After living in several administrative districts of Beijing, I’ve come to realize that other places are for working and sleeping, while Chaoyang is for consumption, enjoyment, and life itself!
In today’s article, I’ll share with you 5 great places to eat and explore in Beijing’s Chaoyang District.
1.The International Ritan
Ritan is like an oasis in the CBD, right next to Guomao, yet with an incredibly relaxed pace.
Low-density buildings are surrounded by a sea of greenery, with few cars and people. Folks jog and walk their dogs along the streets, fly kites, and dance in the park.
Ritan’s international genes were planted in the last century:
Here, you’ll find Xiushui Street, loved by tourists from all over the world,
Yabao Road, known as the “Yabao Road of Russians,”
And nearly 30 embassies from countries like the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland, Finland, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Egypt, Brazil, Singapore, India, Mongolia, Thailand, and more.
You can go to North Xiushui Street, South Xiushui Street, and other embassy roads to experience the solemn atmosphere: there aren’t many pedestrians, and guards stand attentively at the embassy entrances (focus on the experience; photography is not allowed at the embassies).
When it comes to the most important aspect, food, the restaurants in Ritan have been vetted by the resident ambassadors, so the flavors are very authentic. Fortunately, this treasure trove of a neighborhood hasn’t become too popular, so there’s no need to queue for meals each time.
Where to eat in Ritan?
I’ve been to basically all the shops in Ritan, and these 2 are my frequent haunts.
Lyon Restaurant
⏰: 11:00-22:30
👍: Lyon-style yogurt cheese, two types of foie gras, Lyon-style beef tongue
When people think of French cuisine, they often consider it to be very high-end and formal, but French food is also quite diverse. For example, the people of Lyon love to eat offal. There aren’t many restaurants in Beijing that serve Lyon cuisine, so two young men from Lyon opened this restaurant together.
Lyon Restaurant takes the home-style cooking route. Yellow walls, red checkered tablecloths, recreating a rustic charm.
The menu will surprise you, showing that French cuisine can be like this: buttered chicken hearts, Lyon fish balls, mustard tripe, Lyon-style stir-fried frog…
However, I’m still relatively conservative when ordering, and I don’t often choose the more exotic dishes. One time, I ordered a Lyon fish ball, which was as big as an omurice (so the inside wasn’t very flavorful and needed extra salt). The conventional dishes like foie gras and beef tongue are also well-prepared.
The owner speaks fluent Chinese and will enthusiastically introduce you to the beautiful scenery and cuisine of Lyon, making it feel like the restaurant was opened to promote Lyon tourism.
il gatto coffee
⏰: 9:00-19:00
👍: White Night, pour-over coffee
il gatto, or “Yikaduo” in Chinese, is owned by Lao Zhao, a veteran of Beijing’s coffee scene who has been deeply involved in the coffee industry for many years. The store roasts its own beans.
The ambiance of this store is truly comfortable. It’s a single-story white house next to the Genoa Embassy, using floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights to increase natural light. On sunny days, sunlight pours into the room in large swaths, making it very bright and open.
So as long as the weather is good, Yikaduo is always full, with a row of coffee drinkers at the entrance.
Apart from the great coffee and environment, it also owes its success to its pet-friendly attribute. Residents walking their dogs in the surrounding area all love to come here to bask in the sun.
I recommend a coffee called “White Night,” which is an iced dirty milk bock. The milk and espresso are layered separately, and you have to drink it in big gulps before they mix together, leaving a sweet and rich aftertaste in your mouth.
il gatto is particular about bean selection, and the baristas are generally skilled, so pour-over coffee is also worth trying. Just be prepared to wait a long time when it’s crowded.
Other Ritan Food Recommendations
📍 Mango Russian Western Restaurant (11:00-02:00)
- A lavishly decorated Russian restaurant with evening performances.
📍 Ritan Ruilin Restaurant (24-hour operation)
- Serves rare Caucasian cuisine and offers hookahs.
