Photo studios, snack bars, cinemas... The former fireworks of the North New Bridge are hidden here

In the impression of many old Beijing, the specific scope of Beixin Bridge has not been clearly recorded, and its general scope is the intersection of Lama Temple Avenue, Dongsi North Avenue, Dongzhimennei Avenue, and Jiaodaokou East Avenue. In fact, in the historical classics, the record of the Beixin Bridge is also very small, consult many sources to learn that here the Yuan Dynasty called "Xingqiao", the Ming Dynasty called the Rongjia Jiaotou, the Qing Xuan unification called the Beixin Bridge, and then has been used to this day.

1961 BeixinQiao North Exit Image source Beijing Urban Planning and Design Institute

I was born in this area, grew up here, and I have a deep memory of this piece. In my impression, the intersection of The North New Bridge is about 200 meters from the east to the west, south and north, and it belongs to the so-called North New Bridge area. In the 1960s and 1970s, this intersection was an east-west road with few shops along the street, while the north-south road had more shops along the street.

In the northern section of Beixin bridge, that is, the southern section of Lama Temple Avenue, on both the east and west sides of the road, there are many shops closely related to people's lives from south to north. For example, there are Beixinqiao Food Store (commonly known as Huangmen), Tailor Shop (privately owned), Jiuguang Photo Shop, Trust Shop, Beixin Chinese Medicine Store, Shoe Repair Shop, Beixinqiao Barber Shop, Jianhua Garment Factory and Repair Shop.

On the east side of the road, there are well-known Fenghua Clothing Store, Beixinqiao Restaurant (commonly known as women's canteen, later changed to Minghua Roasted Wheat Restaurant), vegetable shops, Lama Temple vice food grass-roots shops (three pairs of food), liquor stores and Lama Temple second food shops.

I have been to all these shops, and the most impressive ones are the Long Light Photo Gallery. It sits on a high staircase on the west side of the road, with a red door face and a window with many portraits. That's where my first birthday photos were taken, wearing a navy hat and riding a big rooster. When I grew up, once my grandmother planned to take my three aunts there to take pictures, and I overheard their conversation, so I quietly followed them, and as a result, I rubbed another group photo, so happy that my eyes narrowed into a slit. Coincidentally, there was a female classmate in my elementary school who lived behind the photo studio, and it turned out that her father was the owner of the photo studio. I still remember what she looked like: long arms, long legs, long neck, small head, standard beauty billet.

At that time, there was a snack bar on this street that was particularly lively, its fried cakes were fried and sold, and the people who bought fried cakes lined up at the edge of the pot, watching the fried cakes tumbling in the boiling hot oil pan, which was particularly tempting. Took the fried cake and took a bite, the thin skin and large filling, the outside was tender and tender, very delicious, and I still remember it vividly. On this street, there is also a master who sells noodle tea and tofu brain, he is skillful, holding a bowl in his left hand, holding a spoon in his right hand, serving tea, pouring sesame sauce, sprinkling sesame salt, and doing it in an instant. According to the custom, the old Beijingers drank noodle tea without a spoon, and turned the bowl in their hands while drinking. The tofu brain he made is also delicious, the soft tofu brain is smooth in the mouth, plus yellow flowers, fungus, minced meat, very chewy.

When I was a child, I occasionally went into the pharmacy to buy medicine, and it was very strange to see the feeling of grasping Chinese medicine, many small wooden drawers formed a wall, and each drawer contained different medicines.

In the southern section of Beixin Bridge, that is, the northern section of Dongsi North Avenue, it is also very lively. There are also many shops in Ludong and Luxi, such as Beixinqiao Cold Drink Shop, Beixinqiao Bicycle Repair Department, Stationery Shop, Beixinqiao Hardware Wholesale Store, Xinhua Bookstore, Vegetable Shop, Grocery Store, and So on.

On the east side of the road, there are Xingrong Restaurant (Gudelin Vegetarian Restaurant), Beixinqiao Food Mall, Beixinqiao Bath, Beixinqiao Post Office, Beixinqiao Daily Miscellaneous Shop, Beixinqiao Photo Studio, Beixinqiao Tea Shop (Wuyutai Tea House Main Store) and Coffin Shop (later changed to train ticket sales point).

