South Luogu Lane becomes a new landmark of fashion in Beijing

South Luogu Lane, located in the east of Beijing, has been chosen by American Times Weekly as one of the 25 "must see" tourist attractions in Asia for its unique retro-style and world-class taste in fashion. The time-honored quadrangle courtyard and various unique stores are attracting affluent tourists from China and elsewhere.

South Luogu Lane becomes a new landmark of fashion in Beijing

According to the new statistics, the total number of tourists at South Luogu Lane reached 1.6 million last year which brought about an annual income of 11 million yuan.

South Luogu Lane enjoys a history of more than 740 years and fame as the largest and only chessboard-type traditional residential area of the highest quality where the "square system" from the Yuan Dynasty has been preserved. It has now become the communication center for ancient and modern cultures with some of the most distinctive features in Beijing.

On the two sides of the main street, which is 800 meters long, there are more than 130 stores of various types including coffee houses, inspirational stores, theme bars, and stores with Chinese traditional handicrafts. There are exquisite stores featuring the chirpaur flavor of the 1920s, the old memories in cherished pictures of the 1930s, the passion of the Red Book from the 1960s and from more recent times the catchwords that are spreading everywhere on the Internet. They pass on the living feeling of the old Beijing and at the same time play around with fashion elements.

"Voice of Matches" is the first store selling match boxes on South Luogu Lane. The owner Huang Li told the reporter that he came up with the idea of opening a matchbox store three years ago. The original design of the matchboxes makes the matches stand out and brings about relatively good sales.

The names of the stores in South Luogu Lane reveal personality and a sense of style, such as "people's commune", "local identity", "blue and white memory", "16 millimeter", "silence”, and "beyond the window”. Funky items are the most attractive. A pottery boutique remolds and modifies the traditional blue and white porcelain to create new works. The reporter noticed that the store’s treasure is a piece of clothing made of thousands of butterflies by hand. It has stripes like blue and white porcelain and looks stunning, all for a price as high as 50,000 yuan.