Beijing/Gulou

Gulou is a part of Dongcheng District in Beijing, China. The name "Gulou" translates to Drum Tower, which is one of the main attractions here. Gulou is considered the most charming area in Beijing. It is home to lakes and hutongs around the Drum Tower and Houhai. It's a unique experience to visit old courtyard houses and mansions. At night the authentic local atmosphere of the hutongs makes for a pleasant backdrop for bar hopping and scavenger hunting to locate hard to find bars.

Get in
Gulou is bordered by subway line 2 on the north, 5 on the east, and (roughly) 8 on the west and 6 on the south. This means that any spot in Gulou is generally no more than a 20-minute walk from a subway stop.

Hutongs
Hutongs are the old neighbourhoods and alleyways of Beijing. While the inner districts still have hutong neighbourhoods (for now), Dongcheng's are among the most extensive and best preserved, and most enjoyable for wandering. Turn off any major thoroughfare in the northern half of the district, and you will find yourself in real, living neighbourhoods, filled with local residents, small shops and food stalls and markets. For a good introduction to the hutongs, the area between Bell Tower and Lama Temple is easy for exploration, as most of the lanes run east-west, making it quite easy to wander from Bell Tower to Lama Temple or vice-versa, which should take about half an hour. Nanluoguxiang is a wide north-south lane that runs almost 1 km, starting from Gulou Dong Dajie, a major road, to Nanluoguxiang subway station in the south. Despite the crowds and touristy renovation it is worth a visit for gift shopping, eating snacks, and drinking bubble tea. Here too you can easily branch off down the side alleys for a glimpse of the less restored and more authentic hutongs. If walking is not your thing, try a rickshaw tour. Rickshaws converge during the day in the square between Drum and Bell Towers. You can try your luck bargaining with the drivers, or there is a fixed-price ticket booth in northwest corner of the square, offering hutong rickshaw tours for ¥180.

Nanluoguxiang area
Bar cluster established around 2006 in hutong area east of Houhai. The atmosphere in this area is still more authentic Beijing than the neighboring Houhai area, and the action here usually starts already during the afternoon at bars with outdoors space.



Drum Tower and Bell Tower area
Another smaller and quieter cluster of bars, close to both Houhai and Nanluoguxiang.



Wudaoying Hutong
Quite possibly the most charming retail street and place for a drink in Beijing. The narrow lane goes east to west starting from across the street of Lama Temple, and is mainly made up of a mix of Hello Kitty cute tiny coffee and pastry shops, hangout terrace cafes, clothing and craft boutiques, and a couple of bars. The calm but popular street is an idealized glimpse of contemporary, middle class Beijing with a local crowd—rather than throngs of tourists like in Nanluoguxiang—milling through on a weekend stroll or snapping wedding pictures on less packed weekends. Unlike the expat heavy bars around Gulou, the street is local in character so more the venue for an afternoon tipple than nightlife. The street is fairly quiet at night with about half a dozen bars and coffeeshops open past midnight.