Longmenhao Old Street and Xiahaoli 龙门浩老街与下浩里

About Longmenhao Old Street and Xiahaoli

The first-phase area occupies the south side of the Dongshuimen Yangtze bridge, running north to the Mishijie plot, south to the Guorui Plaza project, west to Nanbin Road and east to the Institute of Socialism. Work began on site in March 2017 and the area was completed and brought into use in September 2018, covering about 27 mu with some 13,000 square metres of floor space. Of the 24 buildings within it, six are district-level cultural-relic protection buildings: three from the former American embassy villa group, among them the former Chongqing Customs villa and two houses that served the embassy's military attache, together with the former Xinhua Trust and Savings Bank and the former Italian and Belgian embassies. One more, the building at 32-35 Zaoziwan, is a designated excellent historic building, and seventeen are character buildings. The district describes the result as a traditional character district drawing together the city's treaty-port, Republican and wartime strands.

Xiahaoli lies across the bridge on the north side, continuous with the first-phase area and, like it, a major component of the same historic and cultural block. At the end of the nineteenth century the old street was crowded with foreign trading houses and merchants, with factories and villas among them, and during the War of Resistance its dense vegetation and easy water and land transport drew legations, consulates and relocated schools to build there, so that a group of buildings mixing Chinese and Western styles took shape. Nan'an District began work on Xiahaoli in April 2021; the project manager quoted in Chongqing Daily described an urban-acupuncture model and four principles of building on the original site and keeping the original area, height and appearance. The restoration used local grey brick, old tiles and dressed stone, with structures mainly of brick and stone, brick and timber, and steel and timber, and the rebuilt street formally opened on 5 November 2022.

What to look for

• The three buildings of the former American embassy villa group inside the first-phase area — the former Chongqing Customs villa and two houses that served the embassy's military attache — all district-level cultural-relic protection buildings.
• The former Xinhua Trust and Savings Bank and the former Italian and Belgian embassies, the other three district-level protected buildings within the first-phase area.
• The building at 32-35 Zaoziwan, the one structure in the first-phase area designated an excellent historic building.
• Xiahaoli's restored walling: plinth stone at the base and local grey brick laid in alternating stretcher and header courses, matched against historic records and old photographs.
• Window sills, lintels and frames and horse-head gables at Xiahaoli restored to the local Republican-period manner, with mortise-and-tenon joinery in the wooden doors and windows and traditional straw-fibre lime finish inside.

Location & getting there

Getting to Longmenhao Old Street and Xiahaoli

Choose a precise starting address and return transport stop. Access to individual buildings, performances or viewing platforms is separate from access to public streets.

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