The long north-south arterial of central Kunming, Beijing Road runs the full length of the city from the new high-speed rail station in the south through Panlong District to the northern suburbs. The middle section, between the South Bus Station and the Daguan flyover, is the city's main department-store strip — Parkson, Walmart, Carrefour, plus the long-running Kunming Department Store at the southern end.
For travellers it is more useful as a navigation spine than as a destination: metro Line 1 runs underneath it, and most of the central hotels sit on or just off Beijing Road. The shop windows are unremarkable but the side streets running east and west — particularly Wuyi Road and Dongfeng Road — are where the more interesting restaurants and shops sit.