Guyi Street

Guyi Street (估衣街) is an old clothing street of more than 700 metres in Hongqiao District, east of the north gate of old Tianjin. It dates from the Yuan dynasty under the name Matou Dongjie, so the local saying runs that Guyi Street came before Tianjin Wei itself. At its late-Qing and early-Republic peak it held eight of the city's twelve great silk dealers, among them Ruifuxiang, and the Tianjin Qianxiangyi silk shop at number 12 and the Ruifuxiang shop at number 44 are both municipal protected sites. In 1956, after private shops were brought into joint state ownership, most premises became warehouses, workshops and housing. In 2011 the planning bureau named it the Guyi Street historic and cultural quarter.