A detail of Dai Honghai's painting on show, A Panoramic View of Southern Song Imperial Street. [Photo by Lin Qi/China Daily]

The Southern Song Imperial Street, or Yu Jie, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, was a historic thoroughfare when the city served as the political and economic center of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). It flourished with shops, street performances and other commercial activities to show the dynamics of a dynasty's city life.

A Zhejiang native, gongbi painter Dai Honghai made a 9-meter-long scroll of landscapes more than 10 years ago to recreate the prosperity of Yu Jie, A Panoramic View of Southern Song Imperial Street.