Liulichang Cultural Street

Liulichang Cultural Street

Liulichang Cultural Street is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Liulichang Street is located outside Hepingmen in Beijing and is a famous cultural street in the city. It originated during the Qing Dynasty when scholars from all over the country who came to Beijing to take the imperial examinations mostly gathered in this area. As a result, there were many shops selling books and stationery such as brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, creating a strong cultural atmosphere. There are many shops here that deal in antiques and calligraphy and paintings. Most foreign tourists visiting Beijing come here.

The world-renowned Liulichang Cultural Street in Beijing is located outside Hepingmen in present-day Beijing, extending west to Nanbeiliuxiang in Xuanwu District and east to Yanshousi Street in Xuanwu District, with a total length of about 800 meters. Historically, as far back as the Liao Dynasty, this area was not within the city but rather in the suburbs, and was then called "Haiwangcun." Later, during the Yuan Dynasty, official kilns were established here to produce glazed tiles. When the inner city was constructed during the Ming Dynasty, the scale of the official kilns was expanded to accommodate the construction of palaces, making Liulichang one of the five major workshops of the Ministry of Works at the time. After the construction of the outer city in the 32nd year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty, this area became part of the urban zone, and it was no longer suitable to fire kilns within the city. Thus, the kilns were relocated to Liuliqi Village in present-day Mentougou District, but the name "Liulichang" was retained and has been passed down to this day.

In the early Qing Dynasty during the Shunzhi reign, a policy of "separate residential areas for Manchus and Han Chinese" was implemented in the capital. Liulichang happened to be located in the western part of the outer city, where most Han Chinese—and subsequently many provincial guildhalls—settled nearby. Candidates taking the imperial examinations also often gathered here to browse the book market. This led to the gradual shift of the once-bustling book markets of Qianmen, Dengshikou, and the Chenghuangmiao Temple in the western city to Liulichang during the Ming Dynasty. Booksellers from various regions also set up stalls and opened shops here, offering a vast collection of books. The bustling market and convenient conditions turned the area into a “refined leisure destination in the capital,” gradually developing Liulichang into the largest book market in Beijing. It evolved into a cultural street teeming with intellectual life, and industries related to culture—such as stationery, brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, antiques, calligraphy, and paintings—also flourished accordingly.

The antique book trade is the main industry of Liulichang, and in fact, Liulichang owes its existence to books—without the antique book business, there would be no Liulichang. However, the antique book trade in Liulichang has also undergone a process of development and change. Two hundred years ago, during the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty and afterward, booksellers from Jiangxi held an overwhelming dominance in Liulichang. They even controlled the Wenchang Emperor Temple next to the Huoshen Temple in East Liulichang, which was used for worship by booksellers, and prohibited the less influential northern booksellers from participating in the regular religious ceremonies of the book trade. By the late Qing Dynasty, the situation in the antique book trade in Liulichang reversed—the Jiangxi booksellers gradually declined, while the Hebei booksellers rapidly rose to prominence and took the leading position in the antique book trade. The reason was that Hebei booksellers focused less on examination-related materials and more on books needed for academic research. At the peak of the antique book trade in the 1930s, there were more than 200 antique bookshops in Liulichang. It is impossible to document them all here, so only a few representative shops, figures, and events will be briefly introduced to offer a glimpse into the broader picture.