Beijing: Snack Street and Donghuamen night market

In this post from my old blog I am bitching about very expensive late-night snacks in Beijing:)

Yesterday evening I went back to Wangfujing Street to experience the street at night and visit the Snack Street and Donghuamen night market, which are both down the small alleys west of the street and famous for very exotic snacks.

The market turned out to be quite a disappointment. Yes, the strange snacks were plentiful, including scorpions, seahorses, and different kinds of insects, but the prices were ridiculously high for what was basically just street food. In spite of the outrageous prices, I had decided to get a couple of dumplings, which the man behind the counter said was 50yuan (around $8).

Though, when he realized that I wasn’t Chinese, the price suddenly went up to 150 yuan (almost $24). For 6 small dumplings! And they didn’t even contain anything, exotic, they were just ordinary beef dumplings, so I told the man that he could keep his overpriced dumplings and walked away. So annoying when people try to rip you off just because you are a tourist! And it has happened so many times during this trip! I therefore ended up having dinner at Food Republic in the Oriental Plaza shopping mall, where I had a nice soup, different kinds of unidentified side dishes and a Coke for less than 40 yuan.