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Beijing Street Food from Spiders to Snakes on Wangfujing Snack Street

Beijing street food on Wangfujing Snack Street

Beijing Street Food was really beyond my imagination, and farther outside my comfort zone than I had expected. 

Our visit to Wangfujing Snack Street was a treat to the senses, or should I say a challenge to them. From interesting textures to new aromas, it was much more than just a tasty food market.

Based on what we’d heard, I expected to find fried spiders, but not seahorses or cow testicles. And that was only the beginning. All this was long before we had even begun adapting to the culture.

But there we were, staring at tables of Beijing street food along the famous Wangfujing Snack Street. It’s located off of the also famous Wangfujing Street, well-known as a modern fashion destination in the Dongcheng District, inside the 2nd Ring.

The mile-long main road is one of the four most prosperous business zones in Beijing. It’s where you go for the best shoes, hats, books, tea, herbs, and even Peking duck. In fact, and quite the opposite of Beijing street food we encountered, the most famous roast duck restaurant in China, Quanjude, is located on Wangfujing Street (as one of its many locations).

And then there is Wangfujing Snack Street.

For us, it was located right outside our Beijing apartment, yet we didn’t brave it alone. Although we could have. And, if we went back today, I am sure we would.

At the time, we were still quite new to international travel with our kids, and a bit unsure of ourselves in countries where neither of us spoke the language.

It was our guide who explained how it worked, simply select your favourite treat, and they will boil, BBQ, fry, or steam it right on the spot . . . But then she told us of her last clients, and the maggots that were squirming about inside a freshly fried scorpion they had just broken into.

Note: Based on world conditions, we advise checking official channels including cancellation policies prior to booking. Also, with often reduced capacity, booking ahead becomes more important.

The gate to the Beijing street food market

The beautiful entrance gate to Wangfujing Snack Street and all of the Beijing street food looks much better in the dark sky. An intricate display of colour, it stands over 10-metres tall.

We visited the night market in springtime before darkness took over. I like this shot better than any I was able to capture. But the food shots below – all mine.

People crowd the famous Wangfujing snack street at night in Beijing.
Photo credit: Depositphotos shot 23.02.2019

Beijing street food on Wangfujing Snack Street

We went earlier and it wasn’t quite as crowded. Here is my daughter thinking about trying a fried scorpion.

Girl shopping at a Beijing street food market
Beijing street food market on Wangfujing Snack Street
Fried scorpions on sticks in China
Scorpions

While I wasn’t about to try a scorpion after the story our guide had told, there sure was plenty to pick from.

In fact, it went from weird to almost shocking. There were also seahorses on sticks, centipedes, silkworms, congealed duck blood, lambs leg, squid, and fried ice cream.  Plus, take a look at some of these…

  • Centipede on a stick from a Beijing street food vendor
    Centipede
  • sheep penis sold at a street food market in China
    Sheep penis
  • deep fried spiders
    Spider king
  • Cow testicles on a stick from a vendor in China
    OMG – Cow testicles

More Beijing street food …

In reality, that’s how it felt. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any farther from the edge of my comfort zone, a vendor called us over and surprised us with a new sensation.

While many of the insects were labelled, without our guide, we wouldn’t have known what some of the other things were made from. The question is, would that really be a bad thing?

We got to try things like fermented mung bean juice but took a pass on the stinky tofu of Hunan.

But we spent most of our time in an area I wasn’t quite brave enough to fully experience. To be honest, a pass on most of this Beijing street food night market’s roasted delicacies including the centipedes, grasshoppers, king spiders, scorpions, starfish, tripe, congealed duck blood, and shark.

  • Small sharks on a stick on Wangfujing Snack Street
    Small sharks
  • fried grasshopper
    Grasshopper
  • Beijing Snake sold at Beijing street food market food vendor selling snake on a stick
    For some reason the snakes creeped me out the most.
Wangfujing Snack Street food market in Beijing China

Getting a guide in Beijing

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China was only our third stop on a year-long adventure around the world with our then teenagers. For the most part, we did it on our own, but there are times when we want an overview group walking tour, like when we first arrive in a new city. And, there are other times we prefer a private guide, like when we wanted to see a particular part of the Great Wall of China and had a few other off the beaten path requests.

Our go-to site is Tours By Locals, as we can find private guides and have the opportunity to customize our tour with the guide before we commit. We were thrilled with Tours by Locals’ guide Alexandra in Beijing, and feel good about recommending her.

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Wangfujing Street in Beijing, China, is full of exotic and strange food. Would you eat any of it? For more information visit the blog

Which Beijing street food items are you brave enough to try?

More of our travel anecdotes …

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About Rhonda Albom

Capturing the essence of travel through photography, Rhonda Albom is the primary author and photographer at Albom Adventures. She is an American expat based in New Zealand. She travels the world with her husband.

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Hannah Wang

      I go to Beijing almost every single year, I have grandparents who live in china. Never once in my life, have I ever seen anything like this. If you actually go to Beijing, the street food is delicious. There are dumplings, pot stickers, candied fruit, etc. I don’t know where in Beijing this is, or if this even is Beijing, but I go there every year and I have never even seen those in my life.

      Reply

  2. Anna

    Oh my gosh that’s really terrible! How can the eat things like that? I just can’t picture myself that a human could eat things like that…

    Reply

  3. Robin

    Oh yes, this brings back memories! I also seriously struggled with the street food in Beijing. And the food in the fast food joints was just as bad because I didn’t recognise any of it.

    Reply

  4. Stacey

    Oh my. Judging from this post, I’d be pretty darn hungry! Can’t imagine even trying any of these things… 🙁

    Reply

  5. Tony Payne

    I have eaten Cow Udder and Bulls Eggs (testicles) before, and a few unusual animals and vegetables, but bugs are a no-no with me. I have enough trouble looking at spiders, even on tv, let alone attempting to eat one.

    I do love street markets though, and food places like this, they are wonderful to visit.

    Reply

    • Rhonda

      Yes, there are far too many McDonalds, but we haven’t tried one in China. Surprisingly we liked the KFC (which we normally don’t eat)

      Reply

    • Rhonda

      Are you talking about this night market – did you try any of the food? Or the big night market, which we finally found our last day in Beijing (blog is a bit behind)

      Reply

  9. Lynne

    And in one of the restaurants we visited you could choose silkworm crysalises, turtles, some kind of under water multi-legged thing that looked like a huge centipede and lots of different kinds of sea cucumbers, snails, urchins and more. I think of the selections you have offered us, if I had to choose, maybe the snake!

    So come on – which did you try?

    Reply

    • Rhonda

      Actually my blog is a bit behind, we have had our hutong tour . . . so now you have a preview of photos coming soon. Loved it.

      Reply

  18. Robyn Orchard

    While all the dishes looked interesting.. I am not sure I could actually eat many of them. Perhaps the snake which looks almost like an eel!! 🙂

    Reply

  20. alissa apel

    Oh boy! That sounds interesting! I’d be grossed out only because it’s something I’m not used to. I’d pick to try the snake.

    Reply

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