Beijing Road Pedestrian Street

Beijing Road Pedestrian Street

Beijing Road Pedestrian Street is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

Beijing Road Pedestrian Street stretches 440 meters from Zhongshan 5th Road in the north to Huifu Road in the south, with 138 shops lining the street, primarily dealing in clothing, general merchandise, footwear, catering, and jewelry. Clothing specialty stores account for 34%; general merchandise for 17%; leather and footwear for 15%; catering for 14%; and jewelry for 11%; cultural goods for 5%; medicine and healthcare for 3%; and services for 1%. Guangzhou’s leading commercial enterprise — Guangzhou Department Store — is located right on the pedestrian street.

Beijing Road (Beijing Road) is situated in the heart of Guangzhou and marks the site where the city was first built. It has historically been the most bustling commercial hub. The implementation of full-time pedestrianization on Beijing Road Pedestrian Street occurred in three phases: On February 8, 1997, with approval from the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, partial sections of Beijing Road became semi-pedestrianized on weekends; from May 1, 1998 to November 2001, the pedestrian street was fully closed to vehicles on holidays; and starting January 1, 2002, the street officially became a full-time pedestrian zone.

Street Features

Beijing Road Millennium Ancient Road Ruins

According to historical records and expert research, the surrounding areas of Beijing Road, Education Road, and West Lake Road currently host or have excavated numerous historical and cultural sites, including: the Qin Dynasty Panyu City ruins, Qin-Han shipyard ruins, Western Han Nanyue Kingdom palace site, Tang Qinghai Navy Tower ruins, Nanyue Royal Garden, Ming Dynasty Great Buddha Temple, Ming Dynasty City God Temple, Ming-Qing Dynasty Great South Gate ruins, Qing Dynasty Lujian Academy, and the Guangzhou Uprising Memorial Hall. These span over ten dynasties and boast significant historical and cultural value. Despite more than two thousand years and the changes of over ten dynasties, this area has retained its central status, creating not only a rare historical urban landscape but also a profoundly rich cultural heritage. After the reform and opening-up, Beijing Road gathered major city department stores such as Guangzhou Department Store and Xin Daxin Company, along with a number of renowned fashion malls.

Beijing Road Millennium Ancient Road Ruins

Specialty stores for watches, jewelry, leather goods, and shoes enhance the commercial vibrancy, elevate the sophistication, diversify the offerings, and improve the facilities of Beijing Road.

Beijing Road Millennium Ancient Road Ruins

Historical Background

Beijing Road Millennium Ancient Road Ruins

In recent years, under the consensus of “polishing Guangzhou’s window,” the Yuexiu District government has leveraged the area’s unique historical and cultural roots and strong commercial advantages. The Millennium Ancient Road of Beijing Road Pedestrian Street...

Beijing Road Millennium Ancient Road Ruins

...has been designated to integrate with connected Education Road and West Lake Road, along with nearby commercial outlets, tourist attractions, and cultural relics, to develop a comprehensive “Yangcheng Commercial Tourism Zone.”

The formation of this bustling district has deep historical roots. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, what is now Zhongshan Road (formerly known as Huiai Street) served as the main east-west thoroughfare of old Guangzhou, flanked by government offices (with the prefectural school to the east, the General’s Office to the west, and two Governor’s Offices in between), making it the political center. Beijing Road (then called Shuangmen Di) was the main road leading directly from the southern part of the city to Tianzi Wharf (the entry point into the city). As a result, the T-junction section of today’s northern Beijing Road and Zhongshan 4th Road became a concentrated residential area for officials, their staff, and families. To cater to their consumer needs, a thriving commercial center gradually emerged, becoming the city’s busiest hub.

The Story of “Shuangmen Di”

Millennium Ancient Tower Ruins

In the Qing Dynasty, Beijing Road was called “Shuangmen Di,” a name still used by many elders. With today’s West Lake Road (then called West Lake Street) as the boundary, the area north was called Shuangmen Di Upper Street, and the area south was Shuangmen Di Lower Street, which extended to the site of today’s Yonghan Cinema. There stood a city gate tower called “Da Nan Men” (Great South Gate), one of Guangzhou’s inner city gates, with the city wall roughly along today’s Da Nan Road and Wenming Road. The origin of “Shuangmen Di” comes from a high-rise building at the intersection of today’s West Lake Road and Beijing Road, named “Gongbei Tower,” which had double-arched gates — hence the street name “Shuangmen Di.” The tower housed a Yuan Dynasty bronze clepsydra, one of Guangzhou’s treasured artifacts, said to be “accurate for a hundred years” without losing a second. After the Gongbei Tower was demolished for road construction, the clepsydra was transferred to the Guangzhou Municipal Museum and later allocated to the National Museum of Chinese History.

Shuangmen Di was a commercial hub during the Qing Dynasty, giving rise to the saying “Selling cats at Shuangmen Di — putting on airs.” One enduring “living fossil” that has operated there since then is the Chen Li Ji Pharmacy. Its predecessor, Chen Li Ji Xing He Tang, was founded during the Ming Dynasty’s Wanli era, with its storefront located around today’s “Ginza” area. Having endured for nearly five hundred years, it stands as the oldest witness to Beijing Road’s history.

