The Five-Avenue Area is a rectangular region in Heping. It refers to the south of Chengdu Street, east of Xikang Road, north ofStreet, Nanjing Road and west ofStreet. There are a total of 22 roads and they stretch for 17 km. Except for the European-style architecture in this area, there is also a residential area nearby, with the first small Western-style residential area for foreign people who opened up concessions, whose residence next to the office area, close to Jiefang Road, around the former Italian concession in the east of Marco Polo Plaza. There are local people living here. Visitors can experience the local life there.
Until now, Five-Avenue Area is the most complete western architecture complex in China. There are over 2000 garden style private villas of various nations fromand 30s in. The building areas cover 1,000,000 square meters. Among the top 300 buildings, there are 89 in British style, 41 in, 6 in, 4 in German style, 3 in Spanish style with many buildings instyle, classical style,style, Baroque style, courtyard style, western & Chinese combined style. It is reputed as multi-country architecture museum. In 2011, it is listed as Five-Avenue history & culture district of Tianjin.
Another reason for the reputation of Five-Avenue Area is more than 200 former residences of celebrities, including two presidents of the Republic of China, seven Premiers or acting Prime Ministers, famous educators Yan Xiu and Zhang Boling, well-known industrialists Zhou Xuexi, Li Zhuchen and Song Peiqing.
In the 20th century, Tianjin's situation in China was quite special. On one hand, public and politics unrest made concessions a safe place for ousted political figures and, on the other hand, Tianjin, had geographically profits for transport and duty-free customs. A variety of dignitaries and wealthy persons lived in Tianjin. Residing in a small Western-style dwelling was more comfortable than a conventional courtyard and the Five Great Avenuesin a perfect area of the British concession, therefore people constructed their houses right here. The community grew to be Tianjin's rich area in those days.