Chaozong Street 潮宗街

About Chaozong Street

Chaozong Street (潮宗街) is a granite-paved street in the old city of Changsha (长沙), on the east bank of the Xiang River (湘江) in Kaifu District (开福区). Its historic district stretches from the Zhongshan Road (中山路) junction to the Yingpan Road (营盘路) junction.

The street takes its name from Chaozong Gate (潮宗门), also called Caochang Gate (草场门), a city gate that no longer stands. Its core area takes in Liansheng Street (连升街), Sangui Street (三贵街), Zi Garden (梓园) and Jiuru Li (九如里) to the south, and Shouxing Street (寿星街), Gaosheng Lane (高升巷) and Yuhuangping (玉皇坪) to the north. Because the street led out through the gate to the river wharves, it became a hub for rice dealers and warehouses, with more than ten grain firms, and its granite paving dates from the Yongzheng reign of the Qing.

An archaeological survey in late October 2011, ahead of construction of a Wanda Plaza, found two stretches of the old city wall near the gate site. The Song-dynasty wall runs 120 metres with a base 6 metres wide; the Ming and Qing builders raised it, faced it with granite and widened the base to 20 metres. Bricks carry the inscriptions 'Zhongyi Jun' (忠义军, 'Loyal and Righteous Army'), 'Changsha' and 'Ningxiang'. In February 2012 an official of the Hunan cultural heritage bureau said 20 metres would be kept in place.

CCTV's Focus Report (焦点访谈), republished by the Kaifu District government, calls the street more than 400 years old and a national-level tourism and leisure street. Its renewal avoided large-scale demolition and set more than 40 new businesses, from bookshops and guesthouses to designer boutiques, among its century-old houses, linked on a route with over ten historic sites such as the Shiwu Academy (时务学堂) and the site of Kim Gu's activities (金九活动旧址). Mao Zedong opened the Cultural Book Society (文化书社) here in 1920, at what was then No. 56.

What to look for

• The Chaozong Street church, built by the True Jesus Church in 1924: two and a half storeys of grey and red brick, hung with Chinese couplets, a Hunan provincial protected site since 2019
• Remains of the Song and Ming–Qing city wall found in 2011 near the former Chaozong Gate
• Zi Garden (梓园), once the rear garden of Liu Quanzhi's (刘权之) mansion, with a Republican-era inn and an opera stage under a hip-and-gable roof on four timber posts
• Jiuru Li (九如里), named for nine well-to-do households, lined with early Republican red-brick mansions with stone-framed gates and a lane gate inscribed by the calligrapher Li Zetai (黎泽泰)
• The site of the Cultural Book Society founded by Mao Zedong in 1920
• The Shiwu Academy and the Kim Gu activity site on the district's heritage route

Location & getting there

Getting to Chaozong Street

• Search for 潮宗街 with 长沙市 and 开福区.