Dashilan is a poplar shopping area in Beijing, do you know the history of this amazing place?

In the Ming Dynasty, the name “Dashilan” was not yet recorded in the work of Zhang Zhupo, "Blocks and Streets in the Five Boroughs of Beijing". Only Langfang Toutiao, Langfang Ertiao, Langfang Santiao and Langfang Sitiao existed to the west of the road which was outside Qianmen. Langfang Sitiao was located in the same place as modern-day Dashilan. It can be inferred that the place name “Dashilan” did not exist in the Ming Dynasty. The so-called "Langfang" is often referred to as a storeroom along the street. Although the name "Dashilan" was not used in the Ming Dynasty, the place where Dashilan situated was already a flourishing commercial district, with many merchants gathering there. In the first year of the Hongzhi era of the Ming Dynasty(1488), in order to maintain public safety in the capital, the central government built wooden fences at all the entrances to the streets and lanes in Beijing. The fence was completed with the contributions of local residents, and the total number of the fences was more than 1700 by the end of the Qing Dynasty. Among them, the Langfang Sitiao street’s fence was funded by the merchants. For this reason, the fence was extremely large and thus got the name “Dashilan”. With the passage of time, "Dashilan" gradually became the formal name of the street in replacement of "Langfang Sitiao". In the 25th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1899), Dashilan caught a fire and the wooden fence was burnt. From then on, the fence has practically disappeared, leaving only the name "Dashilan" itself. It was not until the year of 2000 that the Beijing government rebuilt the iron fence at the entrance of Dashilan.