Old and new, real and fake, moral and immoral, it was all to be found on Liulichang Street, it is really a visitor's treat.

Located in Xuanwu District in the southwestern Beijin, Liulichang, the 750-meter-long street, still bears the appearance of a Qing Dynasty market street.

A business hub

In the 1980s, the street was renovated and various specialized shops were rebuilt. With brightly painted doors and eaves and gracefully curved black-tile-roofs buildings, a little of old Beijing 's lifestyle retained here.   

The China Bookstore, Rongbaozhai, and Jiguge are the most famous antique stores in Liulichang. The China Bookstore located at the back of a courtyard of the first complex on the north, sells second-hand foreign language books.

Those who love antiques or arts and crafts will find it an ideal place to shop, and those who are not planning on spending money may also find it worth going to have a look at the street itself.

Along the street, peddlers hawk snacks, groceries, toys and copper coins, all kind of small commodities. Merchants race to their doors with a welcoming "hello, hello" for all their customers, but they all rack their brains to attract foreigners' attention.

Some offer free seal -carving services and they even can find a perfect Chinese name for you if you like. Some shop owners invite folk artists to their shops such as an 80-year-old heir to the Qing Dynasty's royal embroidery tradition. It is amazing to watch this elderly man embroider a pair of little shoes for a pair of tiny feet.

Ups and downs of the street

In Ming and Qing times, Liulichang was a favorite haunt for scholars, painters and calligraphers that gathered there to write, compile and purchase books, as well as to paint and compose poetry. By the Kangxi reign (1661-1722), Liulichang had become a flourishing cultural center and was described as having "homes and buildings lined up like fish scales."

During the Qianlong reign (1736-1796), the street was even more prosperous. There one could find "rooms filed to the roof beams with all kinds of books," "a street filled with treasures and trinkets," and the "quintessence of all the markets in the capital concentrated in one street." When Emperor Qianlong decided to revise the Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature, he ordered scholars from the project, and Liulichang became a center for research in textual criticism.

In 1927, when Hepingmen (Peace) Gate was opened up in the city wall, the bridge was demolished and Nanxinhua Road was built, dividing Liulichang into eastern and western sections. The east became known as a center for antiques and curios, while the west was famous for its books. Shanghai Commercial Press, China Publishing House and Youzheng Press, which published books of Chinese calligraphy, all established branches here.

In 1949, Liulichang still had over 170 shops. In 1956, following the transition to joint state- private ownership, many of the small shops were amalgamated into large yet uniquely individual enterprises.

There are also shops for paper, scroll-mounting, book binding and the carving of stone tablets and name seals. The most famous of these is Rongbaozhai (Studio of Glorious Treasures), which has a history of over 200 years. Here internationally renowned reproductions of Chinese paintings are made using the traditional technique of woodblock color printing. It was the craftsmen of Rongbaozhai who reproduced in six volumes the collection of Beiping Woodcut Stationery With Illustrated Poems Edited by Lu Xun and Zheng Zhenduo in 1933.

In 1979, the State Council approved a recommendation to restore and expand Liulichang. The original shops have been restored and the road broadened into a 15-meter-wide pedestrian mall. A museum displaying classical paintings, calligraphy and other antiquities tells the story of the old street.