A man walks down Qianmen Dajie on June 17, 2008. The once-historical street that belongs to Beijing’s oldest neighborhoods has now been turned into the city’s newest tourist attraction. Shang Hong, a folk custom expert said the new Qianmen “counted as a failure. The aim should be to protect traditional customs.”(Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    "It was verging on dilapidated then," said Zhao Yiming, 24, "It really was a state.

    "My parents used to wander along Qianmen Dajie with me pointing out this building or that place and telling me little stories.

    "There was a story in every corner of this avenue."

    More recently Zhao was guiding an out-of-town friend around the old neighborhood.

    "The half-empty, windswept new avenue horrified and disappointed my friend," she said.

    "It's obviously a total failure any which way you look at it," said Hu Xinyu, an advisor at the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center.

    He dismissed the new concrete Qianmen as "fake antique", resulting from "no respect for the original historical environment of the area and no respect for the residents who lived their whole lives there."

    Zhao agreed.

    "Even if the old shops were allowed back, it's still an open question whether or not they could survive," she said.

    Like many old Beijingers, Zhao said that she misses traditional snack shops like:

    - Cheese Wei, a cheese shop with a history of over 140 years;

    - Bai's Bean Curd Shop, dating back 130 years;

    - Xiao Chang Chen, Chen's boiled tripe snack shop serving loyal customers for centuries;
 
    - Yang Tou Ma, Ma's sheep's head meat shop was over 150 years old;

    - Ruibin Restaurant, famous for its da lian huo shao, a kind of baked wheat cake with 130 years of history.