Great Wall of Beijing: Find Out Which Businesses Survived Sanlitun's Recent Onslaught of Renovations
After swaths of construction took place in the Sanlitun area earlier this week, Turkish Doner and Andy's Craft Sausages are among the businesses that have been forced to shut down due to unfavorable conditions i.e. patrons could no longer reach their stores.
However, a surprisingly high number of establishments survived and continue to serve customers, though it looks like their days are numbered. Next to Yashow, the construction claimed the front entryways of the popular Revolution cocktail bar, Lin Da’s Tailor Shop, and a small mom-and-pop Chinese restaurant, though all were still open for business when we stopped by on the evening of March 21, and all can be accessed through alternative back entrances.
“We are still here!” Revolution manager Wang “Linda” You Xi posted on WeChat yesterday afternoon after the construction, along with photos of how to access the bar. She later told the Beijinger that “Yes I think we have to move” in the near future, though she is still not sure about an exact date or location, before promising that they will “for sure still be in Sanlitun.” She also warned that customers will now have much more difficulty parking in the vicinity of Revolution thanks to all the rubble strewn about.
Andy’s Craft Sausages was not so lucky however, and has closed down entirely, though owner Andy Horowitz has moved his operation to the nearby XL Bar.
A little further up the strip, in the next compound, Cedar’s café is also still open and can be accessed through the front entrance, despite the piles of brick and rubble out front.
Further north, an equally tumultuous tear has taken place, leaving Turkish Doner dark and empty, the owner abandoning ship as forecast when we spoke to him last week before the construction went into full swing. Cheers and the neighboring copycat bottle slinger Wine Yard Fine Wines Shop were both still open on the evening of March 21. Both could be accessed through back doors, and will remain open for now, though they’ll be looking for new locations before long.
Sunnie’s American Diner and several other longstanding businesses (including a numbe of small clothing shops) were gone. But just south of Sanlitun Road’s intersection with Dongzhimen Outer Street, the bar Bossy and the Peri Peri café both remained open. When we stopped by, the former being was all but empty while the latter entertained a few customers directly upstairs and featured a surprisingly nice, breezy interior and bright, upbeat ambiance, despite the heavy construction that had claimed nearly all the businesses south of it. The owners of both establishments said that they intend to stay open permanently, though what that means exactly in such a volatile area is anyone’s guess. Their fate is at least already more promising than everything else on the strip.
Talk of the business killing construction began around March 14, when foreboding stacks of bricks appeared on the Sanlitun strip north of Taikooli. Xingfucun and Fangjia Hutong are rumored to be next to fall victim to the construction (ominous blue warning signs were put up around March 17 at the latter hip Dongcheng alley), which is part of Beijing’s effort to eradicate so-called illegal structures, force small shop owners out of the city to reduce the centralized population, and clean up its lively but unpolished streetside businesses in favor of slicker shopping mall fare. The brick piles have also been spotted near Parkview Green and south of Landao department store on Dongdaqiao Lu, along with other locales.
READ: Beijing's Underground Secret: The Proliferation of Illegal Basements
It is still unclear how far this latest construction will reach, but for now it seems quite unprecedented and extensive. Worse still, it is leaving many expats and long dwelling Beijingers unsure as to the fate of their favorite businesses, and the overall flavor of the city in favor of comparitively faceless and generic shopping complexes. Many of us have been left to wonder whether our regular watering holes and shops will disappear, unfortunately the warm spring weather that allows us to fully enjoy them has been greeted by what can only be described as the Great Wall of Beijing.
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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
WeChat: 13263495040
Photos: 梁辰, Wang “Linda” You Xi, Andy Horowitz, Kyle Mullin
