Qinghefang is a historic pedestrian walk street at the foot of Wushan Hill in Hangzhou, around 10 minutes' walk from the West Lake. Now the street also becomes a popular site for tourists mixing buildings with Ming and Qing architectural styles.
The street is named after the general Zhang Jun in Southern Song Dynasty who was honored as Qinghe Prince after he won a defensive war. He built his mansion on the Taiping Lane, which is positioned in this area. Since then, the whole street was simply renamed Qinghefang Street. Qinghefang with lots of stores, restaurants, and teahouses was the political, cultural, and commercial center of Hangzhou, the capital city of the Sothern Song Dynasty (1127- 1279 AD). And it remains a prosperous business area all the centuries.
On the southeast of the Qinghefang historic district, there used to be a drum tower built around 1400 years. The Drum Tower was destroyed in the last century and the local government renovated it using the architecture style of the Ming Dynasty. The renovated 19-meter-high Drum Tower is now a landmark of the Hangzhou city.
Many renowned century-old stores have branches in this ancient street, such as Wangxingji Fan Store, Zhangxiaoquan Scissors Store, Wanlong Ham Stack, Huqingyutang Pharmacy, Baohetang Pharmacy, and many tasty restaurants. Besides, there are several art museums and workshops on the street worth a visit.
Baohe Pharmacy was the pharmacy where the Xu Xian worked in the Chinese famous legend of the White Snake Legend. Thus a stone sculpture of Xu Xian in front of the Baohe Pharmacy. With a thousand years of history, the pharmacy has a quite high reputation among the locals. However after Hu Xueyan established the renowned Huqingyutang Pharmacy in the late Qing Dynasty, the original Baohe Pharmacy gradually declined. Now the Baohe Pharmacy sells its own medicated tea and medicated wine.
Huqingyutang is now a major cultural relic covering an area of almost 3000 square meters. It displays over 160 pieces of relics. Visitors could learn more about Chinese medicines as well as Chinese traditional architecture.
Zhangxiaoquan Scissors are known as the five brands of Hangzhou. It is also the top enterprise specializing in producing various scissors and knives in China.