📍 Fufu (11:00-23:00)
- A cute little bar serving Italian cuisine.
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Where to explore in Ritan?
Ritan has parks, embassy districts, art malls, and a vibrant nightlife.
Ritan Park
⏰: Open 24 hours
Ritan Park may not be as famous as the Temple of Heaven, but it’s still worth a visit. There’s a 15-meter-long, 6-meter-high sacrificial mural on the central walkway.
The Qinghui Pavilion on the west side is a vantage point where elderly folks love to fly kites. The kites soar dozens of meters into the sky, with the CBD skyscrapers as a backdrop, resembling how we office workers chase freedom but can’t escape. T_T
PS: Ritan Park recently opened its flower festival, adding more colors to the park.
Zhihua Temple
⏰: 9:00-17:00 (closed on Mondays)
💰: Full-price ticket 20 yuan, free for the first 200 visitors every Wednesday
Zhihua Temple is not far from Ritan. See pear blossoms in late March and lilacs and crabapple blossoms in late April. It serves as the Beijing Cultural Exchange Center and preserves a complete set of Ming Dynasty wooden structures, as well as exquisite statues, caisson ceilings, revolving sutra repositories, and Ming Dynasty murals.
There are two performances of Jing music daily from 10:00-10:20 and 15:00-15:30. Jing music has a 500-year history and is known as the “living fossil of Chinese music.” The 20-yuan ticket is well worth it.
Parkview Green
⏰: 10:00-22:00
This is the least mall-like mall, with art pieces as the protagonist and shops as embellishments. Amazingly, despite its cool exterior, numerous art installations inside, great location, and frequent art exhibitions, it has never been very popular.
The experience of browsing is excellent, and when the lights come on at night, you feel like you’re not even in the 21st century.
For friends who want to experience the nightlife, check this out:
DADA
⏰: 21:00-5:00 (closed on Mondays)
DADA has been open for over a decade, moving from Gulou to Ritan. It’s a primarily Techno-style club that requires a ticket for entry. Doors open at 21:00, the DJ takes the stage at 22:00, and the venue usually heats up around 23:00. The atmosphere of the day depends on the DJ’s skill level. Due to DADA’s influence, basically all the great DJs have played there.
I really like the atmosphere at DADA. There are no minimum charges or required socializing; everyone just dances on their own and purely enjoys the music.
DDC
⏰: Depends on the performances and screenings
DDC is also my dream venue, short for “Dusk Dawn Club.” Culturally, it’s independent, open, diverse, and supportive of anything that happens. Technically, its sound, light, and stage effects are the benchmark among Beijing’s many livehouses.
In recent years, DDC has turned into a movie theater due to the inability to hold performances (a livehouse transforming into a movie theater shows how great the stage effects are). On days without performances, DDC continues to screen movies. Movies generally start at 19:30, and performances begin at 20:00/21:00. You can follow the WeChat official account “Dusk Dawn Club” for the latest event information.
2.Trendy Sanlitun
When it comes to shopping, Sanlitun is the first place that comes to mind. This “tun” (village) is the trendiest and most prosperous in Beijing.
Going to Sanlitun usually means strolling around the three areas of Taikoo Li (South, North, and West). However, compared to standardized mall stores, I prefer the individuality and flexibility of independent shops.
So when I go to Sanlitun, I don’t visit Taikoo Li. Instead, I head to the less noisy Jidian Yuan (Machinery and Electronics Institute). Unfortunately, the garden there was demolished, and Sanlitun lost a great place to hang out and eat.
Jidian Yuan
Jidian Yuan is rich and colorful, with restaurants, cafes, boutiques, and bars all available, so celebrities also love to visit. Chaoyang residents have encountered Yang Mi, Song Zuer, Jin Chen, Yu Shuxin, and others here.
