Dihua Street and Dadaocheng

Dadaocheng grew rich in the nineteenth century on tea, camphor and cloth shipped out through the river wharf, and Dihua Street is what remains of it: a long run of shophouses in Fujianese, baroque and early modernist styles, most of them still trading. The goods are unglamorous and specific, which is the appeal - dried scallops, sea cucumber, shiitake, ginseng, dried persimmon, herbal medicine weighed out of wooden drawers, sacks of nuts, tea by the tin. Prices are marked and haggling is limited. In the two or three weeks before lunar new year the street becomes a mass market, with samples handed out and the crowd shuffling shoulder to shoulder. The rest of the year it is calm.

What you actually see

• The dried goods shops - scallops, cuttlefish, mushrooms and roots sold from open sacks.
• The shophouse facades - Fujianese, baroque and modernist fronts along one street.
• Xiahai City God Temple - small, crowded, and known for the matchmaking god inside.
• The new year market - the fortnight when the street fills and samples appear.

When to go

Shops keep daytime hours and many are shut by early evening, so this is a morning or afternoon walk rather than a night one. The market before lunar new year is the big event and also the most uncomfortable. Sundays are quieter than you might expect, because a number of the family businesses simply close.

Honest expectations

Half the street has been let to cafes, design shops and boutiques, and the balance between working market and lifestyle destination keeps tipping. Dried seafood is expensive and hard to judge if you do not know what you are looking at, and carrying it home may run into customs rules. The temple is very small. Prices rise before new year.

Nearby

Ningxia night market is a short walk east and the riverside park is at the end of the street.