Qianmen and Dashalan Streets

Qianmen Street was a famous commercial area 600 years ago as was Dashalan Street running off it at right angles. Qianmen was renovated in recent times. I remember teetering on makeshift walkways and trying not to sink into damp cement as I walked through Dashalan West during its renovation phase about a year ago. Renovation is mostly finished and the cement and large uncovered manholes have pavers and covers. For various reasons I walked around these streets a few times during the weekend.

This is Qianmen Gate, Jianlou,  at the head of Qianmen St.   Qianmen St is to the right with Zhengyangmen Gate, Chairman Mao’s mausoleum and Tianamen Square  behind it to the left. 

This is Zhengyangmen Gate seen through Qianmen Gate

The wooden gateway to Qianmen St and some of the shops.

Trams used to travel down this street during the first part of the 20th century and recently  2 were reintroduced. Qianmen Gate is seen at the head of the street.  There is now a Starbucks near the entrance and it is  just the place to rest  weary feet.

Qianmen Street.  It contains many international and “Time Honoured Chinese Brands.”  There were many shops with the windows papered over and a notice stating that a new shop would open soon.  There appeared to be more than on previous occasions.  A set of bronze sculptures previously seen outside a shop had gone too. 

This a famous Peking Duck restaurant and two electric cars, one being a police vehicle.  Not sure about the other as it is a pedestrian street.  This photo was taken in September last year.

There is a narrow street parallel to Qianmen and numerous tiny alleyways run from it.  This is one of them and they are filled with life, cater for tourists  without the “cleaned up for the tourists” appearance.

East Dashalan St runs off Qianmen.  This is the entrance to a shop selling silk clothing and includes bronze sculptures of the silk making process and some antique furniture.

This is part of an old  Chinese pharmecutical company.  It contains three floors of strange dried things considered beneficial to health.

A  jewellery shop.

The first building is a famous handmade cloth shoe business and the one beside it is an old cinema. Last year I bought some small torches from a shop in this street and I returned to buy some more.  The shop had disappeared.

This is the entrance to an alley way which looks like it has had a facelift since I visited it over a year ago.

Shoppers in Dashalan East outside a famous dumpling restaurant.

This is a road dividing the pedestrian East and West Dashalan Streets.  West Dashalan is to the top of the photo.  West Dashalan St has accommodation facilities, some locals and more muted tourist facilities.

This is part of West  Dashalan in August last year when the street was safe enough for me to stop and photograph it.

This is West Dashalan St on Saturday morning.  I saw three or four people in night atire during the weekend.  Prior to the commencement of EXPO the authorities were trying to encourage the locals in Shanghai not wear pyjamas in the streets lest it give visitors a bad impression.

This wheelchair wouldn’t become lost in a nursing home wheelchair parking area.  There is a demand for retirement services and nursing home placements  due to the same reasons that they exist in other countries.

Street life.  There is a man sitting at a table. See what he has in the next photo.

This was taken the next day, but the man had a couple of little birds attached to sticks in addition to 2 cages containing a bird each.

Another bird parked in a statue.

Dashalan became more ordinary, bifurcated and assumed a  local Chinese neighbourhood style.