The Story of “Yonghan Road”

During the Republican era, Beijing Road was called “Hanmin Road” in honor of Hu Hanmin, a founding father of the Republic of China from Panyu. Later, in the 1920s, it was renamed “Yonghan Road.” Few know why it was called “Yonghan.” At the time, Yang Yongtai was in charge of Guangdong and wanted his name immortalized in Guangzhou’s street names, but the rule was that only deceased historical figures could be so honored. So Yang Yongtai changed “Hanmin Road” to “Yonghan Road” and renamed a nearby section of Wanfu Road to “Taikang Road,” thus embedding “Yongtai” into both street names — a little-known anecdote in Beijing Road’s history.

Gaodi Street · “Xu Di”

Beijing Road Millennium Ancient Road Ruins

The southern section of Beijing Road, especially around Gaodi Street, has also flourished in recent years, now freshly renovated and bustling with activity.

The most notable figures of Gaodi Street are the Xu family, so much so that the street is even called “Xu Di.” This influential family, originally from Chaoshan but relocated westward, produced generations of talent over a century. There’s even a novel titled “A Thousand Autumns of Family and Nation Dreams” dedicated to telling the rise of the Xu family. Descendants of the Xu family once took me on a tour of Xu Di, pointing out remnants of buildings and telling me who lived where. Gazing at the curved moon gates, century-old oyster-shell windows, and faded plaster dragons on the walls truly stirred my imagination. Finally, an elderly man pointed to a cycad planted in a broken pot at his doorstep and said that when his grandmother was young, the tree had already been there for decades — now almost a hundred years old. The skinny tree trunk, exuding faint vitality, seemed like a perfect emblem of Gaodi Street’s past.

Among the shops on Gaodi Street, the most familiar to locals are the silk store “Jiutongzhang” and the stationery shop “Sanduoxuan.” Sanduoxuan has since moved to Guangzhou Road, but descendants of the original Huang family still live on the old site. Running your hand along the spiral wooden banister, you can see the sunlight filtering through the octagonal skylight, softly illuminating the gilded eaves — a lingering trace of past prosperity. The over-100-year-old painter Huang Jinhai lived here for over seventy years. When I met him, he could no longer speak clearly, but his spirit remained strong. He passed away earlier this year at the age of 104. How fascinating it would have been to hear his firsthand accounts of Beijing Road’s century-long changes. His daughter pointed to the outer wall of the old shop where the words “Sanduoxuan Stationery” were once engraved in cement — written by Tan Yankai, a veteran of the Republican era. Unfortunately, they were removed during a recent exterior renovation. I searched carefully, but like many stories of Beijing Road, not a trace remains.

The Past and Present of Da Xiaoma and Xiao Xiaoma Stations

On the most bustling section of Beijing Road (north of Dadao Road), there are only two historically significant buildings. One is a six-story edifice standing at the corner of Dadao Road (currently occupied by Sinopec), and the other is the Guangdong Finance Department Building at the end of Beijing Road, with its grand Roman columns and neoclassical façade exuding the ambiance of the early Republican era.

The lanes and alleys along Beijing Road are also treasure troves of cultural relics, though unfortunately, many have been lost due to large-scale demolitions in recent years. For example, Xianhu Street near the intersection with Huifu Road was once the residence of the great poet Liang Peilan; Baisha Ju is said to have been the dwelling place of the Ming Dynasty scholar Chen Baisha. Thanks to the efforts of concerned individuals, a portion of the ancient academy complex has been preserved. This complex, located around the Dashima and Xiaoma stations and the Academy area on Beijing Road, served as a gathering and temporary lodging spot for scholars from various counties during the Qing Dynasty. I remember in the old days lingering around the food stalls near Dashima and Xiaoma stations, often looking up to admire the stone plaques above the gates of those sprawling courtyard houses—the bold calligraphy always evoking memories of the golden age of these academies. Sadly, most of these spaces are now crowded with multiple tenants, making any plans for development or utilization quite challenging. A photographer once captured the three-story "Kuixing Tower" (a pavilion dedicated to the deity of literature in ancient times) within the academy complex, with the backdrop of newly built skyscrapers symbolizing urban transformation. But today, finding an intact Kuixing Tower is no easy task.

Beijing Street: 2013 Administrative Division Adjustment: New Beijing Street

Guangwei Street + Beijing Street

Office Address: No. 7 Yuehua Road (original location of the Guangwei Street Office)

Historically, the Beijing Street area was part of the oldest ancient city walls of Guangzhou—"Raocheng," "Panyu City," and "Zhao Tuo City"—and has been a scenic destination for hundreds of years. Today’s West Lake Road was originally an ancient lake called "West Lake," which contained a rock formation known as the "Nine Stars Rocks." These are the remnants of nine peculiar stones from the "West Lake Medicine Islet" during the Five Dynasties’ Southern Han period. Additionally, the site of the former Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture at No. 4 Zhongshan Road today houses the "Qin...   Beijing Street Detailed Information++