Shashi Zhongshan Road Historic District 中山路历史文化街区

About Shashi Zhongshan Road Historic District

Shashi Zhongshan Road Historic District (中山路历史文化街区) is an old commercial street in Shashi (沙市) in Jingzhou (荆州), Hubei. Zhongshan Road runs east to west for 1,620 metres directly beside the Yangtze River embankment.

Trade here is older than the road. The Shashi district government counts Shashi among the country's twelve great commercial cities of the mid-to-late Ming dynasty, and in 1895 the town was opened as a treaty port. In 1723 the Qing government moved an assistant prefect of Jingzhou prefecture to Shashi and placed his office on Qingshi Street (青石街), the street that is now Zhongshan Road.

The present road was completed in June 1934 and was known in the Republican period as Shashi Zhongshan Avenue. Because it lay beside the Yangtze docks, it quickly filled with traders and goods. The street once held a Catholic church, a post office, a hospital and a department store, and its western section keeps a group of older buildings, among them the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Guild Hall (江浙会馆). After 1980 the town's commercial centre gradually moved to Beijing Road (北京路), and in 2000 the Jingzhou government planned the street as a 630-metre pedestrian shopping street. In 2014 Jingzhou News recalled it as a well-known old shopping street for traditional local goods and long-established shops.

In February 2020 the Hubei provincial government published its first batch of 41 provincial historic districts, which includes a Zhongshan Road–Chongwen Street district (中山路-崇文街历史文化街区) in Jingzhou.

What to look for

• The Jiangsu-Zhejiang Guild Hall (江浙会馆) and other older buildings on the western section of Zhongshan Road
• The 630-metre stretch the Jingzhou government planned as a pedestrian shopping street in 2000
• The Yangtze River embankment directly alongside the road
• Former Qingshi Street, where the Qing assistant prefect's office stood from 1723

Location & getting there

Getting to Shashi Zhongshan Road Historic District

• Search for 中山路历史文化街区 with 荆州市 and 沙市区.