Wangfujing is now considered the central heart of the city. Certainly from Wangfujing all areas of Beijing are easily accessible. Wangfujing is a fairly long street. A walk from end to end would take you about 30 minutes, and that's without looking at any shops.
Wangfujing Street and its surroundings have quite a selection of shopping options. There are two western styles, modern malls. One has an English name written on it saying "Sun Dong An", which is confusing because its Chinese name is "Xin Dong An". This one is the older of the two, situated on the center crossroads of Wangfujing Street, 12 minutes walk north of the subway station. It has 6 floors of shops and some pretty glass elevators. Here you can find fashion stores, souvenirs, cafes and restaurants, a cinema and a built-in large department store with some reasonably priced high-quality electronics
The second of the two malls is near the subway and is called Oriental Plaza. This is a huge complex and one of the biggest malls in Asia. It has only 2 floors, but it stretches for a few city blocks. It is so big there are subway stations more or less at each end. It takes about 15 minutes to walk the length, if you are a quick walker. Oriental Plaza has many fashion stores, a lot of cafes and restaurants, a cinema, an Apple Computer center, VW Audi car showroom, Sony science exhibition center, banks and lots more.
Apart from the malls there are many large, tradional department stores, souvenir stores, and a side street with tradional Chinese food stalls. Wangfujing is not merely a shopping street but a whole experience. There are often large exhibitions and festivals held on the street.
Near Oriental Plaza there is one of the largest book stores in Beijing, the Wangfujing Book Store. This is 6 floors of books, mainly Chinese but has a large selection of Chinese literature translated into English. You can also find books for studying the Chinese language and some maps and guide books in English. Credit cards are accepted in the book store and many of the larger stores in both malls.
Wangfujing Street is 王府井大街.