If you want to have brunch, I recommend these two places:
Panorama
⏰: 10:00-24:00
👍: Crepes
Panorama feels very similar to Rac in Shanghai, both featuring crepes. This store is the king of queues on weekends, mainly due to the environment. Green door and window frames are embedded in the warm-colored red brick walls, with large green plants adorning them. When the weather is warm, and the two large folding windows at the corner are opened, it has a French street feel, and sitting outdoors is super comfortable.
The Rug
⏰: 10:00-21:30
👍: Pancakes, Spanish spicy fried shrimp
When meeting friends for brunch, I prefer this place. Their menu doesn’t update frequently, but fortunately, there are many dishes, and everyone can choose what they like.
The must-order souffle pancakes, with their duangduang softness, are satisfying when eaten with honey and bananas.
In addition to brunch dishes like egg and bread combinations, The Rug also has quite a few dishes suitable for main meals. So we often eat from brunch to lunch, then afternoon tea, and finally drinks.
If you want to simply have a coffee, I recommend this place:
Baristar
⏰: 8:30-19:30
👍: Dirty
Now everyone is familiar with Dirty coffee, and Baristar is where Dirty debuted. Founded in 2013, Baristar is one of the earliest specialty coffee shops in Beijing. One day, the barista poured espresso into iced milk. The first sip was warm, the second sip was cold, and it tasted inexplicably good, thus Dirty was born.
Baristar is located in Jing Yard, within Jidian Yuan, making its location even more hidden. The red brick exterior walls, shaded by greenery, extend into a transparent glass house with a black and white hard-edged interior.
Upon entering, you’ll see the coffee bar, where customers can watch the baristas’ workflow from any angle, making it cool and approachable.
If you want to find a small tavern, I recommend this one:
abboCCa Bistroteca
⏰: 10:00-24:00
👍: Endless juicy Margherita pizza, roasted vegetable platter
It has a self-service Bistro style, reminiscent of a European market, with refrigerators full of various ingredients. Due to its tavern positioning, people are used to coming in the evening, but Jidian Yuan is a place where more people come during the day, so the store offers many lunch, afternoon drinking, and other activities and packages.
There is a Michelin one-star vegetarian restaurant called “Lan Zhai” in Jidian Yuan. The head chef, Master Dai, came from Shanhe Wanduo and Jingzhao Yin and has been involved with vegetarian food for over a decade, so he is more at ease with his creations now.
Vegetarian cuisine is actually a very difficult field, and it’s easy to receive negative reviews like “eating loneliness” or “all style, no substance.” Lan Zhai is one of the better ones, truly creating aesthetic value and taste innovation in vegetarian food.
Lan Zhai introduces seasonal menus at different times of the year, with prices around 2,000 yuan per person, including service fees. Would you want to experience it?
Jidian Yuan also has two great bars: “Infusion Room” and “DLounge.”
Infusion Room is on the second-floor attic, with limited seating, making it smaller but beautiful, and the cocktails are very creative.
DLounge is on the first floor, grand and imposing, with a stronger social attribute.
Of course, it’s not all about eating and drinking here. You can also check out the domestic original design brand “SMFK” and the vintage store “Vintage Musevie,” where scenes from the TV shows “Nothing but Thirty” and “I’m Doing Pretty Well in a Strange Land” were filmed.
3.Japanese Cuisine Cluster in Maizidian
Maizidian is just 1 kilometer away from the Japanese Embassy, and there are several Japanese companies nearby, so quite a few Japanese expats live in the area, naturally making it a gathering place for Japanese cuisine.
Because there are so many options, you need to carefully consider where to eat. Among them, the most famous are the three Japanese food buildings: Yibanjie, Yibanjie Yokocho, and Shibuya Yokocho. They are clustered together, and when the lights come on at night, they have the ambiance of a Japanese street.
These three buildings house dozens of Japanese restaurants, with very specialized offerings. There are oden and ramen specialty shops, as well as those focusing on fried foods and sushi, with yakitori restaurants being especially numerous.
The main style here is affordable cafeteria-style, the taste of home for Japanese expats working in China.
Yibanjie
The shops in Yibanjie are the most specialized, with the most options for solo diners, such as ramen and oden shops.
