ChengDu Kuan Alley and Zhai Alley

Kuanzhai Alley is the name of a pedestrian area that has been created by renovating Qing Dynasty hutongs (courtyard houses most famous in Beijing) and making them into shops, cafes, bars and hotels. The area was originally a place where northern Chinese lived so they created a neighborhood in the style of their architecture – this type of hutong house can be found in Beijing but is not original to Chengdu.

The renovated neighborhood consists of three parallel alleys that are fun to stroll through for some shopping and snacking.

• Kuan (literally means Wide or Broad in Chinese) Lane represents a most typical Chengdu folk culture.
• At such a lane, you may find local residents, taverns, elaborate door headers, plane trees, old teahouses under house eaves, and the likes-being words or expressions unique to Kuan Lane in Chengdu.
• Kuan Lane is also reflecting how a city impresses modern people.
• The old, for example, are drinking tea or chit-chatting at a teahouse gate (apt to drink outside in fine days).
• What is commonly seen may also be a lazy sleeping cat in a crouching manner, shadows beneath plane trees, and a caged thrush couple amid the tree in some courtyard corner and so on.

ChengDu Kuanzhai Alley Photo