Yesterday we talked about the story of the fuming bridge, which was named after this small bridge in the east of Ningbo. From Fuming Bridge, to Fumingqiao Village, to Fuming Township, and even to today's Fuming Street, the name of a small bridge is constantly enlarged on the map, but if we return to the original point, there is another name that may be quite familiar to old Ningbo people - Zhang Ai Village, which is located on the dividing line between Zhang Ai Village and Songxia Cao Village in the south. Today, the core area of the eastern new city can be said to be located in the boundary of Zhang'ai Village. Although with the development of the new city, Zhang'ai Village has disappeared, but today let's take advantage of a re-erected Zhang'ai Bridge here to talk about the story here.
Zhang Ai Village can be said to be one of the earliest and largest ancient villages in Ningbo Yongdong, according to legend, in the second year of Tang Qianfu, Zhang Yanling resigned from the government and lived here in seclusion, becoming the first ancestor of the Zhang Clan here, with the reproduction of future generations, the family is growing. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the continuous migration of foreign populations made the whole village more developed and grown, until before the demolition, it was already a "Big Mac" village with more than 700 households, so the so-called "millennium Zhang Pass big place" in the Ningbo nursery rhymes was really not exaggerated at all, and the two keywords "millennium" and "big place" were quite in place.
Zhang Aiqiao
As the mother river here, the Houtang River has been flowing slowly from under the Fuming Bridge in the south of Zhang'ai Village for thousands of years, which not only nourishes the people living here for generations on both sides of the strait, but also allows Fuming, especially Zhang Ai, to ascend to the big grain producer in Dongxiang, but also because it links the urban area with the ancient temple in the east, so that Zhang Ai has become a cultural exchange between China and foreign countries since ancient times, as well as the only way to visit the southeast Buddhist country. If the Houtang River is an important link between ningbo Dongxiang transportation, cultivation and irrigation, and humanistic history, that pass is undoubtedly a bright pearl embedded in this link.
Houtang River
If you are fortunate enough to work and live here today, looking at the bustling crowds and traffic on the streets, can you imagine the loud shouts of vegetable farmers, fish sellers and merchants on the sailing ships, as well as the hermits who walk slowly on the country roads, and the monks who have crossed the ocean to study Buddhism...
Time back to 2005, in the context of the eastward expansion of the city, in response to the needs of the construction of the eastern new city, the fate of Zhang Ai Village has undergone a new turn, officially entered the "era of demolition". Skyscrapers rose from the ground, expanding Zhang Ai's skyline upwards by nearly half a kilometer, and the vast wilderness that was once within sight, the waterfront tile wall, was replaced by a younger and fashionier international shipping center, the Bank of China Building, the Cultural Square, the Convention and Exhibition Center, etc. The people on the banks of the former Fuming Bridge also put down their rolled up trouser legs and moved from the fields into the high-rise buildings of Xinxiang Yayuan, Shuxiangjingyuan and other communities. This scene of amazing changes in the world should be the best display of urban development.
Shipping Plaza Bank of China Tower
Well, the story about Zhang Ai is here, and the future story is believed to continue to be written by the eastern new city that is still "growing tall" here. Tomorrow, let's cross the Houtang River and go to the south to talk about the story of Matsushita Cao, who once lived next to Zhang Ai.
DEEPIN Ningbo, visit Ningbo with me and feel the essence of Ningbo.