Laomendong Historic District 老门东

About Laomendong Historic District

Laomendong Historic District (老门东) is a restored quarter of old lanes in Qinhuai District (秦淮区), Nanjing (南京), inside the south city wall just east of Zhonghua Gate (中华门). It covers the southern part of the historic Mendong (门东) area, whose northern part is the Confucius Temple (夫子庙) district.

Mendong, 'east of the gate', is the old name for the part of the walled city's south lying east of Zhonghua Gate, as opposed to Menxi (门西) on the west. The Nanjing city wall encloses it on the east and south, Zhonghua Road (中华路) marks its western edge, and the Inner Qinhuai River (内秦淮河) winds through it. In 1933 the city made it the Mendong District, its third district; after 1949 it was merged with the Menxi District, and in 1955 Qinhuai District was formed.

In the early 2000s Nanjing named the southern lanes, including Gutong Lane (箍桶巷), Santiaoying (三条营), Zhongying (中营) and Bianying (边营), the Laomendong historic and cultural district, with Madao Street (马道街) to its north and the south wall as its southern limit. From 2010 houses were rebuilt in traditional style and filled with art studios, long-established restaurant brands, folk-craft shops, guesthouses and a Librairie Avant-Garde (先锋书店) bookshop. The Gutong Lane section opened first, on 30 September 2013, and Santiaoying and other plots followed. In 2018 Laomendong was chosen as one of Jiangsu's first clusters of time-honoured shop brands.

The district's listed historic buildings include the Jiang Shoushan Former Residence (蒋寿山故居) at Nos. 18 and 20 Santiaoying, home of a wealthy late-Qing Nanjing merchant and a Jiangsu provincial protected site since 2002. Its two parallel lines of buildings, seven courtyard ranks in all, stand inside fire walls: the eastern line has a gate hall, sedan hall, main hall, principal hall and rear building, and the western line holds a garden. Before repairs began in October 2010, 101 households shared the compound.

Jiezi Garden (芥子园), the Mustard Seed Garden, was first laid out in 1668 by the writer Li Yu (李渔) in southeast Nanjing on a plot of less than three mu. He lived there for ten years, running a bookshop and printing books. The garden was rebuilt as part of the Laomendong project.

What to look for

• The stone archway inscribed 'Laomendong' at the Gutong Lane section, opened in 2013
• Jiang Shoushan Former Residence (蒋寿山故居), a late-Qing merchant house of seven courtyard ranks
• Jiezi Garden (芥子园), the rebuilt garden of the late-Ming and early-Qing writer Li Yu
• The lanes of Santiaoying (三条营), Zhongying (中营) and Bianying (边营)
• The Librairie Avant-Garde (先锋书店) bookshop
• The Nanjing city wall along the district's southern edge

Location & getting there

Getting to Laomendong Historic District

• Search for 老门东 with 南京市 and 秦淮区.