This Part of Guangzhou Defines The City Spirit

You may say that the once prosperous and expat-concentrated Jianshe Road area has lost its popularity in recent years over the new CBD Zhujiang New Town, yet many have remained, simply because they are so comfortable with the lifestyle developed over the last two decades. Now efforts have made by nostalgic businessmen to revive the community, and it’s time for you to visit some old friends.

A street view of Jianshe Road area.

If you arrive at Guangzhou 10 years ago and ask a taxi driver to take you to a bar street, most likely he/she would drive you to the Jianshe Liu Road in Yuexiu District. Along this 500-meter road and several crisscrossing streets stretching lay Guangzhou’s most long-established foreign bars and restaurants, the first Western hotels, as well as local market, noodle and butcher shops, barbers, small boutiques and laid back coffee shops, dotting every corner of the residential buildings. Close to the former Canton Fair venue on Liuhua Road, the Jianshe Road area has embraced a well-balanced international community from around the world, whose residents call Guangzhou their home.

However, as the city develops, new city center erected in the east with sparkling facilities and attractive environment, attracting people and businesses to open shops and offices. In the recent five years, Zhujiang New Town has replaced the Jianshe area and become everybody’s must-experience night out. Companies’ offices moved, so did employees. More and more retail and food business opened around skyscrapers and upscale gardens. Glassy and glossy shopping malls sprouted every inch of the block crammed with people on weekends.

Neighborhood dwellers often spark lengthy conversation with their old friend shop owners.

That’s why Leon Melkonian, long-time Guangzhou resident and general manager of French fast food restaurant Chicken Express on Jianshe Liu Road, initiated ‘I Love Jianshe 6’ project almost two years ago with his neighbors in the area. “We should do something to make this area live,” Leon recalled. They asked hotel managers how they could send customers to the street. And one manager suggested them to make a fun map so they give to the guests. This was how the idea was born.

Leon Melkonian, GM and co-owner of one of Guangzhou expats' favorite restaurants Chicken Express on Jianshe Liu Road, posts with his staff at the shop. Photo: Chicken Express

The concept is to unite different shops in this area and promote the neighborhood together. They believe that the prosperity of the area will eventually benefit each individual shop. “We were four or five, then we waited, we brought in our group over 15 new members. They believed in us. Sultan, Ice Cube, Buongiorno Alex, Happy Monk, Wesky and many other coffee shops and bars,” said Leon excitedly.

So like-minded business owners and managers joined the group. They designed a brochure with a distinctive hand-drawn map locating each participated shop and introductions of the businesses. Then they distribute the brochures in neighborhood hotels and furnished apartments. You can find them on the reception desks of big hotels like Garden Hotel, Baiyun Hotel and Asia Hotel.

A fun map has created by 'I Love Jianshe6' group locating participated businesses in the Jianshe Road neighborhood. Photo: I Love Jianshe6

“The foreigners come, or Chinese people, they want to eat something, they look where to go and what to drink,” said Leon. “Before they didn't have this (brochure), the concierge didn't know how to recommend guests where to go.” By recommending his friends to stay at the hotels, Leon made the hotel managers happily send their customers to the neighborhood. “Every three months, six months, all the managers, we gathered together, it’s like a family. Before we didn’t know each other, now we are helping each other.”

Over the years, the Jianshe Road area nurtures some of the city's earliest and most well-known expat establishments, such as authentic Italian restaurant Buongiorno. Photo: Buongiorno

Buongiorno Italian Restaurant, one of the few authentic Italian cuisine establishments in the city since 2006, is among the first ones who joined the group. “I participated in the group because I also feel attached to this area and it might be a good thing to stay together and help each other,” said manager and partner Alex Bonafe’.

Been working in hotels back home, Alex took the adventure to Southeast Asia and ran an Italian restaurant chain in Vietnam for a year. In 2006, seeing the thriving businesses in Guangzhou, he was brought by his partner to open Buongiorno. Insisting to use imported Italian ingredients to maintain the authentic taste, the restaurant has educated its customers from different parts of the world what is the real Italian food.

“You give them the real thing, if they like it, you achieve to the customer expectation,” Alex said. “If they prefer the one with the cream, they think they are eating Italian food, but they are not, so I can’t help anymore,” he laughed.

Alex Bonafe’ (the man without a tie) and his staff. Photo: Buongiorno

Been working and living in this area for over a decade now, Alex considers it his home even though he’s an Italian. He agrees that over the years the Jianshe area had lost its importance somehow, but he also saw a revival the last couple of years from the sales numbers. “When I’m here, I feel more like in China, it’s more authentic,” said Alex.

Indeed, if the pavements are clean and unblocked by shop belongings; If the roads are wide and trees are small, this is not China, not even Asia. Zhujiang New Town can easily fool someone to be in America because Manhattan served as a strong point of reference in the new CBD's layout plan. “If I would like to be in America, I will go to America,” Alex grinned.

The crisp winter air is most suitable for the Cantonese bacon: the hanging meat, which is easy to be spotted in Jianshe area.

One thing that the skyscraper-saturated new CBD doesn’t have for sure, is “real life”. On a sunlit early afternoon, local people are seen in deep conversation with shop owners, and don’t mind help a little to give unbiased advice to coming customers; Foreigners sit outside of shops sipping coffee; Young office workers flood to nearby cheap food stands for a quick lunch and break; Trucks outside of the local market upload boxes of fresh ice-buried seafoods; Middle-aged housewives raid a vegetable vendor on the edge of the square while seniors enjoy flickering sunshine under the trees.  “This is a living area. You have it in Zhujiang New Town, but it’s new and modern. You don’t have the downtown spirit, you don’t have life,” said Leon.

Not sure what this man is selling on the street of Jianshe Road, perhaps palm reading?

For Neville Ceasar, co-owner of well-known Sultan Turkish restaurant at Baiyun Hotel, Jianshe Road is where he belongs to. “I personally prefer this area because you can mix with local people. In Zhujiang New Town, I don't know where I belong to,” he said.

It's hard to identify another area in Guangzhou similar to the Jianshe Road where locals and Westerners are mixed so spontaneously together. "We made a statistics on this street and in our shop, we serve and deliver to more than 20 countries, half of the customers are Chinese," said Leon matter-of-factly. You can see families, the old and young mingle together. People stop by a shop and have a blissful conversation with the owner, without buying anything; foreigners go to the same vendor to buy vegetables, exchange news with limited Chinese and body language. "I just feel comfortable here, there's no reason," a sign of affection wore on Neville's face.

Grannies and uncles take advantage of a mobile fruit and vegetable vendor.

In fact, not all the business are affected by the shift of city center. HiTouch Consulting, Guangzhou’s leading corporate service provider, has seen a 50% year-on-year growth after moving to this area in 2012 to better serve their customers. “One of the reasons why the area has lost popularity is because the upgrade of foreign trading businesses, which eliminates the ones who only focused on cheap commodities,” said Jimmy Li, founder and managing director of HiTouch. With the plan to open another office, Jimmy confessed that they will certainly keep this one running as their customers have got used to them in this area.

The spirit and the soul of a truly international city is diversity, may it be the people, the culture or the areas. If Guangzhou can't tolerate a different kind of city center, it simply wouldn't attract so many people from around the world.

If you happen to live or enjoy some great time in this area, why not let us know and leave a comment below?

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