Old Alley: True Jinan

Old Jinan charm

Beijing is the representative of Chinese alley culture. Because the strict planning in urban construction in ancient times, all alleys are straight and intersecting thus constituting the square Beijing City. The houses are quadrangle courtyards that face south and are arranged in order, thus Alleys are formed, most of which run east to west, with fewer going north to south. Such kind of planning exactly adopts the construction experience of past dynasties, which embodies the traditional characteristics of city construction in the past dynasties of China.

Located in the hinterland of Beijing, Jinan is a hub connecting south and north. Along with the improvement of Beijing s political status, the connection between Jinan and Beijing grew increasingly closer in politics, economy and culture. Particularly in the Yuan Dynasty (A.D.1206~1368), Jinan was the backland , directly belonged to the secretariats.

Therefore, the city layout and street design took Beijing as the model. In the early Ming Dynasty (A.D.1368 1644), Shandong Province was established, taking Jinan as its capital for the first time. It is also the place where Shandong Administrative Division, Military Command Office and Judicial Office stood.

From then on, Jinan became the political center of Shandong Province. The improving position helped Jinan to keep in step closely with Beijing and be increasingly similar except that the area for Jinan is smaller than Beijing. For this reason, Jinan has developed an alley culture with its own features.

Comparatively speaking, a Beijing alley is always domineering, spacious and straight. Lingjing Alley, the widest one in Beijing, is 32m wide at the maximum; and Dongjiaominxiang, the longest one, is 3km long. However, the building of each quadrangle courtyard is extremely particular about the strict social strata. Just examining every gate tower facing the alley you can get knowledge of the host s social status. However Jinan has never been a large city in history so she lacks the style required of a capital city.

Editor Melinda