Jianghan Road is the pedestrianised main shopping street of Hankou — a kilometre and a half of department stores, brand boutiques, restaurants, and snack vendors running from the Hankou riverfront back into the modern city. The southern end, near the Yangtze, retains a string of fine concession-era buildings: stone-fronted banks, the old Hankou Customs House clocktower, and the offices of the China Mercantile Marine Company.
In the evening the whole street fills with shoppers, families, and street performers. The food stalls along the side lanes do a roaring trade in skewers, milk tea, and Wuhan duck necks. It is a good place to feel the city's commercial pulse and to combine shopping with a wander through the surviving treaty-port architecture.