Nanxincang area guide

Time Out takes a look around one of Beijing's restaurant quarters, a converted 600-year-old granary, now home to some of the capital's most interesting restaurants

When developers bought up the area alongside Dongsi Shitiao, just inside the eastern second ring road, things looked bleak for China's oldest existing granary – a cluster of buildings that date back to the Yongle period (AD1403-24).

Flanked by the construction sites for Nanxincang Tower and the New Poly Plaza, the traditional grey tiled roofs were hidden from view and their fate seemed uncertain. But when the scaffolding came down at the end of 2005, a renovated Nanxincang was once again on public display and its future had been secured.

This valuable historical site is now one of Beijing's entertainment venues, the new home of three art galleries, an audio book shop, a teahouse and several bars and restaurants. As no fire can be used in the 600-year-old structure, the complex's dozen eateries are housed in the site's new buildings. The Xiangjiang Jituan group and the Beijing City Department Store, co-developed the project in a bid to emulate Shanghai's trendy Xintiandi district under the concept: 'Yesterday meets tomorrow in Beijing today.'

Wang Xiang, owner of audio shop Yuefu, says the fact Nanxincang held grain for imperial family and court officials during the Ming and Qing dynasties gives it a historical significance that trumps Xintiandi, a tenement built in the 1900s which pre-facelift was known as Shikumen. 'The structure of these warehouses reflect the simple but elegant style of the Ming dynasty,' he adds.

The structures at Nanxincang – just 10 years younger than the Forbidden City –were among the 300-plus granaries dotted across Chaoyang district during imperial times. Grain storage was well thought-out in imperial China – Yicang were the grain storage places for everyday folk, while guancang served officials and the military, who were paid in grain for their services – the area around Lumicang was built for this purpose.

The granaries were all built according to exact standards: each had to be 23.3 metres wide, 17.6 metres long and 7.5 metres tall. The floors were all paved with thick bricks and covered with wooden boards resting on brick shoulders to insulate the grain from the moisture of the earth. An elevated opening placed in the center of the roof, which can still be seen today, was enclosed with woven bamboo strips to prevent birds from entering, but still provided sufficient ventilation. The 1.5 metres thick walls stabilised the room temperature and prevented the grain from going mouldy.

These granaries were filled with grain shipped north along the 3,000 mile Grand Canal system that linked Hangzhou to Tongzhou (present day Tongxian). From Tongzhou it travelled by cart through Chaoyang Gate, known as the Gate Facing the Sun. From here, the grain was delivered to granaries near the gate, including Beixincang, Haiyuncang, and Lumicang, just to mention a few.

In 1600, Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci arrived in Beijing from Nanjing via the Grand Canal. He wrote that the canal was crowded with 10,000 barges transporting grain from the south as well as with ones owned by magistrates and officials taking part in private trade. 'Private merchants coming in from the (Yangtze) River are not permitted to enter these canals... they disembarked...on the river bank about a day's journey from the city walls. There was a canal running from there into the city, but... only those conveying cargoes to the royal court were permitted to use it. This law was passed in order to prevent the multitude of boats from dogging the traffic, and cargoes destined for the royal city from being spoiled.'

Sadly, all the granaries except for Nanxincang have disappeared. Beixincang, in Dongzhimen, was taken over by the Eight-Power Allied Forces during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and the entire grain supply was sold for profit. Both Beixincang and Lumicang were converted into an army uniform factories during the Republican years, at a time when the number of granaries in Nanxincang was reduced significantly because of rampant corruption.

In 2002, Beixincang and Haiyuncang became the site of a new five-storey housing complex, with the only traces remaining being the hutongs that were named after these granaries. The eight existing structures at Nanxincang served as the warehouses of the Beijing City Department Store until 2005, when they were renovated.

Wang Xiang's Polo Arts Entertainment Company has done the best job of turning one of these structures to modern use. Steel was used to give extra support to the centuries-old warehouse as it was transformed to house a book and audio shop on the lower level and an elegant wine bar upstairs. 'We consulted architects, archaeologists, preservationists, engineers, historians, designers and Qinghua University on how to use the building without causing any harm to the structure,' he says, adding that 'all of the fittings were designed so they can be removed at any time without affecting the building.'

Polo Arts also plans to promote traditional Chinese arts by staging performances of Kunqu, China's oldest school of opera, in an adjoining section of the building.

As with most historical preservation projects in China, the developers stopped short of perfection, allowing two very strange building designs at the western end of the complex: French restaurant, Gourmet, has a European exterior bolted onto its front while Ice Age, the hot pot restaurant next door sports a huge plastic glacier-like structure protruding from its front. These blots on the landscape aside, we should be thankful that Nanxincang did not share the fate of Beijing's other granaries.

