When I moved to Nan Luo Gu Xiang in 2003 with my family to pursue our dream of living in a shared courtyard and create a big family I never expected Nan Luo Gu Xiang to boom the way it has. After I opened Plastered in May 2006 I watched the street flourish, lots of other cool brands came along and some great cafes and restaurants too. Recently however a lot of these restaurants and shops are closing down which is a real shame.

Notably Mirch Masala the Indian restaurant closed its doors after the rent went up to 600,000rmb a year, the boss from Indian closed up and moved to Ri Tan to open another in a cheaper location. Fish Nation also just closed its doors, probably Beijing’s best fish and chip restaurant, I’m not sure about their rent but I know its gone very high. Then today saddest of all Grifted closed shop, probably my favorite brand on the street, they actually created something new rather than copying Plastered, which was very refreshing.
 
Its going to be hard to keep the street cool, traditionally the small creative brands are not always the best at business, so as rents go up they have to leave and in their place all too often open up generic tourist shops doing nothing but resale which is boring. So as the street become more boring the rents will go down again, its much like the landlords are committing suicide going for the highest possible price only to ruin the streets feel and then the rents go down again.

Here are a few pics taken in 2004. I’m certainly not going to be closing shop, I feel passionate about creative new products and designs to inspire our much loved customers, I also feel passionately about Nan Luo Gu Xiang, where I started my business and where my 3 daughters have lived since they were born in Beijing.