Xiangyang Ancient City North Street 古城北街

About Xiangyang Ancient City North Street

Counting the main street and its side lanes, the block runs 1,270 metres and covers 68,000 square metres of ground with about 94,000 square metres of floor area and more than 800 shops. In January 2022 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism named Xiangyang Beijie in the first batch of 55 national-level tourism and leisure blocks, the only entry from Hubei. The frontages follow the vernacular building tradition of northwest Hubei, with stone paving, red doors, grey tiles and projecting eaves.

The present street is largely a reconstruction. Zhaoming Tai, which commemorates Xiao Tong, Crown Prince Zhaoming of the Southern Liang, was damaged during the Japanese occupation, carried two rooms used as a city library from 1954, and was pulled down after its southeast corner collapsed in the summer of 1973. In the early 1990s the city rebuilt Beijie as a Ming and Qing style pedestrian street and rebuilt the tower to a design by Xiang Xinran, the architect of the rebuilt Yellow Crane Tower, as a three-storey pavilion on a high terrace under a double-eaved xieshan roof. The rebuilding followed three stated principles: keep the historic street layout, keep the volume and height of the buildings, and use traditional Xiangyang building methods and materials. Genuinely old fabric survives in individual buildings strung along the street, among them Tongdi Lane, the Shan family residence and ancestral hall, and the Yang family garden.

What to look for

• Zhaoming Tai at the south end, the three-storey pavilion on a high terrace rebuilt in the 1990s to Xiang Xinran's design
• Linhan Gate at the north end, where the old city wall meets the Han River
• The Shan family ancestral hall, built in the Qing Tongzhi reign for the official Shan Maoqian and reopened in 2024 as a memorial hall
• Tongdi Lane, which runs off the middle of the street immediately east of Zhaoming Tai
• Renyi Lane, about 315 metres long, linking the ring road to Beijie between the Shan family residence and the Yang family garden

Location & getting there

Getting to Xiangyang Ancient City North Street

Identify the main visitor approach and any separately managed houses, museums or performances. Ask before entering residential spaces or photographing residents.

• Search for 古城北街 with 襄阳市 and 襄城区.