It currently houses many bars and clubs popular with both locals and foreigners as well as international brand-name stores such as Uniqlo, Apple, Nike, Adidas, KFC and Nathan's Famous.

Accounts differ over which was the first bar in Sanlitun, with one author crediting the Cat Cafe in 1995 while another names Frank's Place, which opened in 1990.

[6] In April 2008, as part of an ongoing operation to clean up the city, a major drug bust occurred in Sanlitun and many arrests were made.

The Uniqlo in Taikoo Li Sanlitun gained international attention after it was the site of a July 2015 sex tape that was filmed inside one of the store's fitting rooms.

[8][9] In an August 2015 incident near the Uniqlo, a Chinese woman was killed and her French husband was wounded in an attack by a sword-wielding man.

[2] On 25 December 2015, following the November 2015 Paris attacks by ISIS, several foreign embassies in Beijing warned of possible threats against Westerners in the Sanlitun shopping district on or around Christmas Day, urging their citizens to "exercise heightened vigilance.

"[10] A popular destination for foreigners and young people was the "dirty street" of hole-in-the-wall restaurants and bars at the center of Sanlitun.