Let’s roam on the world’s most beautiful streets

Streets make up a city’s skeleton. They record what happened in the past.

The most beautiful streets around the world can provide deep experiences and great joy for people in any season.

Jinli, Chengdu

The name Jinli was derived from the poetic name Jinguan City, which Chengdu is also known as.

Speaking of Jinguan City, Chinese readers should be familiar with a poem written by the famous poet from Tang Dynasty, Du Fu, which reads, “At daybreak, upon a rainfall, I saw Jinguan City be heavy with reds.”

Jinli Street is 550m in length as it was built upon the Qing Dynasty’s housing style. It highlights a cultural charisma unique to the Three Kingdoms period and customs in the Sichuan province.

Dark gray tiles, grayish walls, eaves rising high, red lanterns, and traditional signboards all come together to create an otherworldly atmosphere of peace and vigor, where you may feel as if you’re in the Han, Ming or Qing Dynasty.

On this street full of traditional elements, you can see not just the well-known masks unique to Sichuan Opera, but diverse, interesting performances by folk artists and artisans, such as paper-cutting, shadow plays, and rice-carving.

Jinli once ranked first among the world’s most beautiful streets by CNN, which wrote in their recommendation that the street housed wooden houses and stores full of historical charm, with red lanterns and traditional signboards everywhere, and that visitors could learn about history while enjoying themselves here.

Lombard Street, San Francisco

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Lombard Street in San Francisco remains beautifully flowery in all seasons.

Lombard Street is famously known for its eight sharp hairpin turns in a sea of flowers.

Streets in this San Francisco are typically steep slopes. In order to prevent car crashes, the city government had this street designed with the sharp turns decorated by flowers.

On any sunny afternoon, you can see the Bay Bridge and the Coit Tower in the distance if you stand on the top of Lombard Street, which zigzags forward and downward in the sea of flowers, looking especially brilliant in the sun. When winter is approaching and the temperature gets slightly cool in San Francisco, hydrangeas happen to be at their best, and the whole Lombard Street is in a sea of lovely white blooms.

Walking down the street in a bustling metropolis, you will feel as if you were hanging out in the suburbs. The colors of the flowers are in interplay with the deep, verdant greenness of the tree leaves, as they stretch to the bluish San Francisco Bay. When you drive there, you will have to overcome the challenges from the 40° slope and the zigzags of the street. It may be a slow ride, but certainly a distinctive experience.

Caminito, Buenos Aires

It is as if an impressionist artist paints an ocean of colors onto the beautiful canvas that is the entire street of Caminito in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located in the urban area, Caminito also features houses with distinctively colorful walls.

Caminito once decayed after the railroad running through the urban area was closed in the mid-20th century. However, the famous painter Benito Quinquela Martín managed to rejuvenate the neighborhood with vibrant artworks.

Those who enjoy the magic of colors will naturally be fascinated by the neighborhood of La Boca. The entire street is just less than 300m in length, but the houses on both sides are extremely special. These four- or five-story wooden and zinc buildings come with walls that were painted in bright colors. This, plus the sculptures including reliefs and the wall paintings there, may just make visitors feel as if they have been magically transported to a fairyland.

Today, the colorful apartment buildings along Caminito house creative artworks by many local artists, practically making the place an open-air museum.

Chefchaouen, Morocco

The ubiquitous bluish whiteness of Chefchaouen is simply dazzling like a dream. This incredibly beautiful town in Morocco is often referred to as the “backyard garden of Europe.”

The graceful hilly town of Chefchaouen is in northern Morocco. As a blue city on the hill, its buildings and alleys are painted in colors varying between blue and white.

The crooked streets in the town of Chefchaouen are in dreamy blues, according to the National Geographic magazine.

Roaming along the local alleys, you’ll find that they are in different shades of blue ranging from Prussian blue, Ultramarine blue, lake blue, sky blue, Phthalocyanine Blue, deep blue and light blue to powder blue. It’s no exaggeration to say that the color blue simply dominates the whole town.

The local residents are very romantic, as they typically decorate the “blue ocean” with colored vases, turning the whole town into a 3D Impressionistic canvas.

Streets embody a city’s qualities and history. While serving our daily lives, they can often be humanistic and artistic. Cultures vary from country to country, but all those amazing streets mirror the pursuit of a great life.