Liulichang
Historic lane of kiln-turned-bookshops, ink stones and antiques once favored by imperial exam candidates.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Liulichang in Beijing follows a young scholar arriving for the imperial civil service exam and heading straight to this street for supplies, tracing how a lane once known for glazing palace roof tiles became the capital's hub for booksellers, ink stones and rare texts. You'll hear about Rongbaozhai, a shop founded in 1672 whose woodblock printing technique was precise enough to reproduce a brushstroke's every fade of ink, and its work for the writer Lu Xun in 1933. Browse the shopfronts as you listen for what these students needed most before their exam.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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