When was the old arcade in Shantou built?

The arcade building has a long history in China, which can be traced back to the "city" corridor and "square" corridor of commodity trading in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and is also related to the earlier dry-column architecture. Foreign arcades first appeared in ancient Greece. /kloc-In the second half of the 6th century, arcade buildings were also widely distributed in Mediterranean coastal cities in southern Europe. Uffizi Street in Florence is surrounded by strictly symmetrical rows of multi-storey arcades, which enriches the group composition in the city center.

Guangdong is the main development area of arcades in modern China, and arcades are mainly distributed in the southeast coast near the South China Sea, adjacent to Hong Kong, Macao and central Guangdong. These areas all have a common feature-a large number of people live abroad, emigrate to do business, and are famous hometown of overseas Chinese. A large number of overseas Chinese have brought great influence to the hometown of overseas Chinese, and also created the unique architectural style of the towns of overseas Chinese. The arcade commercial street and residence have become the representative architectural forms of overseas Chinese culture.

The arcades in the southern coastal cities of China are divided into Fujian School and Guangdong School. Influenced by local traditional woodcarving, the facade of Fujian-style arcade is covered with relief, while the decoration of Guangzhou-style arcade is simple and close to European style. The arcade of Shantou Old Street is in between. The construction of Shantou arcade has absorbed many treatment methods of arcade buildings, forming a continuous traffic blocking space between streets and shops, which is very suitable for the local climate characteristics of hot, rainy and typhoon. Shantou arcade was founded in the 1920s, and its architectural form was obviously influenced by European style, and gradually formed under the influence of specific geographical environment, traditional culture and external factors. Its typical representative is the arcade in a small park.

The small park and its surrounding streets such as Anping Road, Shengping Road and Guo Ping Road are distributed radially, which is the historical witness of Shantou's "century-old commercial port". The small park area is the birthplace of Shantou. Its unique Lingnan architectural style, street features and rich commercial atmosphere are the embodiment of Shantou's personality charm as a "century-old commercial port" and an important local cultural heritage of Shantou. The arcades in the old street around the small park are the most representative, combining Chinese and western, and integrated. These arcade groups, the architectural art of combining Chinese and western styles, the scattered commodity outlets along the street, and the circular and radial road network pattern fully show Shantou's humanistic and historical features as a "century-old commercial port". [ 1]