Editor's note: From a deteriorating residential block to a cultural hot spot, Wuhan's Lihuangpi Road offers a case study in preserving history while embracing contemporary city life.
On a typical sunny afternoon, visitors can be seen sipping coffee beneath the red-brick arcades of a century-old Russian-style landmark distinguished by its domed tower, arched walkways and sprawling twin courtyards, browsing a tea exhibition tracing trade routes across Eurasia, or simply pausing for photographs.
Few would guess that just a few years ago, this landmark building on the historical Lihuangpi Road in Jiang'an district, Wuhan, Hubei province, was a crumbling residential block divided into hundreds of cramped rooms.
Known today as Bagong House (Banov's House), the complex has become one of the most recognizable stops on Wuhan's growing city-walk circuit. Yet its transformation is also emblematic of a broader story unfolding across Lihuangpi Road, a former concession-era street that has evolved into one of the city's most vibrant cultural destinations.
Stretching just 604 meters, Lihuangpi Road encapsulates more than a century of Wuhan's modern history.
As Hankou opened to international trade in the late 19th century (when it was Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) then in the country), British, French, German, Russian and Japanese communities established a presence in what is now central Wuhan, bringing banks, trading houses and Western-style architecture to the city.
The road was laid out in 1900 in what was then the Russian residential area, known as Ima Street before adopting its current name in 1946.
Today, the street functions as an open-air museum featuring 17 historical buildings ranging from former banks and trading companies to churches, hospitals and residences. The street is also home to several important revolutionary heritage sites, including the memorial hall of the former site of the August 7 Meeting of 1927, a pivotal moment in China's modern revolutionary history, and the former residence of Soong Ching Ling, a prominent Chinese political figure and social leader.
The challenge facing local authorities over the past three decades has been how to preserve this complex historical legacy while maintaining its relevance to contemporary urban life.
Yang Li, deputy director of the culture and tourism bureau of Wuhan's Jiang'an district, says the district's conservation philosophy has undergone several stages since Lihuangpi Road was first designated for protection in 1997.
Initial efforts focused primarily on safeguarding individual historical sites, particularly revolutionary landmarks. Later, large-scale surveys expanded the inventory of protected buildings. More recently, conservation work has shifted toward district-wide renewal and quality improvement.
Following Lihuangpi Road's designation as a national-level tourism and leisure district in 2023, the emphasis moved further from preserving isolated structures to promoting integrated conservation and cultural tourism development.
"Our goal is not just to restore old buildings but to help them continue serving contemporary urban life," Yang says.
That philosophy is vividly embodied in Bagong House's restoration.
Built in 1910 by Russian tea merchants, Bagong House was originally a high-end apartment building, offering housing for bank employees and trading firms, making it an important witness to Hankou's modern urban life.
Over time, however, the building lost its glory.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the property was taken into public ownership and repurposed as staff housing for bank employees. Over decades of residential use, residents added lofts, partitions and makeshift structures to meet growing housing demand, dramatically altering the building's internal layout.
By the time restoration planning began in 2018, the building had been subdivided into 437 rooms.
"The situation was quite severe," recalls Wang Xiang, the architect in charge of the Bagong House conservation and restoration project and director of the second design institute (ancient architecture research center) of the CITIC General Institute of Architectural Design and Research.
Original courtyards had become storage areas. Wooden structural elements had deteriorated. Walls had cracked. Doors and windows were missing. The red-brick facade was severely weathered.
Yet, beneath the layers of alteration, the building's original spatial logic and architectural character remained largely intact.
The restoration team did not rush into construction. Instead, they began with a thorough investigation.
They invited former residents to return and share their memories of the building through oral histories. They pored over archives and consulted with heritage experts. The goal was to reconstruct the building's original appearance as faithfully as possible.
"First, we had to understand what it originally looked like," Wang says.
The restoration followed four principles: preserving the original state of the cultural relic, recognizability, reversibility, and minimum intervention.
One of the most important decisions was to restore the building's original spatial logic.
Because Bagong House had been designed as a luxury apartment complex, the team determined that a boutique heritage hotel was the most compatible contemporary use, preserving the building's residential identity while giving it a new function.
Today, the building contains 45 guest rooms, most of them suites, reflecting the scale and layout of the original apartments.
Original wooden staircases, timber floors, decorative moldings, and window openings were preserved to the greatest extent possible.
One of the most challenging aspects of the restoration was conserving the red-brick facade.
The team inspected more than 560,000 bricks one by one, treating each according to its condition — some were patched, others replaced. Traditional techniques were revived to reproduce the original craftsmanship.
For architect Wang, the most successful transformation occurred in the building's courtyards. Two courtyards, once cluttered with storage, were reopened as shared public spaces. One now hosts cultural exhibitions and community events; the other has become an open garden surrounded by cafes and restaurants.
"They belong not only to hotel guests but also to local residents and visitors," Wang says.
Bagong House's cultural significance extends beyond its architecture. As an important heritage site along the historic tea road, the building now houses a permanent exhibition that tells the story of Hankou's role as a major tea trading center in modern China and the trade network that carried tea from China through Mongolia and Russia to Europe.
The integration of heritage interpretation, hospitality and public space reflects a wider strategy along Lihuangpi Road.
Historical buildings throughout the district have been adapted into museums, cultural venues, bookstores, cafes, and creative businesses while maintaining their historical character.
Meanwhile, revolutionary heritage sites have adopted new approaches to engage younger audiences.
At the memorial hall of the August 7 Meeting, visitors can participate in immersive theatrical experiences that combine historical storytelling with puzzle-solving activities. Digital technologies, including virtual-reality installations, are used to create more interactive experiences.
The results are increasingly visible.
According to Jiang'an district authorities, visitor numbers to the Lihuangpi Road area rose from approximately 11 million in 2024 to 15 million in 2025, an increase of more than 36 percent.
Much of that growth has been fueled by the rise of city walks, a trend that has encouraged younger travelers to explore historical neighborhoods on foot.
But local officials believe the district's popularity stems from more than social media exposure.
For Wang, lead architect of the restoration project, the site's popularity reflects years of efforts to reconnect the district's historical buildings with everyday life.
"What people see today is not the result of a single project," he says. "It comes from the gradual restoration of the entire historical area and the creation of a cultural environment that encourages people to engage with these buildings."