Suika Izakaya
⏰: 17:30-24:00
👍: Soy sauce bone-in chicken leg, salt sauce onion minced pickled beef tongue
Suika has an izakaya style. On nights when I go to Suika, I always find a reassuring corner spot, order an iced beer, choose two small dishes to go with the drink, and quietly observe the colleague gatherings in the store, where people talk loudly and drink heartily. It seems that a large part of Japanese people’s emotions are released in izakayas.
The soy sauce bone-in chicken leg is a specialty of the Takamatsu area in the Seto Inland Sea. A whole chicken leg is pounded, marinated, and then grilled, creating a crispy skin that locks in the juices. The chicken is eaten with sweet cabbage.
Salt sauce onion minced pickled beef tongue: Chewy beef tongue wrapped in minced onion, slowly chewing out the layers, and then taking a big sip of iced beer, letting out a satisfied “ha” sound~
Tebasaki Ambassador
⏰: 17:30-23:30
👍: Salt-flavored chicken wings, chilled dandan noodles with hot spring egg, mushroom cream egg roll
“Tebasaki” means chicken wings, and this shop specializes in Nagoya-style fried chicken wings. The style of Nagoya fried chicken wings is to not coat them in a thick batter, but to force the oil out of the skin to create crispiness.
An order of fried chicken wings comes with 5 pieces, with several flavors to choose from: soy sauce, salt, spicy, black pepper, blue cheese, perilla sauce, and orange vinegar. The soy sauce flavor sells the best. I prefer the salt flavor, squeezing lemon juice on it, so it doesn’t feel greasy.
Yibanjie Yokocho
The first floor of Yibanjie Yokocho has restaurants, while the second floor has Japanese-style bars and karaoke. The restaurant selection here isn’t as diverse, mainly focusing on yakitori and yakiniku. The karaoke and bars on the second floor are very interesting.
Ichibankan
⏰: 12:00-24:00
A delicious Japanese-style karaoke spot, with more snack options than regular karaoke, such as fried chicken, takoyaki, and yakitori. The most exciting part is that you can sing while eating sukiyaki hot pot. A group of people steaming beef in the hot pot is so much fun.
Tokyo Salon
⏰: 18:00-1:00
A jazz bar with high-quality performances, basically every day (follow the WeChat official account “Yibanjie” for performance information). Another jazz bar I really like, The Bricks, used to have the same owner as this one.
As a music-focused quiet bar, in addition to peanuts, there are also meat dishes available, such as duck confit, white wine mussels, and Japanese-style teriyaki chicken wings, which is a big plus for someone like me who likes to eat snacks while drinking.
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Shibuya Yokocho
Shibuya Yokocho is on the 3rd floor of 258 Plaza, and I think it has the most exciting food among these 3 buildings.
Hokuto Group – Japanese-Western Fusion Izakaya
⏰: 11:30-14:00, 17:30-22:30
👍: Chicken liver mousse, shrimp oil hot pot, Spanish garlic chicken giblets, three kinds of horse meat sashimi, grilled beef intestine with leek on iron plate, beef tongue fried meat pie, mapo goose liver with beef brain, stewed beef tendon
If you’re like me and love to have a few drinks, then you’ll absolutely love this place. Good snacks to go with drinks shouldn’t be too large in quantity or size, focusing on being fine, scattered, and flavorful. Seeing the long list of recommended dishes I wrote above, you’ll know how satisfying it is to order here.
Japanese-Western fusion incorporates the styles of Japanese and Western cuisine, with a bit of Chinese influence as well, making it a great variation of “white people food”!
Shibuya Yokocho originally had a specialty grilled beef tripe shop called “Katsuyokocho,” but unfortunately, it has closed. The Okinawan cuisine restaurant “Umika Okinawa Izakaya” also tastes pretty good, but my friends all say the dishes resemble Chinese cuisine, so they don’t like going there.
