Just outside the front gate of the capital, merchants from all over the middle kingdom have sold their wares for generations. Pushing heavy wheelbarrows, riding camels or donkey carts, hopeful street-style entrepreneurs arrived hoping to make their fortunes. They traded in silk, tea, porcelain, spices, knives - if you could name it, you could buy it! Some achieved success and became recognized as “Laozihao” or “time-honored brands,” the household names of the capital. These fortunate few businesses came to possess massive storefronts, their owners eager to show the world that their families now no longer belonged to the dusty streets that had brought them to Beijing in the first place. A select few of these old traditional businesses still exist today.