Tianjin, once a hub of the opium trade, was much coveted by foreign powers, and became a French and British concession from the 1860s. In the Heping district, Jiefang Bei Street and Jiefang Nan Street have retained some fine examples of early-20C monumental and ornate Western architecture. The Japanese first occupied the town in 1895 and settled around the present Heping Lu, a shopping street lined with beautiful Art Deco façades.