上海 - Day 14 : 上海老街

The street was opened to the public on June 18, 1999.
Adjacent to the Yuyuan Garden Bazaar Area, the 825-meter long street is divided into the eastern and western section by Guanyi Street. The eastern section extends to Renmin Road and the western section to Henan Road South, with both ends marked by decorated archways. Through decoration and remolding, the eastern section keeps the characteristics of residences in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican day. The houses on both sides of the street are fitted with checkered windows, shop-fronts of wooden boards, balustrades and swing doors, roofs with upturned eaves and protruding corners, laced drain-pipes and horse-shape wall tops. The eastern sections has a variety of shops including florists, shoe and clothing retailers, noodle restaurants and specialty dealers selling Chinese tea and snacks. The buildings in the western section are copies of the Ming- and Qing-style architecture, with black tiles and white-washed walls, red columns and upturned eaves, expressing the folk styles of Shanghai's old downtown. The western section has a number of antique and curio shops as well as restaurants and teahouses.