Moving further west, on your left, you will find the Wendong Chinese classic bookstore, selling an assortment of Chinese ancient classical texts. Bold golden letters atop a store window announces that Confucius' Analects are distributed free from here but its panes are firmly shut. In front of the store sits a man behind a display-sale counter of palm-leaf manuscripts.

The sprawling courtyard of the Confucius Temple, dotted by ancient cypresses and steles, and the Imperial College, China's most prominent seat of higher education and research from the 1200s to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), are the obvious destinations on this road. But watch out for the slick line-up of cafes and stores further west. One of these, Lost and Found, has a quaint collection of sewing machines, suitcases and barber's chairs from the early 1900s.

Story and photos by Chitralekha Basu