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Qianmen Street, south of Tian'anmen Square in the heart of Beijing, was closed to traffic at midnight on Wednesday.

It is to become the second pedestrian thoroughfare in the Chinese national capital. The first one is Wangfujing Street, a downtown shopping district.

Motor traffic has been diverted to two other north-to-south roads parallel to Qianmen Street, said Tie Lan, a Chongwen District publicity official.

With its latticework of horizontal alleys, north-south Qianmen Street prospered as a commercial strip as early as the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368). By the time of Emperor Jiajing, the 12th Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) emperor, the street was dotted with guild halls built by different localities to provide housing to citizens intending to take the imperial exams.

Qianmen Street became even more prosperous in the early years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) with the development of activities such as lantern fairs, theaters and teahouses. Places like the Guanghe Theater -- today threatened with demolition -- and the Quanjude roast duck restaurant are part of Beijing's history.

The massive redevelopment of Qianmen Street, which began in late 2002, is part of Beijing's efforts to refurbish old city areas ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.

"The redevelopment is massive but Qianmen Street will not lose its time-honored shops, like Quanjude," said Tie. "More than a hundred will be preserved."

The street will become a mecca for tourists and also boast some new office buildings, says Tie.

According to Tie, it has taken a year to renovate the road surface of Qianmen Street. The redevelopment of the two sides of the street is a work in progress.

The oldest outlet of the Quanjude Group of roast duck restaurants on Qianmen Street closed for renovations on Tuesday night. A ceremony to preserve the oven fire, which the restaurant says has not been extinguished since the restaurant first opened in 1864, was conducted at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

By contrast, the fate of Guanghe Theater, Beijing's oldest opera theater built during the Ming Dynasty, is a sad one. Condemned as unsafe, it will fall before bulldozers.

City officials intend to replace the ancient structure with a new, state-of-the-art facility in the same district.

Beijing used to have about 40 opera houses, most of them located to the south of the Forbidden City. Of the few that remain, Guanghe has a particularly rich history. It was here that master Mei Lanfang launched his career at the age of 10 more than a hundred years ago. He starred as the girl weaver in a show with the evocative title "Palace of Everlasting Youth: Secret Betrothal at the Magpie Bridge