Qilou Old Street (Zhongshan Road)

About this place

Haikou's historic heart, streets of «qilou» arcade houses, two- and three-storey buildings whose upper floors reach over the pavement on columns to shade passers-by from the tropical sun and rain; most were built in the first decades of the twentieth century by merchants, many of them with ties to Southeast Asia. The best known is Zhongshan Road, whose thirty-nine buildings were all restored by early 2013; it was paved with stone and made pedestrian-only, and its mostly white-painted façades blend European, Indian and Arabic touches in their arches and decorated parapets, now filled with cafés, juice bars and old shops. At its northern end near the Haidian River stands the Haikou Clock Tower, a red-brick tower in European Gothic style 27.3 metres high, first built in 1928–1929 and rebuilt in 1987 near its original spot, while market lanes branch off the neighbouring Bo'ai Road, selling spices, dried seafood and fabrics. The quarter is free and always open, per visitor guides. The evening, when the arcades are lit and the heat eases, is the loveliest time, and the midday hours are best avoided in summer.