奎星楼街

About this audio guide

This guide to Kuixinglou Street in Chengdu traces its shift from a hidden row of thirty-one gated mansions, nine of them owned by Nationalist Party officials, to the lane it is today. It follows the street's names: Bright Lane under the Qing dynasty, then a rename for a hidden pavilion to Kuixing, the deity believed to decide who passed the imperial exams, and a nickname, Trouser Street, for the fork at its eastern end that new buildings eventually filled in. A boxy, German-style building put up for a local college sat empty for years before the neighborhood found new use for it.