Quanzhou Zhongshan Street Introduction

There was once a saying about Quanzhou: “Two towers in the east and west, one street from north to south”. The “two towers in the east and west” refer to the Zhenguo Pagoda and Renshou Pagoda (commonly known as the East Pagoda and West Pagoda) built in Kaiyuan Temple during the Tang Dynasty. The “one street from north to south” refers to Zhongshan Street. Quanzhou Zhongshan Street can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty.

---

At that time, it was a major street connecting Quanshanmen (now Zhongshan Park) and Chongyangmen (now Huaxiangkou). By the end of the Tang Dynasty, when Quanzhou’s city was expanded, the southern end of Zhongshan Road extended to the vicinity of today’s Tumen Street. In the Song Dynasty, Zhongshan Street was extended again, reaching Chaotianmen (now Huancheng Road) in the north and Deji Gate in the south, with a total length of about 2.

---

5 kilometers, basically taking on its current scale. After that, Quanzhou Prefecture named this street “Zhongshan Road”. Zhongshan Street truly thrived in the early last century. Many overseas Chinese who made fortunes in Southeast Asia injected funds into the shops on Zhongshan Street, and this street gradually grew into a bustling commercial street. The love of overseas Chinese for their hometown and the warm wind in Quanzhou accompanied Zhongshan Street as it grew.

---

Zhongshan Street is 12 meters wide. On both sides of the street are arcade-style buildings, usually two stories high. This architectural style is quite common in Southeast Asian countries and southern China. Pedestrians can easily avoid sudden heavy rains and the scorching sun. This highly user-friendly architectural style reflects the dawn of modern civilization. Among the three major cities in Fujian, only Quanzhou and Xiamen have this architectural style.

---

---