Cultural street in Beijing - liulichang
By admin on 2014-12-26

Liulichang Cultural Street Market is a fun stroll and specializes in all kinds of Chinese crafts and art works, located in southwest of Qianmen and near to the Hepingmen Gate. It is an artistic centre of Beijing, a place for scholars and poets to gather together and work on their art during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Naturally, it had soon come to be a mercantile centre for art works, rare books and restaurants.

By the time of the Kangxi Period (1661 – 1722), it had become the cultural centre of China. When Emperor Qianlong began a project to update the "Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature", the scholars involved soon made Liulichang the main hub for their research in literary criticism and evaluation. Now, shops there were all renovated during the 1980's, so that they all have the appearance of an authentic Qing Dynasty market.