Eastwards from the overpass of Fuhua Road, scores of meters from the Qijiang River Bridge, there is a lifelike sculpture of a rickshaw man with his rickshaw and a passenger leading you into the old Siqi Street more than 50 years ago. This is the entrance to the cutural tourist walking street.
This street has a history of over a hundred years and its predecessor was the commercial center for the old city with bustling shops and people. There is the oldest medicine shop – Fushou Drugstore. It was created in the first year of Tongzhi Reign of the Qing Dynasty (1862) named “Liang & Li” at first and was changed to this name by its creator, Li Ruiwen. There is the old 5-story Yong’an Company Branch. Yong’an Company was one of the big 4 department stores at the beginning of the 20th century created by the Guo Brothers of Elegant Bamboo Village of Xiangshan County (the predecessor of Zhongshan City) with its base in Hong Kong in 1907, succeeding the former Sydney Yong’an (1897). In February 1929, the Guo Brothers opened their branch here. Along the walk there are many buildings such as Shiqi Hotel (the former Sihao Hotel), and British-style and Southeastern Asian-style buildings, steeped with many legends and stories.
The current walk keeps both the quaint style of China, and catches the modern touch of today. The traditional and ethnic style has been integrated with the characteristics of the Southeastern Asian style to make it more attractive. The protruding buildings stand a big feature of the walk. Going along the whole walk, it shelters the passengers and shoppers from the scorching sun and the heavy rain. All the engraved flowers on the rails have been maintained, and the arched doors and their reliefs have been repainted, keeping with the antiquity of the past. The designs and decorations of the front of each building are different from one another. Strolling along the walk, you may feel that you are admiring a long gallery of a world collection of construction of various artworks. The well-stocked shops here demonstrate their dainty shopping windows to the visitors. The sizeable department stores along the walk provide the tourists and passengers with a big choice of gifts to purchase for friends, and shopping for themselves.
The newly paved walk makes it appear more spacious and even and the colorful bonsai constitutes a big feast for the eyes. If you get tired, you may take a rest on a long bench along the walk. The inlaid photos of black and white in the poles of the protruding buildings are telling the old stories of the past to remind the viewers of the long river of history. When the night falls, the board lamps and neon lights of different colors dot the walk to let you touch the pleasures brought by a new modern civilization.