The university district of Beijing, clustered around Wudaokou subway station in the northwest of the city near Peking University and Tsinghua University. A younger, more student-focused neighbourhood than the hutong areas, with Korean restaurants, cheap noodle shops, bookshops, and a lively cafe and bar scene that runs late and cheaply. The Korean population around Wudaokou has produced an unusually high concentration of good Korean barbecue restaurants.
Less polished than Sanlitun and far less touristy, Wudaokou is where foreign students and younger Chinese academics eat and drink. Worth visiting in the evening for cheap, genuine food before or after a day trip to the Summer Palace or the Old Summer Palace, both of which are in the same northwest corner of the city.