ABSTRACT
In an ideal setting of Chinese capital cities, the Imperial Street as the major street would be the central axis of the city, connecting the main gate of the imperial palace to the central city gate and thereby dividing the whole city into two distinct halves. This chapter examines and analyzes a detailed development history of Imperial Street in Hangzhou, through which the relationship between past and present is articulated. Imperial Street from the period of the Southern Song dynasty is a historical street in Hangzhou. The economic prosperity of Hangzhou reached its peak in the Southern Song period when there were many marketplaces and hundreds of guilds in the capital and this commercial exuberance reached its climax on Imperial Street. The role of the street as an urban stage is much reduced in modern society largely due to shifting social paradigms.
