Qian Shi Hutong

Qian Shi Hutong

Qian Shi Hutong is located on the west side of Zhu Shi Street, adjacent to Dashilan, and is the narrowest hutong in Beijing. The alley is 55 meters long and 0.7 meters wide, with nine sets of buildings along its north-south sides. At the end is a courtyard with a canopy overhead and adjacent shop buildings. It is the remnant of the official Qing Dynasty silver and money trading "Qian Shi" (money market), serving as an early prototype of a financial market. The formation of the "Qian Shi" is related to the "Lu Hang," which were officially approved workshops for smelting silver ingots. Zhu Shi Street was the area with the highest concentration of Lu Hang during the Qing Dynasty, giving rise to the Qian Shi. After the Republic of China era, the Lu Hang declined, the Qian Shi became inactive, and the site was rebuilt into silver shop buildings, forming this narrow alley.

The southern part of the street has four sets of traditional three-courtyard homes and one shop, each covering an area of 80 square meters. Judging from the altered inscriptions on the plaques above the doors, these were originally Lu Hang workshops that were later converted into shops and workshops. The northern part consists of four independent buildings, some with two or three stories, which were originally banks.

The courtyard structures all use traditional Chinese wooden frameworks, with brick gateways, raised-beam roof structures, and overlapping tile roofs. Some rooftops still have ventilation windows. These were workshops where the Lu Hang smelted silver ingots. The northern buildings feature a mix of Chinese and Western architectural styles, with door bolts, window frames, cornice moldings, and ironwork railings all reflecting this blend. The rear half of the three-story building uses traditional Chinese architecture, while the front half has a double-sloped roof awning, serving as a transition between the two styles. The door bears a stone plaque inscribed with the name “Datong Bank.” The second-floor door also has a stone plaque inscribed with “Wanfeng Bank.”

At the western end of the alley are two rows of single-story buildings forming the Qian Shi, with a central courtyard that has been raised and covered with a five-rafter hanging gable roof, flanked by skylights.

Qian Shi Hutong is the earliest and most intact surviving financial exchange in China. It also demonstrates how a compact yet diverse architectural space can be created within a small plot of land.

Location

Zhu Shi Street, Xicheng District, Beijing