Niu Jie-牛街

One of the city’s best kept secrets, Tianning Temple is 60-meter-tall pagoda was originally made from wood and in 602AD acted as the depository for treasured Buddhist artifacts on instruction by Emperor Wendi of the Sui dynasty. The now stone structure (having been rebuilt during the Qing dynasty) is adorned with relief sculptures of stone warriors and bodhisattvas, slightly dilapidated and worn, giving them a truly aged quality that is both hard to find and refreshing in country where a substantial number of historical sites have been rebuilt in the past 50 years.

Free entry.

All-day dining with an open kitchen and international buffet.

Specializes in xiaolong bao and other Shanghainese specialties (including crab rice cakes) at agreeable prices.

This well-known Xinjiang restaurant is managed by Chen Niansheng, a 70-year-old restaurateur who also founded Nan Lai Shun. Dianping users recommend it for the fried crispy mutton Baohu (爆糊), sweet-and-sour carp (tang cu li yu,糖醋鲤鱼) chao ma doufu (炒麻豆腐) and grilled buns (kao baozi, 烤包子).

Time-honored (laozihao) Muslim shuanyangrou (mutton hot pot) place is known for its fresh beef and mutton slices.

Set up in the foyer of a halal supermarket on Ox Street, the Bai Family’s rice cake is made fresh daily on the spot: steamed glutinous rice spread across the wooden counter, topped with sweetened red bean paste, and then rolled up. Varieties include lü da gun, donkey rolling on the ground; huangmi niangao, sticky millet cake; and zhima niangao juan, sesame seed sticky rice cake. Equally delicious are wandou huang, tang erduo and shanzha gao.

Popular culture does it no justice, often depicting it as dumb and lazy. But the humble donkey can become the meat of the gods. Well, at least in China. As the saying goes: “In heaven there is dragon meat; on earth there is donkey meat.” One of the most popular donkey meat dishes at this long-running Gulou hole-in-the-wall is the traditional lürou huoshao (驴肉火烧, donkey meat sandwich) originally from Hejian, Hebei province. This place is perpetually crowded at lunch.

With fancy, Manchu-style decor and a diverse selection of affordable dishes, this is where homesick Dongbei-ers come for their jiaozi fix. Also worth sampling are the donkey ribs and the Dongbei version of baijiu: hujia laojiu.

The oldest and largest of the 40-odd mosques in Beijing, Niujie is a central religious and social gathering place for Beijing’s 250,000 Muslims. The mosque was built in 996 AD, during the Liao dynasty, and was originally designed by the son of an imam, Nazruddin. After Genghis Khan’s armies destroyed it in 1215, the mosque was rebuilt and later significantly expanded in 1442.