An old street is a piece of history carrying the memory of several generations. Timeworn streets have always stashed many stories. Here are nine of them quite famous in China, so let’s go and take a look…

Pingjiang Road, Suzhou

Pingjiang Road is quite long and old, at least a few hundred years. It features the most distinctive shops and the most charming flagstones you can ever find in Suzhou.

Intersected with Pingjiang Road are many narrow alleys, with their other ends connected to the hustle and bustle urban streets. So Pingjiang Road itself is like a quiet and peaceful recluse in the busy downtown but somehow taking the shape as Arcadia.

Narrow flagstones, town-crossing rivulets, paddling barges and old white-wash houses with cyan roof-tiles, all these sketch up its romantic charm of tranquility.  

If you are a girl who likes Jiangnan (regions south of the Yangtze River), then you have to wear Chi-pao to get yourself attired for the best image. Jiangnan scenery and Chi-pao best footnote the demure elegance of a girl.

Shantang Street, Suzhou

About a thousand years ago, when a legend poet Bai Juyi was on the way to take up his office in Suzhou, he saw the waterway there was silted up, so he ordered to excavate a river, Shantang River. Then this place was gradually evolved into a booming market named Shantang Street.

Now this street is praised as ‘the First Street of Gusu’, with its architectures best representing the characteristics of Suzhou traditional alleys, intersected with rivers and bridges.

The whole street is flanked with rows of shops and residential houses, most of their façades facing the street and their rear doors by the river. Some even built arcades across the street.

Shantang is a typical water-lane. Passenger crafts and boats fully loaded with jasmines, magnolias or other goods are often seen on the river.

Barkhor Street, Lhasa

Barkhor Street was built for Jokhang Temple, and developed with this temple. It has a history of more than 1,300 years.

The whole street centers around Jokhang Temple, a circumambulating road for the pilgrims. You will find on this street nearly all local residents walk clockwise – it was the devout Tibetans who are in a ritual of ‘turning scriptures’.

The traditional old town and way of residence remain basically intact. There are many special shops here with an endless array of Tibetan handcrafts and local delicacies, all these will make travelers linger over…

Barkhor Street is the reproduction of history, having recorded Tibetans’ guilelessness and faith. It is for sure that you will be touched by such cultural atmospheres that are decorous, archaic, mysterious and devotional.

Yandai Xie Street, Beijing

It is said that Manchu who lived in the northern side of Beijing before were all addicted to smoking pipes (a long-stemmed Chinese pipe and water pipe similar to Shisha) with a small tobacco bag attached therewith. Since the demand for the tobacco smoking was increasing, households on this street started to open shops for business. Thus, Xie Jie became Yandai (literally, the tobacco bag) Xie Jie.

Tunxi Old Street, Huangshan

Tunxi Old Street is a pedestrian shopping street featuring an architectural complex from Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties, one of a kind best preserved in China. The buildings here inherited the traditional architectural styles of Huizhou Residence which has white-washed walls, tiny cyan roof tiles, and staggered corbel-steps…

While the flagstone walk gives us an artistic feeling of some remote antiquity, the whole street is cluttered with rows of shops and stores outshined with famous brands thereby to keep its vitality. Carved beams and painted rafters are here and there, giving a full play to fine carvings over bricks, stones and woods that are uniquely found in Huizhou-styled buildings.

When sauntering inside, one might feel as if he were in the relique of a 15th century Chinese street. Tunxi Old Street is therefore known by tourists as a moving painting of ‘Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival’. 

Badaguan, Qingdao

Located at the east side of Qingdao City, Shandong Province, Badaguan is a famous scenic spot particularly for health tourism. It has an area of over 70 hectares with dozens of quiet cozy roads inside, basically named after the eight famous mountain passes of China, collectively referred to as ‘Badaguan’ (the eight great passes). 

Badaguan has many historical buildings in foreign architectural styles, such as Russian, European and Japanese etc., having a reputation as the ‘Exhibition of the World’s Architecture’. 

Many state leaders and foreign dignitaries have stayed here before. Walking on each of its roads, you will see the beautiful natural sceneries and humanistic architectures enriched in cultural deposits.

Zhongyang Street, Ha’erbin

Zhongyang Street Ha’erbin is the biggest and longest pedestrian street in Asia. First built in 1898, it was initially named ‘China Street’.

This street conglomerates all kinds of European architectures, all of which embody the essence of western construction styles, turning itself into an edificial art gallery.

Walking alongside, you will feel as if you were in Paris, with rows of shops on both sides owned by foreigners to sell foreign brands. So indulge yourself in the exotic customs and glittering night view. 

Duolun Road Cultural Celebrities Street, Shanghai

The former residences of literary geniuses such as Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Guo Moruo, Ye Shengtao and many events hosted by Leftist writers Ding Ling, Rou Shi etc. has entrenched Duolun Road as the ‘Town of Modern Literature’

Paved with small stones, Duolun Road is flanked with refurbished western-styles buildings with doors and windows opened for business. All are tenanted by refined merchants selling calligraphies, paintings, antiques and rosewood utensils, a kind of graces to see such products displayed along the road.

If you wish to have a glimpse of old Shanghai, this is the place with more intense feeling.

Qilou Old Street, Haikou

When walking into Qilou Old Street Haikou, you will feel as if you have traveled through time. Only arcade-styled building from Malay Archipelago can be found on both sides of the street, quintessentially rare in China that are bound to give you a refreshed feeling.

All these buildings are not tall, basically two to three floors. Some still keep their century-old merchant names. Exquisite carved decorations can be found on railings, balustrades, doors and windows. 

An old street is a piece of history. When you are standing silently on these old streets that have undergone drastic changes, the erstwhile prosperity surge up…

The glamor of an old street lies in its reminiscence of the past. Perhaps a rivulet, a stone bridge or a slabstone can let you recollect many of your past stories. So go there, and hear what they will say!

Life is not perfect without visiting these old streets in China! 

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[Images via Jinri Toutiao, Jiaju Chanye]