Alleyway Gourmet: Beijing's Oldest Baijiu Bar

Dart west between the new designer stores and tourist shops on Qianmen Avenue and you'll find a very different Beijing. Rundown sex-shops, boarded-up hotels with crumbling facades, and this place: one of Beijing's few remaining guo ying, or state-run bar/restaurants.

Behind this counter, a barkeep in a white lab coat pours baijiu by the glass - RMB 1 for 1 liang (50ml) in chipped porcelain cups. A handful of regulars, hunched over their Beijing wan bao, knock back the firey spirit and munch on little dishes of peanuts.

One middle-aged local told me that, to his mind, it's the only bar within the second ring that still serves baijiu in this way. "I've been coming here since I was a kid, and it's still just the same," he mumbled. At that moment, a man in a suit comes in and looks the place over. "Amazing, it's still here!" he exclaims.

The menu is similarly humble - a throwback to a time where food was nourishment and not a lot more. This has to be the most rustic bowl of dao xiao mian (RMB 5) I've eaten - no garnish beyond hunks of fatty pork, a meaty broth (three types to choose from) and a jug of vinegar on the side.

Next up, a plate of chao bing - stir-fried shreds of bread and cabbage and about as austere as it gets. By 6pm the place fills up with rickshaw drivers and neighborhood traders soaking up the antique ambiance- an exclusively male clientele. If you find yourself in the area, why not go and raise a glass with the locals at Xincheng Noodle House? Just like the old timers who bicycle all the way from Jingshan Park for their daily tipple, it won't be here forever.

Xincheng Noodle House. (Xincheng Xiao Mian Gua). Daily 5.30am-8.30pm. Liangshi Dianr Xie Jie (one alley west of Qianmen Dajie and about halfway down), Tiananmen, Doncheng District.