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The Introduction of Tunxi Old Street

This Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) built street, 1,273 meters in length, Tunxi Old Street was a major commodity distribution center in Anhui Province during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It has been well preserved by local residents and is now a shopping precinct in Ming and Qing architectural style.

Rambling along Tunxi Old Street, tourists will feel as if they were in a street of the ancient times. It is paved by the maroon granite slab, long and narrow, with many lanes crisscrossing each other, like a fish skeleton, is very convenient to reach any corner of its nearby places. Row upon row of shops built along the street orderly, all half-timbered, with white wall, and covered by grey tiles. Beautiful carvings are found on the windows and door lintels of the street houses. Most of the houses on the street have several doors to be walked through to reach the last rooms, their passageways are dark and narrow, but there are dooryards for lighting. The unique high horse-head walls separate the shops, which show the beauty of the Anhui-style architectural complex.

All the doors have signboards with golden lines and black paint. The lights with eight angles and the traditional flags hanged on the doors are swaying in the wind. Classical houses! Having seen all of them, you will not be surprise why the town is called the moving painting of "Qing Ming Shang He Tu". All the shops in the town are not very big, but they are pretty deep with heaven wells on the backs. The front of the house is for business and the back is for living, such kind of construction system is still reserved. The charming old town has attracted great number of photographers. They came to photograph and report the beautiful scenes of the town and have accomplished more than 100 films and TV sets about it.

In this street, you may shop in the oldest stores in Huangshan City, of which some have run for centuries. There are curios, Chinese four treasures of the study (ie writing brush, ink, stick, ink slab, rice paper), and Mao badges can also be found. Traditional Chinese paintings of the Anhui-school style, engravings, rubbings from the tablets, inscriptions, baubles and many tourist souvenirs for selling.