Guanyi Street

Guanyi Street

Located within the Tianqiao District, outside the Yongzhen Gate on the west side of the old western city wall of Jinan, Guanyi Street is an east-west oriented thoroughfare. Historical records indicate that the formation of "Guanyi Street" dates back to the Ming Dynasty, when it was originally a major road in the western suburbs of Licheng. During the Ming Dynasty, the Provincial Administration Commission, the Provincial Surveillance Commission, and the Regional Military Command were relocated to Jinan, and the Tanzheng Post Station was established on Guanyi Street. It served as a station for transmitting official documents and receiving or seeing off—officials, and was commonly referred to by locals as the "Official Reception Pavilion." According to the Licheng County Annals, during the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, this area was called "Shiwangdian Street." Later, a lane gradually formed between Guanyi and Shiwangdian, and the street was named Guanyi Street after the post station. Originally, Guanyi Street was a dirt road, which was later paved with crushed stone. In 1929, it was renovated, and in 1931, it was upgraded to a black gravel road. By 1933, it had been transformed into a bluestone slab road, stretching 760 meters in length and 7 meters in width, starting from Yingxian Bridge in the east and ending at Weiyi Road in the west. It is now an asphalt road. In the early 20th century, the street was known for having three things in abundance: people, temples, and guildhalls. By the 1940s, it had evolved into a bustling commercial street offering a wide variety of goods, including farming tools, daily necessities, baskets, crates, construction materials, grain, and fabrics. During the 1980s and 1990s, the street became a specialty area for locally made goods such as cookware, bamboo products, wire mesh, and stoves.