Tianjin >> Ancient Culture Street

Attraction Typ: Pedestrian street, Shopping Market

Location: City Centre - Central

Recommend: 5 Star

Ancient Culture Street

Tianjin Ancient Culture Street boasts lots of antique buildings and classical shops, which is the best place to know Tianjin's old cultural traditions and customs.

Tianjin Ancient Culture Street (Chinese: 古文化街; pinyin: Gǔ Wénhuà Jiē) is the best place to know Tianjin's old cultural traditions and customs.

The Ancient Culture Street is located in Nankai District of Tianjin, having a history of more than 600 years. Rebuilt in 1980's, the whole block is still conserved the existing urban pattern and tissue of traditional Chinese layout and the lanes and houses in the Street are almost preserved in a good condition with Tianjin local features.

Tianjin Ancient Culture Street boasts lots of classical architectures, such as the two attractions, Yuan Huang Ge and Mazu Palace (Tianhou Gong) which are two historical cultural relics in the list of city level ones reserved, the "Old Neighborhood of Tianjin" and so on. The Mazu Palace was built in 1326 AD in deference to the heavenly Goddess and in hope of protection for Tianjin's ocean going population. In 1984, it was turned into a museum displaying local customs, including some fine examples of the Tianjin clay works and woodblocks.

The "Old Neighbourhood of Tianjin" stands at the entrance to the street, and behind the archway is a street of 600 meters long lined with buildings in the Qing Dynasty architectural style. Walking by these buildings with grey walls and decorated with colorful streamers is like walking into the past. The most note-worthy things are the boards inscribed with the names of shops and with couplets at the shop fronts, which are written by famous calligraphers.

In addition, a spectacular "Imperial Festival" is held in and around the square in front of Mazu Palace every year on the 23rd day of the third lunar month. On the ceremony, many Chinese traditional performances would be seen, such as Shiziwu (dancing play as a lion), Huahanchuan (dancing with a ship –like dressing), Caigaoqiao (dancing standing on a high stick) and so on.