A closer look at some of the restaurants

Sifang Jie A16 Warehouse Complex, (tel 6409 6403). Open 10am-2pm; 5pm-9.30pm. Meal for two 150RMB.四方街, 古仓群A16
A Yunnan restaurant named after an old town in Lijiang. The focus is on southwestern Yunnan cuisine, which adopts the use of lime, lemon grass and other flavors from its neighbours on its southern borders. Highly recommended by the owner, a native of Ruili: sautéed beef fillet in lime (28RMB), stir-fried Shiping beancurd (18RMB) (the beancurd here is made without any coagulent), sautéed loofa sprouts (28RMB), beef rice noodles, and qiguo ji, Yunnan chicken soup cooked in a clay pot. The pot has a pipe in the center through which steam passes cooking the contents inside. Rice cooked in a bamboo tube is fragrant and excellent.

Gourmet A14 Warehouse Complex (tel 6409 6832). Open 9.30am-12.30pm; 6-11pm. Meal for two around 500RMB 库和美, 古仓群A14
With an external European design, this high priced restaurant looks rather incongruous in the historical complex, but with a French chef the food is certainly authentically European. The restaurant has an expensive a la carte menu with starters such as duck breast and melon for 60-90RMB and veal steak for 140RMB, however Time Out recommends ordering starters such as roasted mussels and main courses such as steak, off the large set menu for only 90RMB.

Fanqian Fanhou A13 Warehouse Complex (tel 6409 6510). Open 10am-10pm. 饭前饭后,古仓群A13
This eatery specializes in Taiwan cuisine. You can have a meal here for as little as 8RMB, such as a bowl of Taiwan rousao fan, rice topped with a minced-meat sauce (the sauce has a nice shallot flavor). Other typical dishes include turnip egg omelette (26RMB), stir fried vermicelli (26RMB), homemade sausage containing the famous sorghum alcohol produced on the island of Jinmen (30RMB), spicy hollow vegetable with minced pork (32RMB). Finish your meal with soft beancurd with ginger syrup (32RMB).

Latino's A12 Warehouse Complex (tel 6409 6997). Open 9pm-late. 拉丁屋,古仓群A12
The tight-trousered salsa crowd flock here after Latinos moved from its original Chaoyang South Gate location.

600 Fusion Food A11 Warehouse Complex (tel 5169 0120). 六百年新派日本料理,古仓群A11
One of the largest restaurants in the area, 600 Fusion Food is actually a sleek and sophisticated Japanese restaurant with a vast menu. Sushi such as crabmeat salad, eel avacado and tuna with spicy sesame powder and green onion cost 90RMB for a plate and 238RMB gets you a large assortment of sushi. A plate of tuna sashimi comes in at 128RMB and yellowtail costs 60RMB for seven pieces. For groups, an assortment of sashimi for five to six people costs 550RMB. Already busy in its opening weeks, this restaurant looks to be one of the area's big successes.

Cook Behind Ye Fu (tel 6409 6728). Open 11am-10pm. Meal for two 50RMB. 酷客,乐府后面
A diner-like place with large booths by the window serving Shanghai steamed buns with a variety of fillings: crab (48RMB) minced pork (20RMB), shrimp (32RMB), and vegetable (18RMB). Cook also has several types of noodles from 18RMB-42RMB. Tangyuan sweet sticky-rice dumplings filled with redbean paste, black sesame paste or meat (10-12RMB/bowl).

Shang Yun Xuan Teahouse Behind Cook (tel 6409 6638). Open 10am-2am. Tea for two 180RMB. 尚云轩 酷客后面
A teahouse set in a courtyard house serving some very expensive teas. This venue has a common room and four private rooms – bamboo, orchid, plum and chrysanthemum. It offers health teas made from lemon peels, white lily, and chrysanthemum at 180RMB per pot. Some of the teas here are extremely expensive, so be careful. An aged Pu’er tea sells for an incredible 12,800RMB/pot, or 6,280RMB/cup. Snacks include watermelon seeds, peanuts, walnuts and raisins for 20RMB/plate.

Rain Club Next door to Cook (tel 6409 6922). Open 10am-2am. Meal for two around 400RMB. 尚润奢品,酷客旁边
Offers a large selection of fusion dishes such as oolong beef bone soup, guihua fengxiang, giant prawns in a subtly sweet sauce. Fresh vegetables are on display in the glassed-in kitchen, where diners can choose what they'd like and how they'd like it prepared

To visit..

Nanxincang is located at Dongsi Shitiao southwest of Dongsi Shitiao Bridge 南新仓 东四十条,东四十条桥西南

Eileen Wen Mooney