More than 300 staff workers in the administrator’s office of Central Avenue were all out in service to receive thousands of tourists during the National Day holiday from Oct 1 to 7.

Central Avenue in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, is full of tourists during National Day. [Photo/my399.com]

With a total length of 1,450 meters, Central Avenue is one of the top 10 commercial streets in China and one of the longest pedestrian streets in Asia.

The street was first built in 1898 when Harbin invested heavily in the construction of railways and downtown.

When railway materials and goods were transported by carriage across the grassland along the Songhuajiang River, the wasteland turned into roads and people started to live along the way.

In 1900, the street was dubbed “Chinese Street” because many Chinese people dwelled along the road.

With the formation of the Butou area in the city (“Butou” means wharf and is the previous district name for the Daoli area in Harbin), foreigners started businesses along the street when Harbin was a semi-colonial city with a foreign population of many thousands.

As most immigrant merchants were from Europe who tended to build their shops in the styles of their home countries, the European architecture has become a highlight of the “Chinese Street.”

In 1925, the street was renamed “Central Avenue.”

Nowadays, Central Avenue attracts visitors from near and far to experience the city’s exoticism and uniqueness.