Chunxi Road

File:Chunxilu.jpeg

Chunxi Road at night

Chunxi Road (Chinese: 春熙路; pinyin: Chūnxī Lù; Wade–Giles: Chun-Hsi Lu) is a pedestrianized shopping street in Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan Province. More than 700 shops can be found here including large shopping malls, department stores, supermarkets, street stalls, and boutiques, as well as modern cafes, and a public square. Next to Chunxi Road is Yanshikou commercial circle. It is served by Line 2, Chengdu Metro.

Geography

An entrance to Chunxi Road

Chunxi Road is about 1.1 km in length. As the shopping district grew, Chunxi Road began to refer to the entire area that is south of the East Main Street, East of New South Street, New Middle Street and New North Street, as well as south of Zongfu Road (总府路), covering about 20 hectares.

The central area contains a small public square with a statue of President Sun Yat-sen, next to a Häagen-Dazs shop.

History

With a history of 85 years, Chunxi Road is the most famous commercial pedestrian street in Chengdu. It was named Chunxi Road in 1924, and is also nicknamed the "Hundred Year Gold Street".

Chunxi Road starts off a narrow alley connected to the Zouma Street, creating a straight path leading from north to south, intercepting the East Main Street. With the East Main Street being the only path leading down to the East of Sichuan, it resulted in huge volume of traffic along the road. Merchants used to gather here, and the road was further developed by the officials then. It solidified its present status during the Warlord era of the Republican period.

As the Japanese department stores Ito Yokado and Isetan are located in the Chunxi Road shopping district, it was a site of the 2005 anti-Japanese demonstrations.

Department stores

There are six major department stores and shopping malls on Chunxilu: Ito Yokado (伊藤洋華堂), Pacific Department Store (太平洋), Wangfujing Department Store (王府井), Chicony (群光), Isetan (伊勢丹), Parkson (百盛).

See also

• List of leading shopping streets and districts by city

External links

• Travel China Guide
• bashu.net
• (Chinese) 春熙路.org