Yabaolu (, ) is a street and area in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, running from

Chaoyangmen Outer Street Chaoyangmen Outer Street () is a major through route in Beijing, China, and runs through the Chaowai area near Chaoyangmen. Geographically, it is in the eastern urban area, and is still considered very close to the city centre even though it lies ...

to Jianguomen Outer Street. The south part of Yabaolu is home to . On the west side of Yabaolu lies Ritan Park. As of 2011 the community has many high rise shopping malls and shops, is a major hub of trade. Previously it was a community of one story courtyards with little activity.In Beijing's Yabaolu, 'good friends' come to trade
" ''

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

''. August 12, 2011. Retrieved on August 12, 2012.

Name

Yabaolu, "elegant treasure road," is one of the many Old Beijing place names to have been beautified. The original name was "Yaba Hutong" (), lit. "mute man alley".

Yabaolu markets

The northern area of Yabaolu is sometimes unofficially named Russiatown, since the clientele of the shops is mostly foreign, with most of that being

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n, and because the neighbourhood has a high population of

n traders from Siberia, who are transient. Previously local Chinese people called the traders ''dà dǎoyé'' (大倒爷, "big trader"), while as of 2011 they now refer to them as ''hǎo péngyou'' (好朋友, "good friend"). In addition to Russian traders, Polish, Ukrainian, former Yugoslav, and other eastern European traders also do business in Yabaolu. Jaime FlorCruz of ''

'' said in 2011 that "Here bargaining is tough but business is good. The most successful, traders say, can resell their items for 20 times their investment." The China-Russia-related trade in Beijing occurs in Yabaolu. Most of the businesses in Yabaolu cater to Russian customers. Many restaurant owners and shop keepers do business in Yabaolu. Some pedicab drivers speak pidgin Russian and charge the equivalent of two U.S. dollars for a ride. Like many

ethnic enclave In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration ...

s, it has its own unique

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

imported by its residents. The focal point of the district are several large clothing markets. Business signs are mostly in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and written in

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

, a surprise to many

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity on ...

s. For a former Russian area in Beijing, see Li-Fan Yuan. FlorCruz said that around 1991 "loaded up scores boxes of goods -- mostly cheap clothes -- onto decrepit trailer trucks bound for train stations" while in 2011 traders "employ shipping companies to move various goods that include silk dresses and shirts, fur jackets, toys and handbags." After the Beijing Olympics several large modern shopping centres, such as Chaowai-Men, You-Town, have been developed - some to cater more to retail shoppers than wholesale traders.That's Beijing 2009 Insight Guides

References in popular culture

Appears and is described in the book '' Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present'' by Peter Hessler. Peter has a friend named Polat occupied as a money changer and clothing dealer. They sit on a platform of a

Uyghur Uyghur may refer to: * Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (West China) ** Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghurs *** Old Uyghur language, a different Turkic language spoken in the Uyghur K ...

restaurant drinking beers and watching locals pass by.

Name

Yabaolu markets

References in popular culture

References

Further reading