Caoshi Street is a street that Chengdu people are very familiar with, because it is actually the southern section of North Avenue, from the intersection of Sauce Garden Gongshou Street to the south to the Wenwu intersection of Xinhua Avenue (where the original Chengdu Hotel is located), it is called Caoshi Street. Because it is relatively long, in the past, it was divided into Shangcaoshi Street and Shimochoshi Street.
Caoshi Street (now)
The streets and alleys in the city constitute the overall impression of a city and reflect the basic characteristics of each city. The names of each street are the product of historical development, a multi-faceted synthesis of language, geography, and history. Every street is a home for people, a symbol of society and the times, a mirror for future generations to understand and study the city, and to look at the past and the future.
From the ancient grass city out of the "exquisite"
Caoshi Street also once had a very elegant name called Linglong Street. This is because Caoshi Street used to have a fire temple with three major halls, just in the location of today's Eighth People's Hospital, there is a garden behind the temple called "Xiao Linglong", which was built to imitate the famous Yangzhou Xiao Linglong Mountain Pavilion, and is famous among the literati in Chengdu. The Qing Dynasty's "Words of Bamboo Branches" once described it like this: "Later, it came to the 'Linglong Pavilion', imitating Yangzhou and slightly cut it." Therefore, some literati callEd caoshi street Linglong street, but because it was not popularized, it failed to replace the popular street name of caoshi street.
Early fire temples
In addition to this "exquisite" street name, its other delicacy and meticulousness originate from the architecture and characters of this place.
Later fire temples
Fire Temple, built in the nineteenth year of Qing Guangxu (1893). It is a temple dedicated to the god of fire and praying to avoid fire. In the minds of the older generation of Chengdu people, this North Gate Fire Temple is very famous. First, because it has long been the "North City" among the four rice cities in the southeast, southwest, and northwest of Chengdu, it is a place where many citizens in the northern half of the city buy rice, and it is also a large market and playground, where the two-sided stage can be sung by two opera classes at the same time. In 1893, the famous "palm ink master" Liu Tuqun (the designer and engineering leader of the ancient wooden structure house was called the "palm ink master") overcame many difficulties in 1893 to build a fire temple with shops in front of the grand scale and theater buildings. Even the former residence of the famous Chinese writer Ba Jin, ShuangjingJing, is also on this side of Caoshi Street, so it has a deep cultural heritage.
Visiting the old way, the sweetness is still there
Unfortunately, this exquisitely built North Gate Fire Temple was completely destroyed in a fire 32 years after its construction. The ingenuity of the Fire Temple we can not see now, only from the older generation of Chengdu population to know some of the remaining memories.
However, there is a small stall that sold tangyuan in front of the Fire Temple. Mentioned here is Guo Tangyuan, which was started by Guo Yongfa, who was originally from Zhongjiang, in 1923 in front of the Beimen Fire Temple, and soon became popular with the washed sand tangyuan made by Seiko.
The "Bamboo Branch Words of Jincheng Old Things" praised: "A small stall in front of the Fire Temple, oil lamps sell tangyuan. Stir-fried into bean paste crisp is good, the name is not a wave, please refer to it in detail. "Developed to the 1940s in the North Gate Fire Temple to the door (the original No. 9 North Avenue) to open for business, until the reform and opening up has not been relocated, Guo Tangyuan has a total of dozens of varieties, to add a little candied fruit as its characteristics, but also to wash sand filling and black sesame filling is the most famous. Its fine product is a bowl of eight fillings, known as eight treasure tangyuan, after the pot and bowl are sprinkled with sugar osmanthus flowers, a different flavor.
Source: Qingyang District Local History Office