Memorial pavilion
At the hub.
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The heart of old Shantou, whose port opened to foreign trade on 1 January 1860, making it one of the earliest open ports on the Chinese coast. The quarter peaked in the 1920s and 1930s, when banks, department stores and restaurants crowded it, earning it the nickname «Little Shanghai». At its centre stands the Zhongshan Memorial Pavilion, built in 1934 and restored to its original wooden design in 2016, from which streets fan out lined with more than two hundred qilou arcade buildings blending Chinese and Western styles, one of the largest such groups in China. Wandering is free at any hour, and it is at its best in the evening, when the façades are lit; restaurants and stalls serve popular Chaoshan snacks, and halal food isn't guaranteed there.
At the hub.
Qilou style.
In the lanes.
Old town, Jinping District, Shantou
Its fan-shaped plan, with streets radiating from the memorial pavilion lined by more than two hundred arcade buildings of the 1920s and 1930s; wandering is free.