Walking 10 minutes from these 3 buildings, you can reach the Beijing branch of the Seine River, “Liangma River.” A lot of money was spent on the night tour lights along the Liangma River, and the riverside plank road was also well-constructed, making it super comfortable to take a walk in the evening~
4.Qingnian Road: Coffee by Day, Alcohol by Night
Qingnian Road is a gathering place for young people from other parts of China who have come to live in Chaoyang District, Beijing. A large group of screenwriters, writers, bloggers, and illustrators reside here, and the area is full of coffee shops and small bars, embodying a lifestyle of coffee during the day and alcohol at night.
Portrait of Qingnian Road youth: Most of them have decent jobs, though their salaries may not be stable. However, they are willing to pay for their quality of life and leave some room for spiritual consumption.
The shop owners are also well aware that Qingnian Road is not a tourist area. Rather than becoming a “viral shop” that does business only once, they want to become a comfortable community store. Under this virtuous cycle, Qingnian Road has gradually formed a community atmosphere that real estate developers in other places envy.
The Three Musketeers of Qingnian Road
When talking about Qingnian Road, one must mention the Three Musketeers of Qingnian Road!
They are three independent coffee shops on the ground floor of the Huafang Yicheng residential area: Cafe Clark, Inner, and Owl Commune.
Cafe Clark
⏰: 12:00-19:00
👍: Pour-over coffee
More than a decade ago, Clark, who likes to wear a hat while brewing coffee, opened a retro coffee shop on Qingnian Road, which was still a “urban-rural fringe” at the time. He named it after his English name and decorated the shop with antique furnishings he had collected from various places.
This is a very unique coffee shop, with a sign at the door stating “separate charge for photography,” cleverly keeping photography teams out and allowing nearby residents to drink coffee and work in peace.
The menu is almost useless, with only one page, and all in English. The purpose is to make customers unsure of what to order, so they are more willing to communicate with the barista and order face-to-face.
Inner Cafe
⏰: 12:00-19:00
👍: Twin Coffee
After Cafe Clark, owner Mao Mao opened Inner. It was renovated a couple of years ago, with hand-painted English letters, red curtains, and Czech mid-century theater bench seats, presenting a sense of European elegance.
There are two blends of beans to choose from for Italian-style coffee, one rich and one fruity. The signature Twin Coffee is made by extracting a mixture of coffee beans and South African Wishing Treasure black tea, using the method of making a latte, with the aroma of tea mixed with the aroma of coffee, providing two flavors in one.
Owl Commune
⏰: 9:00-24:00
👍: Uji matcha latte, craft beer
Owl Commune opened in 2016 when Clark and Inner were already on the street, and there weren’t that many coffee consumers on Qingnian Road. The owner differentiated with a different style and product, confidently opening this coffee and craft beer shop.
The fact proves that as long as you have your own style, you don’t have to fear competition from peers.
Coffee by Day, Alcohol by Night on Qingnian Road
One thing I admire about Qingnian Road is that in a community with dozens of coffee shops, the shops get along peacefully, and sometimes the owners visit each other to drink coffee with different flavors.
Other recommended coffee shops on Qingnian Road
📍 Xiao Liu (10:00-19:00)
- After 19:00, when Xiao Liu gets off work, Xiao Liu Coffee transforms into YOLO Bar.
📍 Mornight Cafe (12:00-18:00)
- Monet recently moved, and the exterior wall changed from matcha green to dark red. Every corner of the store is exquisite, with even the ceiling covered in Renaissance-style oil paintings.
The daytime on Qingnian Road belongs to coffee, while the night belongs to alcohol.
Most bars open on the ground floor of the community and don’t solicit customers outside. The bars are evenly distributed among snack shops, flower shops, and supermarkets, and they are all quiet bars that don’t disturb the daily life of residents.
Recommended bars on Qingnian Road
📍 Hawthorn West House (19:00-3:00)
- There are many hawthorn-flavored cocktails, and complimentary hawthorn slices are served upon seating. There is another “Hawthorn Alley House” on Qingnian Road; go to whichever one has a seat available.
