reminds me of Zhongyang Street in Harbin. I don’t know how authentic the buildings were in this part of the city but most looked very well maintained. I won’t be surprised to know that these buildings were just reproductions, but I’m not complaining since they did a good job of it. One of the nice things here was the presence of a tram. There were two tram tracks which run some length of Qianmen Street (it is quite a lengthy street). There were two trams for hire in case you want to experience riding a tram or just plain lazy. The trams were a very nice touch and really provide Qianmen Street some charm quite lacking in Wangfujing.
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