Located in Marco Polo Square, Hebei District, Italian Style Street is a tourist resort with Italian style in Tianjin city. It was formerly known as the only concession outside of Italy, and now is a unique large Italian-style buildings in Asia.
It covers the area from Coast area to the Victory Road. Across the river from Italian Town lies the Ancient Culture Street, Tianjin Financial Road, Peace Shopping and Pedestrian Street, Tianjin Municipal Government and Little White CBD. Owning the unique location, the Style Street is merged with different cultures. Here you can find the many former residences of celebrities’, chic bars, western art deco, international restaurants, etc. Among those buildings, the most famous are First Worker Cultural Palace, Residence of Feng Guozhang, former residence of Liang Qichao’s Yinbin, Residence of Hua Shikui, Residence of Cao Yu and Italian Military Camp. Although the Italian Town is named after a street, actually it is a small town.
What to See in the Street
The center of Italian Style Street is the Macro Polo Plaza. The well preserved fences and other ancient buildings make the town full of Italian aroma. The layout of the street is shaped like a chess board. Both sides of the street are decorated with lamp lights and green trees. Like a well-cut suit discovered hanging in the back of a wardrobe, Tianjin’s newly spruced up Italian Style District aims to dress up the city as a cosmopolitan and elegant destination. The Free Path is the only pedestrian street in the Italian Style Street and most of the buildings are restaurants and bars which attracts many tourists. Here one can not only taste the real pizza, Italian pasta and other Italian aperitifs, besides, he can also enjoy the Italian performances and other Italian clothes and handicraft exhibitions. One can come here to dine at Italian and French restaurants and daydream you are in Europe. The 24-hour bars, cafés, cinemas, art museum and restaurants make it attractive to tourists from all over the world. Also, this street is quite charming at night, with its European-style architecture and warm white lights. You can take Bus No.27, 868 and 901 and get off at the East Station to get to the street.
History of Italian Style Street
Italian Style Street was the former Italian Concession in this city. It was built in 1902. On June 7, 1902, Mr. Tong Zhaoyi with Tianjin Customs and a new Italian Minister signed the “Articles of Tianjin Italian National Concession Contract”, scoped Italian Concession area in Tianjin. The location was between Tianjin Russia Concession and Tianjin Australia Concession, south to Haihe River, north to Tsuyama Rail, and across Tianjin French Concession and Tianjin Japanese Concession by the river. Since then on, the construction of drainage systems, Italian-style property and relevant services and facilities, including clubs, gardens, markets and the police stations started or was improved. In 1946, the Italian concession in Tianjin was resumed the local government.
In 2002, the Tianjin Municipal Government and the Tianjin Haihe Construction Development Co., Ltd. made protective development to the original concession area, named “Italian Style Street”. The renovation of this street was completed in 2005 and opened to the public in 2008. It now has has become a distinctive and attractive spot in this city. In 2013, Italian Style Street was listed as a national 4A -class tourist scenic spot.