City Walk – Langyuan Station & Qianmen, Beijing, China

In this short post, I’ll share a few images from the Langyuan Station and Qianmen Hutongs areas of Beijing. I’ve written about Qianmen before so I won’t repeat the same information. You can read about the area at this link. I love exploring Beijing’s hutongs because there’s so much random stuff to see. For example, you’ll see an image below with two sofas sitting outside on some of the most expensive real estate on Earth. The elders that live in the area actually use the sofas in the evening!

Langyuan Station

Langyuan Station, located at 53 Banjieta Road in the Chaoyang District of Beijing, is a former textile warehouse district built in the 1960s. It’s now evolving into a hip destination for design, arts and a laidback vibe. Its vicinity to the famed 798 Art District certainly doesn’t hurt.

What makes Langyuan so cool is that the city is taking a different approach to architecture and this is a great example of this new approach. Rather than razing every last hint of Beijing illustrious past, the city is now aiming to restore and revitalize its old buildings with modern renovations and conveniences. While I’d still prefer the original materials be left in place, I applaud the government for taking this approach. With real estate so expensive, the temptation is always there to tear everything down and build tall, modern buildings.

Langyuan Station has evolved a lot over the past few years. I visited there in 2023 and it was pretty empty with only a few coffee shops and some art studios. Today, it’s full of design firms, furniture manufacturers head offices, tech companies, loads of coffee shops, bars and restaurants. There’s plenty to take photos of and lots of funky things to interact with. I just hope the owners maintain this restraint and don’t go overboard with LED lights and Internet Red features. The current balance is just right between having something to photograph and not turning it into a huge Disneyland.

Qianmen Hutongs

The Qianmen Hutongs area is a favourite of mine. There are hundreds of small businesses located in this densely packed area. You can try anything from very local foods to third-wave hand-crafted coffees made by the world’s best baristas. Everything is accessible by foot or bicycle and there’s an endless supply of interesting people and things to photograph. I’d highly recommend a stop to this area, however be sure to stay away from the main road which has become far too touristy in recent years.

Eagle-eyed readers will note I’ve taken these images with the Fujifilm GFX100S II. I actually did this city walk as part of the review process for that camera. A review is in progress and will be published once I’ve had sufficient time with it to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Enough about the gear, here are the images. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have or respond to your feedback; please leave a comment below.