📍 Naughty Monkey (weekdays 18:00-2:00, weekends 14:00-2:00)
- If you don’t want to drink cocktails while sitting upright, come to the more casual Naughty Monkey, which has many hard-to-buy niche craft beers.
Chaoyang Joy City
When coming to Qingnian Road, Chaoyang Joy City is a must-visit. Opened in 2010, Chaoyang Joy City has almost changed the fate of Qingnian Road, transforming the urban-rural fringe into a youth community.
Chaoyang Joy City is a massive mall, nearly 300 meters long and wide, 11 stories tall, with hundreds of stores.
The tenant mix also fits well with Qingnian Road’s artistic style, gathering spaces such as “DISC Vinyl Store,” “Mahua Talk Show Theater,” “Sanlian Bookstore,” “teamLab Borderless Art Space,” and “U2 Art Museum.”
5.Lidu: The Epitome of Refined Living
Lidu, located between the East Fourth Ring Road and the Fifth Ring Road, is an affluent area known as “Beijing’s Manhattan.”
In the 1980s, Lidu was home to China’s first international brand foreign-related hotel and Beijing’s first purely foreign-related school. Now, various international facilities are well-established, attracting numerous celebrities to settle down here.
If you’re not careful, you might bump into Chen Danqing, Dou Wentao, or Li Chen. I heard that a certain “Bing” and a certain “Jing” also live here. Li Yapeng once opened a coffee shop in Lidu, and Huang Jue opened a bar here.
The area is quiet and low-key, with exquisite streets and numerous small shops. Instead of the ostentation of the fame and fortune scene, it exudes more of the ease of refined living.
Lidu’s Best Shops
Lidu is close to where I used to work, so I often visit. There are so many great shops, but the most eye-catching one has to be Hide&Seek.
Hide&Seek
⏰: Sunday to Thursday 17:00-2:00, Friday and Saturday 17:00-3:00
👍: Charred scallion sauce beef tongue pancake, pickled pig ear slices, Yunnan coffee sauce braised beef ribs
Hide&Seek has many buffs: it is located by the lake in Lido Garden, with a scenic pool, a large outdoor garden, and a high-value Moroccan-style architecture. In the city, it offers a sense of vacation.
The store is divided into two areas: one is the wine area for main meals, and the other is the cocktail area for snacks.
The partners are very capable, having cultivated Hide&Seek into an all-around player: good interior design, good outdoor garden, good wine selection, good cocktail creation, and good food.
If you only visit one store in Lidu, choose this one.
Other Recommendations in Lidu
📍 Ponte (7:30-22:30)
- A Black Pearl Italian restaurant, with the same owner as Beijing’s famous chain Italian restaurant “Annie.” I admire an Italian restaurant that opens at 7:30.
📍 Wutong Restaurant (11:00-14:30, 17:00-22:00)
- A restaurant selected by the Michelin Guide for four consecutive years, serving refined Chinese cuisine. The signature dish is roast duck.
📍 23le jardin (9:00-1:00)
- A beautiful restaurant with a sunny garden. The business hours shocked me again, with Brunch in the morning and a small pub late at night all in one. Their Basque cheesecake is well-made, and I usually go for afternoon tea.
📍 Mi’s Coffee (10:30-19:00)
- A very comfortable coffee shop, usually not crowded, office-friendly, and pet-friendly.
📍 Wigwam
- A club loved by celebrities. Tickets are required for entry. You might encounter Huang Jue DJing or Zang Hongfei dancing. Follow their official account for event information.
In April, the double-flowered cherry blossoms in “Side Park” will be in full bloom, along with pear blossoms, begonia, and lilacs. The trees are beautifully shaped, with low branches and a lawn underneath, making it perfect for portrait photography.
The above are the 5 great places to hang out and eat in Chaoyang District that I’ve discovered. Do you know of any other great places to visit and eat in Beijing? Feel free to share in the comment section~
