Peking Duck in Beijing

The weather forecast for Saturday was snow flurries in the morning, turning into a bright sunny afternoon. So when the sun came out at about 11am we decided to go down to the central area again to wander around and take some brighter photos than last week. This time we took the No. 22 bus to Qianmen, just south of Tiananmen Square (fare, 1 yuan, about 10 cents US). The bus was pretty crowded so that we had to stand nearly all of the way, and was rather slow through the Saturday shopping crowds, but gets there in the end.

The optimistic patch of blue sky didn't last long, and it was soon snowing again, with a biting cold wind. So after wandering around through the "Hutong" a bit, we decided to warm up by having lunch in the largest and most famous Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing, the Qianmen Quanjude. This is enormous place, with duck the main item on the menu. The Lonely Planet gives the restaurant a rather bad review, especially criticizing the service, but we found it friendly, and the large turnover makes for very fresh, juicy duck without a long delay.


Snowy Quanjude Restaurant


Ready for the Oven


Roasting the Ducks


Almost as Many as MacDonalds!


Quanjude Restaurant




Carving the Duck

After a delicious lunch, the sun did actually come out, so we walked around Tiananmen Square taking photos until the cold wind drove us back to the bus stop.