Jinbaoli Old Street Introduction
Jinbaoli Old Street, commonly known as Jinshan Old Street, is always bustling with crowds and tourists during weekends. The shops thrive with business, offering a variety of local snacks such as braised pork and oyster omelets, alongside Jinshan specialties like taro cakes and roasted sweet potatoes, which are quite famous. At the center of the old street, the popular duck meat stall at Guang'an Temple is a highlight, and the self-service style of dining has formed a unique local landscape. "Jinshan Old Street" is the only Qing Dynasty commercial old street on the north coast. During the Qing Dynasty, the prosperity of the old street was comparable to today's commercial hubs, serving as a bustling business activity area. A stroll through the street reveals many traces of its rich historical past, with a few old houses adjacent to Cihu Temple, which were once the "street houses," traditional long-form row houses with Fujian-style architecture and Western-style facades, as well as narrow and deep pavilions. The only old rice store on the street boasts a century-old wooden door, large square wooden barrels holding different priced rice, and an old scale. From the open door, a few elderly people can be seen chatting leisurely. Next door is a traditional Chinese medicine shop, where the furniture and displayed medicine jars show signs of Qing Dynasty heritage. Although the prosperous scene of the past is now gone, with a well-planned preservation effort, the pedestrian area of the old street features drainage covers engraved with the characteristics of Jinbaoli Old Street, reflecting creative ideas that hope to surprise visitors and revive the grandeur of the past, allowing them to savor the deeply rooted traditional charm of this old street.
