Wudaokou

Wudaokou
Simplified Chinese五道口
Traditional Chinese五道口
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinWǔdàokǒu
The popular student hangout, Wudaokou, in northwestern Beijing at night
The (former) railway crossing under the Wudaokou subway station, click for animation
A train ready to pass Wudaokou on the last day of operation for the surface level railway line

Wudaokou (Chinese: 五道口), whose name is a literal reference to the fifth level crossing of the Jingbao Railway, is a neighborhood in the Haidian District of North West Beijing, famous for its close distances to universities including Tsinghua University and Peking University.

It is around 10 km (6.2 mi) from the center of Beijing, between the Fourth and Fifth ring roads, and has good public transport links including a station on Line 13 of the Beijing Subway.

It became a commercial center in Haidian during the 1950s following the establishment of several universities. The high price of real estate in this area has led to it being dubbed the "Center of the Universe (宇宙中心)."[1]

Until as recently as 2001 the area consisted mainly of Hutong neighborhoods and late 1960s apartment blocks, but major development has erased many of these old structures, replacing them with luxury apartments and technology parks. Some may also refer to Wudaokou as Koreatown, for the large number of Koreans in the area.

  1. ^ Chen Junhong (陈俊宏). "五道口之宇宙中心". NetEase.