Kuanzhai Alley: Old Chengdu in Three Lanes

World Travel 编辑部 · 2026-09-10 · 5 min read

Kuanzhai Alley: Old Chengdu in Three Lanes

Kuanzhai Alley is a historic district of Chengdu and a national AAAA scenic area. Its appeal lies in a plan simple enough to state in one line: three old east-west lanes — Kuan Alley, Zhai Alley and Jing Alley, from north to south — with courtyard houses between them.

Banner quarters of the Qing

The area was, in the Qing dynasty, the residential quarter of the Eight Banners, and was once called the Narrow-Wide hutong. Each lane had its own older name:

• Kuan Alley was Xingren hutong
• Zhai Alley was Taiping hutong
• Jing Alley was Ruyi hutong

They took their present names after the 1911 revolution. Late-Qing and early-Republican western-Sichuan courtyard houses survive along them.

2007: a renovation that moved 900 households

From 2007 Chengdu set about reworking the district: some 900 households were relocated, and more than 50 courtyards and 30,000 sq m of building were repaired and remodelled, with a 11,000 sq m underground car park added.

The district opened on 14 June 2008.

Since then, stalls and small shops have sold Sichuan snacks, crafts and books; cafés, restaurants and guesthouses — a Starbucks, the Dragon Town hostel — trade from the old courtyards. The shell is historic; the business inside is today's.

How to walk it: three lanes, three characters

The lanes run parallel but are not alike:

• Kuan Alley: the most complete and spacious courtyards — best for doorways and old layouts
• Zhai Alley: narrower and busiest, packed with restaurants and shops
• Jing Alley: quieter, good for walking and photographs

Kuanzhai Alley is the city's showpiece for old Chengdu culture, and has won the 2008 China Creative Industry Project Achievement Award and a 2009 listing among China's distinctive commercial pedestrian streets.

Practical

• Route: enter at Kuan Alley, leave by Jing Alley; the three take one to two hours
• Look for: late-Qing and Republican courtyard gateways and western-Sichuan house plans, found nowhere else quite like this
• Eating: snacks and crafts are dense but repetitive — for a proper Sichuan meal, walk out of the lanes
• Timing: come by day for the architecture, by night for the lights and the crowd
• Pair it with: People's Park and Tianfu Square, for a half-day loop

Related

• Jinli Ancient Street: 550 Metres of "Western Shu's First Street"
• Chengdu Panda Base: From Six Bears to Two Hundred and Sixty

Photos

Sources

• Wikipedia: Kuanzhai Alley