The west end of the old town
Travel back in time to 1985. In the west of the old city of Tianjin, not far from the South Canal, there is Xidawanzi, which is a small street with a twist and turn, nearly 400 meters long and five meters wide, and the hutongs on both sides are densely packed and densely populated, and it is known as prosperous in the area around the west head. The intersection of the small road of the release courtyard and the West Dawanzi is the old shop of pot ba cuisine, Da Fu Lai, a bowl of pot ba dish eight cents, in fact, it is quite expensive, but it is a serious traditional old taste, receiving eight thousand customers every day, many people come to enjoy the blessing of the mouth regardless of the road. There is a state-run breakfast shop diagonally opposite DaFu Lai, and the noodle tea is particularly delicious.
But this time we are not talking about pot dishes, but the plot of West Dawanzi. The West Dawan is called Yaojiawan earlier, the South Canal (Weihe) runs through the north and south, is an inland waterway for transporting grain, and the Tianjin section is meandering, and it encounters a large river bend here. With the source of the boat coming from the north, the limit of the amount of local products carried in the south has been repeatedly relaxed, and the boats on the water surface of the West Dawanzi are connected, and there are thousands of profits, and they have blocked the river, just like the current traffic jam, they must not pass.
Old photos of Tianjin
Tianjin Wei's commercial, service and handicraft industries have developed rapidly, and the city has become increasingly prosperous. Along the river, there are old shops, Jardine Shops, Wanchun Dou Shops, Tongfeng Tai Dou Shops and so on. Doudian is the grain store, valet trading, storage, taxation, transportation. Capital transport Jingtong, merchants called convenience. Later, several flour factories such as Dafeng, Minfeng, Shoufeng and Fuxing were also on both sides of the South Canal. Supporting markets, warehouses, grain stores, car shops, foot shops, restaurants, tea houses, bathhouses, medicine shops, souvenir shops, iron shops, etc. came into being, and the market was hot and prosperous.
The first stop around Xidawanzi, Yongfengtun (永丰屯), was the seventh of the sixty-four tuns of the canal, which used to be a garrison, and in the sixth year of Akihiro's reign (1493), Yongfeng Ji was established nearby. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a commentary on the book On The Bastards, the old Tianjin Wei da Li Jin'ao donkey market entrance bumped into a car to open the car, Jinyi Weiqiao broke his legs for the second time, and he was in charge of the Yongfeng Tun pot gang.
Xidawanzi has the most temples, including The City God Temple, Weituo Temple, Xuandi Temple, Sun Palace, Ruyi Temple, Land Temple, Release Temple, Ban Ruo An, Lü Zu Hall, etc. Lü ZuTang is the only well-preserved former site of the Boxer Tuantankou in the country, and has become one of the historical and cultural heritages of Tianjin.
There is a strong cultural atmosphere around this, and there was a government middle school established in the late Qing Dynasty, a Yan's nanny training center, a jingye middle school, and a tianjin county government fifth girls' primary school. Educating everyone, the father of Nankai Middle School, Yan Xiu Yan Fansun lived here. The plaque of the "Eleventh Water Bureau" inscribed by Li Hongzhang is also here.
There is a Yongle Lane in this area, which is also an old street, and there are groceries, cut noodles, jewelry, pawns and other shops on both sides, and the people's needs have everything, one by one. In the year of Gengzi, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded tianjin, and there were no foreign soldiers here; after the fourteenth mutiny of the first month, there was no military trouble here; in 1939, Tianjin was flooded, and there was no trouble here, and the name of this street was all upheld, entrusting the blessing of the old Yan king Yongle the Great.
In the past, there were New Year stalls in Tianjin every New Year, mainly concentrated in Beima Road, Beimenwai, Jiayi Street, Houjiahou, Guanyinhao, Gongnangong North Street, Xidawanzi and Huangjia Garden and Xiaobailou in the concession area. Xidawanzi is mainly based on New Year painting stalls. Shops selling New Year paintings are generally blacksmith shops and carriage and horse harness shops that are temporarily re-established, and samples are clipped on paper one by one, from top to bottom, layer by layer hanging on the wall. The themes of the New Year paintings are very extensive, implying auspiciousness and quite a breath of life, such as dolls holding fish, big New Year's Day, etc.
Tianjin Old Town SandBox
When it comes to the Huangjia Garden, people naturally think of the old residential area next to Nanjing Road. As everyone knows, Yongfengtun also has the Huangjia Garden, located on the south bank of the canal, also known as the Huang's Yi garden, which is the private villa of the Huang salt merchant, built in the Qing Dynasty Guangxu for more than 20 years. The entrance to the garden has the "Yuan Que Yue Cave", three outer halls, four wooden screens, and then the hall, with a staircase to the roof, which can overlook the canal. The garden has a lotus pond with a small bridge and a thatched pavilion by the pool. There is a first floor through the Yongdao, surrounded by glass, and Vientiane is in sight. Poets often chant here. Later, it was abandoned and converted into a private house during the Republic of China.
In 1922, the Shunzhi Water Conservancy Commission cut the bend of Xidawanzi to straighten it, and opened a new section of the river from Mustard Garden to Dafeng Bridge. The river surface of West Grand Bay was changed to a road that curved albeit. At the end of West Tai Wan Street, it is divided into three main streets, called Jardine Street West in the north, Hejialou Back Street in the middle, and Shuangzhongmiao Street in the south. There are also Sanyili West Street, Donkey Shikou Street, West Dawanzi Back Street, Guhuang'an Street and so on. It has formed the purest city of the old Tianjin Wei, which has a unique temperament and vein. (Text: He Yuxin)
Tianjin Old Town