Itself spanning a length of 232 meters,Slanting Pipe Street (Yan Dai Xie Jie)is surrounded by characteristic Beijing "hutong" (traditional courtyard) streets and alleys. This particular street underwent several name changes: in the early days of the Ming Dynasty, the street was titled Dayuting Byway, "Fishing Hall Street;" it was later changed to Gulou Byway, "Drum Tower Street" before taking on its present name, Slanting Pipe Street (Yan Dai Xie Jie)"Smoking Pipe Street."

In the past, most of the dwellers in the area had a fondness for smoking pipe tobacco. Because of the increasing demand for tobacco, the street saw tobacco shops opening up one by one for business.

At the time, most of the tobacco shops catered to the upper class, with wooden signboards standing erect outside the front of the stores. Black tobacco pipes and golden pipe bowls were their symbols. This is how Fishing Hall Street or Drum Tower Street slowly became Smoking Pipe Street. The name stuck not only because of the love for tobacco that the people living in the area had, the street even looked like a long pipe, with narrow alleys forming the "stem" and the western entrance giving the look of a "bowl" of a tobacco pipe.

After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Slanting Pipe Street became a harbor for antique sales. Here, a few antique jade shops were established. Since then, the street has seen the coming and going of several bars, restaurants, clothing shops, and hair salons.