Cangqiao Straight Street: One of the Important Cultural Heritages of Shaoxing Ancient City

Cangqiao Straight Street is located in the center of Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, with a total length of 1.5 kilometers and a total area of 6.4 hectares. It is a historical block characterized by the ancient city style and traditional urban residential culture. It is also one of the important cultural heritages of Shaoxing Ancient City and won the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Conservation Excellence Award as early as 2003. The history of Cangqiao Straight Street can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. Currently, a river runs through the entire block, with traditional residential buildings on both sides of the river. Each backyard has a small river dock, fully reflecting the convenience of the past water town residents for washing and traveling by the river. Cangqiao Straight Street maintains the harmonious unity of road street scenes, river water systems, ancient trees, small bridges, courtyard walls, and revetments. On both sides of the street, you can see the unique Tai Men architecture of Shaoxing, traditional shops, restaurants, specialty snacks, exhibition halls, and yellow wine houses, which add a lot of popularity to this ancient block.