According to Tangshan Cultural Tourism:
The hills of old Tangshan, shopping malls abound. But in the midst of prosperity, there are also people who stand out from the crowd. Shengli Road Shopping Mall (hereinafter referred to as Shengshang), located in the west of Shengli Road, is one of the more prominent ones. The full name of Shengshang is Tangshan Department Store Shengli Road Mall, which is the first large-scale comprehensive department store after the liberation of Tangshan City, the shopping mall with the most complete items in Xiaoshan, and it is also one of the few three-story buildings in Xiaoshan and the tallest building in Tangshan at that time. Together with Xiaoshan Big World and Tianqiao, it is known as the three most memorable buildings, and more importantly, the mall has introduced many fresh facilities, which are talked about by people, attracting more attention from the people of Tangshan, and also triggering more memories of people today.
When it comes to Winning Business, we must start with Fromyama New World. In 1942, Bai Yueting, the owner of Big World, purchased land in the southwest of Big World to build Xiaoshan New World. New World North Gate, originally a two-story building, the first floor was rented by Mori Maoxiang, in 1947 Mori Moxiang bought the shop, the second floor was rented by the former Great World West Building of the Small Taoyuan Hotel. After the liberation of Tangshan, the Jidong District Trading Company entered Tangshan and established Tangshan Department Store on the basis of its department store department. The department store acquired Mori Shigeru and XiaoTaoyuan and converted it into a three-story building.
(ShengShang is the tallest building painting: Zhao Yisong)
Shengli Road Department Store was established, becoming the earliest three-storey department store in Tangshan, with the gate facing north.
(Full map of Xiaoshan, painting: Zhao Yisong)
It opened in 1950 and immediately attracted a large number of customers. On the second floor above the gate of Shengshang, there is a rectangular neon sign, and the neon pattern has pairs of pigeons, head to head, and each pigeon has two wings of curved lights, flashing and flashing as if they are flying. At that time, it became a scene of Tangshan, where people shopped during the day, people enjoyed the neon lights in the evening, and people from all over the world came in the evening or even at night to see the neon lights of flying pigeons. In the countryside, it is necessary to put on a horse-drawn carriage and come to see the neon lights.
In addition to the three-storey main building, Shengshang also has a single-storey annex building on the side. The first floor of the main building sells enamel and aluminum products in the east, watches in the southeast corner, several island-shaped counters sell cosmetics, and the west sells glass mirrors.
(Shengshang's staircase structure Painting: Zhao Yisong)
The second floor sells knitwear and bedding, and the third floor sells cloth and clothing. Outside the main building, radios and other household appliances and bicycles are sold in the west, clothing is sold in the east, and only one floor is open outside the main building.
In the center of the main building, a lift elevator, which was rare at the time, was also introduced. This is an old-fashioned elevator that is generally used for freight transport. The elevator doors are still old-fashioned telescopic doors, which are grid-shaped when closed, can be seen inside and out, and are stacked together when opened. Nowadays, this kind of elevator can only be seen in movies.
(Katsusho's Merchandise Painting: Zhao Yisong)
The main building of Shengshang was indented from Shengli Road, forming a vacant lot at the entrance of the main building. There are two billboards of Xinhua Cinema on the edge of the open space, behind the billboard is the auxiliary building of Shengshang, and the entrance of the auxiliary building can also be directly entered to Shengshang, which is the side door, and there are two large poplar trees in the open space in front of Shengshang. From the South Gate of Shengshang to the south, there is The New World of Hills, leading to Xincheng Street. To the west is New Market Street.
It is also worth mentioning the winning merchant's way of receiving money, cable transmission ticket holder: the salesman collects the money, opens the ticket, and uses the crisscrossing and all-round wire (commonly known as the No. 8 lead wire) hanging in the air above the mall to pass to the cash desk.
(Shengshang passing ticket holder collection method Painting: Zhao Yisong)
The waxed lead wire hangs several movable wooden plates, each of which is fixed with a blue iron clip. The lead wire starts above a high pay desk and ends above the various counters, that is, the top of the cash drawer is connected with the top of each counter with the lead wire to form a lead wire mesh.
(Top view of the main building of Shengshang Painting: Zhao Yisong)
Only one or two people in the entire store sit at a particularly high payout counter to collect money, where crisscrossing lead wires converge. At that time, the customer did not have to pay directly at the cash desk after selecting the goods, but handed the money to the salesman, who used an iron clip to open the receipt and the money paid by the customer with an iron clip, hung on the wire, and threw it hard, "Ah" a sound, the iron clip was like a small locomotive, along the "suspended rail" to the top of the cash register, this series of actions is beautiful and neat.
The cashier sat on the top and took the "flying" ticket holder below, reaching out, basically in a plane with the lead wire, which showed that she was already on the two-meter-high accounting desk, and her position was the highest in the store. After a short pause, settle the bill, the cashier will stamp the invoice, find the change together, clipped in the ticket holder, the wrist shakes, the iron clip with a voice "flying" to the top of the salesman's head. The salesman took down the receipt and the changed he had retrieved, and handed it to the customer along with what the customer had bought, and the business was completed.
(Katsusho's Merchandise Painting: Zhao Yisong)
Customers don't have to move around at all, and in a minute or two, they can take things and leave. If it is a busy business, the clips flying over the store "rattling", the money is flying on the head, and the people are going down the money, which is very lively. I remember when I was young, I saw the iron clip hanging in mid-air, and I felt very mysterious, always looking up at it until my neck was sore. I was eager to raise my hand to "fly" once, and I felt that the cashier sitting on the high cash table was the most imposing.
The third floor of the Tangshan earthquake won the collapse of the main building of the merchant, and the first and second floors continued to be used for a period of time after the earthquake. Later, the city center moved to the west, the department stores also moved west, and the glory of the winning merchants only stayed in the memory.
Source: The Painting World of Near-Rushan People This article benefits from the common memories of Teacher Zhang Yusheng, Teacher Zhang Huilan, Teacher Chen Ying, Teacher Bo Ronghuan, Teacher Zhou Niannian, Teacher Liu Shuhua, Teacher Zou Jianjun and others, and hereby express our heartfelt thanks.