A street in the heart of the old International Settlement that was historically Shanghai's center for bookshops, art supply stores, and stationery dealers — a tradition that began in the 19th century and has partially survived the digital transition. The Shanghai Foreign Languages Bookstore and several large Chinese-language bookshops remain on Fuzhou Road.
The area around People's Square is increasingly a museum district; the Fuzhou Road bookstores provide a pedestrian experience that connects the civic center to the Old Town area to the south. The street is not as active as it was in the 1980s but retains more book retail than comparable streets in most Chinese cities.