Which is the most famous and brisk street in Beijing?

The most famous and brisk street in Beijing is the Wangfujing Street. Extending from north to south in the center of the city it has more than 100 shops of all kinds in business here with crowds of people shopping and visiting all along the street. Displaying on the eastern side is now the large-sized newly-built Dong'an Bazaar,while opposite on the west you'll see the Beijing Department Store.

The Wangfujing Street has a history of over 550 years. Tracing back to the period of Liao and Kin dynasties, here used to be a piece of wasteland then but later in Yuan Dynasty a T-shaped street came into being. During the period of Emperor Yongle's reign (1403-1424) in the Ming Dynasty, Ten mansions of royal families began to be built in the area, hence the Ten Royal Mansion Street being named in the period of Emperor Jiajing's reign (1522-1566). In the Qing Dynasty the Ten Royal Mansions sunk gradually into oblivion, yet the name of the street remained and passed on. As there used to have a sweet water well nearby the street was thus known as the Wangfujing Street ever since.
However, the street has seen its heydays only in the recent 50 years. With the first asphalt surface road paved in 1928 the shaping of the street epitomized a vivid scene of the old semi-colonial and semifeudal China. Unfolding itself in the following two ways, the Dong'an Bazaar from the north reflected something typical Chinese, while the area in the south, with the foreign owned Peking Hotel just at the entrance, and Taijichang and Chongwenmen in its surrounding areas, are something totally alien.

Seen a rapid development in rears the street has become a must-see and shopping center for Beijing inhabitants and tourists to Beijing from all over. Especially since the adoption of the policy of opening to the outside world in the late 1970s, many shops have been opened and renovated. With the newly-built Dong'an Bazaar, the Muslim Shopping Building, the Beijing Roasted Duck Restaurant and the branch of Donglaishun Restaurant cropping up one after the other along the street, it has offered a lot of convenience to visitors Chinese or foreign alike. Now in order to provide a favorable condition to visitors coming here for shopping and sightseeing the street has been made into one for pedestrians only.