"One old street or alley contains half of the historical memories." Every street and alley is full of traces of time. It retains beautiful details everywhere, like the texture of the city carrying profound cultural heritage, and records the long-standing civilization trajectory, and is the living body of the city.
Qingtai Street is an ancient street full of vitality, with various stalls, continuous touting, department stores, snack shops, and clock shops... Here, you can see all kinds of things and awaken your memories of the past.
Qingtai Street, from Huancheng East Road in the east to Zhongshan Middle Road in the west, opposite Kaiyuan Road, was originally named Jianqiao Street and appeared as early as the Southern Song Dynasty. The city gate at the entrance of Chengtou Lane was called Chongxin Gate in the Southern Song Dynasty, and because there was a Jianqiao Bridge on the Yanqiao River, the street inside the gate was directly called Chongxin Street and Jianqiao Street, also known as Xinnankai Lane. In the past, you could reach the Qiantang River by leaving the city gate from Qingtai Street. Every year on the 18th day of the eighth lunar month, crowds of people walked out of the city gate along the road to the riverbank to watch the tide.
Wu Zimu from the Song Dynasty said in "Record of a Dream of Sorghum" that Empress Dowager Wei, mother of Emperor Zhao Gou of the Southern Song Dynasty, and his first wife, Xing Bingyi, both had mansions on this street. Qingtai Street and the adjacent Zhongshan Middle Road were once a gathering place for merchants and shops, with various industries, restaurants, and tea houses. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it has always been one of the most prosperous streets in Hangzhou, like today's Yan'an Road and Jiefang Road.
In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, Qingtai Street was still bustling. People could talk to each other through the windows on the opposite side of the street, and even pass things with clothes forks. The street was lined with shops and the golden signs of each shop were shining. The more famous the shop was, the bigger the sign was. In 1909, the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway was completed and put into operation. More and more people from outside the city poured into Qingtai Gate endlessly. In 1937, the Xiaoyong Railway and the Zhegan Railway were completed, and Qingtai Street, not far from the train station, was even more crowded and noisy, and was once known as the "second largest street in Hangzhou."
So there are more guests on the street and it becomes even more lively. All of this is like a modern version of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival." Jianqiao Street is a part of Qingtai Street later. This street connects many areas including the train stationn and it receives many guests from Shanghai. It is the birthplace of modern commercialization in Hangzhou.
To many native Hangzhou people, the Jewellery Lane next to Jianqiao Bridge on Qingtai Street has been a prosperous place for gold, silver, and jewelry since ancient times. Especially the two Western classical-style buildings, which are habitually called "Jianqiao Foreign Company" or "Jianqiao Foreign Building" by Hangzhou people, were once iconic buildings in Hangzhou.
Today, Qingtai Street is still a bustling main street in Hangzhou, lined with many hotels, restaurants, tea houses, and other various shops, and many of them are time-honored brands. When you stand here, everything is vividly in front of your eyes, as if you were touching the past time, and looking deeply into the soul of this city.