• 5
• Best gourmet veggie splurge in Beijing

Unsurpassed vegan Chinese fare, and possibly the world's longest, heaviest menu... Quite pricey by Beijing standards, but well worth the splurge for the food and the experience. Essentially all vegan except for some of the drinks. The "Eight Renunciations of the Affluent" (a vegan "Peking Duck") is fantastic. The "Happiness Rolls" are also surprisingly tasty (and affordable) starters. The Vajrisatva fish was typical (good but not special). The vegan sausages are good, but more or less the same as you'd find at other Asian vegan places, so we'd suggest going with some of the more unusual items. We liked the Changhongqiao location (this one) much, much better than the Holiday Inn Lido location. YMMV, but we found the Lido location to be rather Disneylandish, loud, and cheesy, whereas the Changhongqiao location is more subdued and, for our tastes, more pleasant. Easy to reach by subway: Take Line 10 to Tuanjiehu station, take exit B (the northeast exit), make a U-turn at the top of the escalator and walk south back to the street corner, turn left (east) and walk a few meters, turn left again into parking lot and go to back right corner and turn right, where you'll find Pure Lotus behind the small hotel on the left. Updated from previous review on Sunday May 30, 2010