Qian Shi Hutong

　　Qian Shi Hutong is located on the west side of Zhu Bao Shi Street, adjacent to Dashilan, and is the narrowest hutong in Beijing. The street is 55 meters long and 0.7 meters wide, with nine sets of buildings along its north and south sides. At the end is a courtyard with a covered awning, flanked by shop rooms, which is the remnant of the Qing Dynasty government-run silver and money trading “Qian Shi” (money market), representing an early prototype of a financial market. The formation of the “Qian Shi” is related to the “Lu Hang” (furnace workshops), which were officially approved workshops for melting and casting silver ingots. Zhu Bao 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 area was rebuilt into silver shop buildings, forming this narrow hutong.

　　There are four sets of three-courtyard houses and one shop on the south side of the street, each set of three-courtyard houses covering an area of 80 square meters. Judging from the signs of alteration on the plaques above the doors, these were originally Lu Hang, later converted into shops and workshops. On the north side of the street, there are four sets of independent buildings, including two-story and three-story houses, which were originally silver shops.

　　The structure of the courtyard houses all adopts traditional Chinese wooden architecture, featuring brick gateways, raised-beam roof frameworks, flush gable roofs, and the roofs still have air vents. These were workshops for Lu Hang where silver ingots were smelted. The northern buildings are in both Chinese and Western styles, with details such as bolts, window trims, eaves moldings, and wrought-iron railings reflecting a blend of Chinese and Western design. The rear half of the three-story building uses traditional Chinese architecture, while the front half has a double-pitched roof awning, serving as a transition between the two styles. The door features a stone plaque inscribed with the name “Datong Silver Shop.” The second-floor door also has a stone plaque, inscribed with the name “Wanfeng Silver Shop.”

　　At the western end of the alley are two rows of single-story houses that form the Qian Shi, with a central courtyard raised higher and topped with a five-ridge hanging gable roof, and sky windows on both sides.

　　Qian Shi Hutong is the earliest and most intact surviving financial exchange in China; at the same time, it creates a compact and diverse architectural space environment within a small plot of land.