This paper compares the multilingualism in the linguistic landscapes of Zhongyang Street in the beginning of the 20th century (before 1932) and now. The distribution of languages is discussed with Russian being dominant in the first period and sim?plified Chinese being dominant now. The connection between societal factors and the multilingualism are also discussed in the as?pects of politics, demography, business, tourism, globalization, etc. Results show that while the multilingualism of the past was more a result of different ethnic groups living together and competition between different ethnicities in business, todays is more for communication and tourism purposes.