The white porcelain bottle yogurt in the North New Bridge Cold Drink Shop, two cents and six bottles, I also occasionally go to buy. As a primary school student, stationery stores, Xinhua Bookstores, and Beixinqiao Post Office often go there to buy things and send money. At that time, the Beixinqiao bath was also a must-go every month, it was sandwiched between the Beixinqiao Food Mall and the barbershop, the passage was long and narrow, two people were laborious, but inside it was not small, there were hundreds of square meters. At that time, the Beixinqiao Food Store and the Beixinqiao Food Grassroots Store were much larger and more diverse than a non-staple food store in my hutongkou, and I would sometimes help adults come here to buy fish and meat.

On the east and west sides of the Kita-Shinbashi Bridge, there are relatively fewer shops. On its west side, that is, the east section of Jiaodaokou East Avenue, there is the North New Bridge Laundromat, the Savings Office, and the Jiaodaokou Cinema. When I was a child, the family's economic conditions were not good, and there was no spare money to save. I went to the savings house, mainly to help the adults exchange the whole money for change, and then the adults divided all the expenses of the family, and finally the rest of the money was used to buy vegetables. Sometimes, I also divide the month's vegetable money into 30 portions and take out one portion every day to use.

The Intersection Cinema was the place where I watched the most movies when I was a child, and the cinema was a new cinema built after 1949, which was very large at that time, with more than 1200 seats on two floors, and a square was formed around the building, and there was a large movie billboard on the east and west sides of the square. When I was in elementary school, the school was only separated from the cinema by an alley, and all the movies watched by the school organization were screened here. At that time, we basically watched news documentaries, such as feature films such as "Mine Warfare", "Tunnel Warfare", "Lenin in October", "Lenin in 1918" and so on. In the fifth year of middle school, I studied at Beijing No. 21 Middle School (Chongshi Middle School), and the school is not far from the cinema, and the school still has a movie ticket or a Jiaodaokou cinema.

On the east side of Beixinqiao, that is, the western section of Dongzhimennei Street, there are shops such as Beixinqiao Grain Store and Beixinqiao Department Store. The Beixinqiao Grain Store is a must-visit every month, and sometimes several times in January. Beixinqiao Department Store is the largest merchant in the Beixinqiao area, it holds the northeast corner of the Beixinqiao intersection, the west and south of the mall facing the street, with a construction area of about 1,000 square meters. When I was a child, I was most impressed by the counter where I sold cloth. After the salesman helps select the cloth, the buyer pays the money, the salesman will circle the money and the cloth ticket into a bundle, raise his hand to put it on the hanging iron clip to clip it, and then push hard, the iron clip will slide along the erected wire, slide to the cash desk, and then push the change back after the person at the cash desk has finished processing.

In the 1980s, Beixinqiao Department Store was renovated and renamed Dahua Department Store, and the first floor of the department store became the second floor, which became a larger scale. At that time, the first floor was a traditional sales store, and the second floor was a self-selected shopping mall, which realized open sales, which attracted people's curiosity. When it opened, the public surrounded the department store.

On this street, there is a North Shinbashi Restaurant, which sells brine and fire, which is a perfect delicacy to relieve hunger. The master first fished out a fire from the saucepan (buy 6 cents alone, two or two grain coupons), cut a few knives horizontally, cut a few knives vertically and put them in the bowl, and then fished out a piece of stewed meat, large intestines and other ingredients from the pot, plus fried tofu, cut these on the fire, and finally, poured two spoonfuls of hot soup on top, put a little coriander, and like to eat spicy with a little chili oil. Diners who have eaten the brine once will want to eat it next time.

At the beginning of this century, the shops in the southwest corner of Beixinqiao were demolished in the dangerous reform of the Jiaodaokou community, and later the shops in the northeast and southeast corners of Beixinqiao were demolished for the construction of Metro Line 5; the construction of the dongcheng court office building demolished the shops in the southwest corner of Beixinqiao. At this point, the original buildings of about 100 meters in the east, west, south, and north of the Beixinqiao intersection have only been left in the memory of the old people.

(Original title: North New Bridge Former Fireworks)

Source: Beijing Evening News Author: Wei Ke

Process Edit: u005

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