Shantang Street

Shantang Street is marked by a winding canal lined with traditional buildings featuring whitewashed walls and dark-tiled roofs. Stretching over two miles from the Changmen Gate toward Tiger Hill, this ancient thoroughfare is known as the Seven-Li Shantang. It originated in eight twenty-five during the Tang Dynasty, when the poet and governor Bai Juyi ordered the excavation of a canal to connect the city to the countryside. The silt removed during this project was piled along the northern bank, creating a dam that eventually became the path for the street.