Jianghan Road Pedestrian Street 江汉路步行街

About Jianghan Road Pedestrian Street

Jianghan Road Pedestrian Street (江汉路步行街) is the car-free shopping section of Jianghan Road (江汉路) in Hankou (汉口), Wuhan. The road marks the boundary between Jianghan District (江汉区) and Jiang'an District (江岸区) and runs 1,550 metres northwest from the Jianghan Customs House (江汉关大楼) on Yanjiang Avenue (沿江大道) to Jiefang Avenue (解放大道).

The southern end began as Guangli Lane (广利巷), an earth track about 300 metres long from the riverbank to the mouth of Poyang Street (鄱阳街). When Hankou opened as a treaty port in 1861, it was widened into a crushed-stone road called Taiping Road (太平路). In 1901 the land dealer Liu Xinsheng (刘歆生) gave a stretch of low-lying ground to the Hankou British Concession, and the road built across it took his name as Xinsheng Road (歆生路). In 1927 the authorities joined Taiping Road with the section of Xinsheng Road between Hualou Street (花楼街) and Xunlimen (循礼门) and named the whole after the Jianghan Customs at its southern end.

Next to the British Concession and close to the Yangtze, the street attracted Chinese industrialists, foreign firms and compradors, who lined it with banks, companies and shops in Western, imitation-Western and Chinese styles. The Jianghan District chronicle office lists its chief buildings, from south to north, as the Customs House, the Bank of Taiwan (台湾银行), Siming Bank (四明银行), Louwailou (楼外楼), the Guohuo department store (国货商场) and the Xuangong Hotel (璇宫饭店). By 1929 it was among the busiest streets in Wuhan, and in the 1930s people called it "Little Hong Kong" (小香港). In 1985 the Ministry of Commerce gave it the title of a model street for commercial conduct (全国商业文明一条街).

From February to September 2000 the road was rebuilt as a pedestrian shopping street, which opened on 22 September 2000 over a length of 1,210 metres. The Customs House at its river end was completed on 21 January 1924 to plans by the British-owned firm Sijiusheng (思九生洋行). Its clock tower carries a four-metre clock face on each side and has played the Westminster chimes since 1924, apart from the Cultural Revolution, when it played "The East Is Red" (东方红) until the chimes returned in 1987. The building became a national protected site in 2001 and has housed the Hankow Customs House Museum since 2015.

What to look for

• Jianghan Customs House (江汉关大楼), the 1924 customs building at the river end, with Corinthian granite colonnades and a clock tower
• Hankow Customs House Museum, opened inside the Customs House in 2015
• Western-style buildings from before the 1930s along the street
• The Bank of Taiwan (台湾银行), Siming Bank (四明银行) and Xuangong Hotel (璇宫饭店), named by the chronicle office among the street's chief buildings
• The Zhongshan Avenue (中山大道) crossing, where Jianghan Road metro station sits

Location & getting there

Getting to Jianghan Road Pedestrian Street

• Search for 江汉路步行街 with 武汉市 and 江汉区.