Brown Tree Slope Street
Palm Tree Street is called Slope Street because it is a northeast-southwest alley. In the Qing Dynasty, it was called Wang Widow Xie Street, and after the Republic of China, Yahua was renamed Wang Guangfu Xie Street. Now the old neighbors are usually not used to the name of Palm Tree Street, or called Wang Guangfu Street. In 1965, the two alleys of Guangfu Lane and Pocket Alley in the north of the road were merged and changed to their current names. But why is it called Palm Tree Street is really unknown, because there are palm trees in the alley? But according to research, there is really not a single palm tree planted in this alley!
The origin of Wang Widow's Diagonal Street
The total number of diagonal streets was once a concentration of third-class brothels
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Widow Street was a concentration of third-class brothels, and the reason why there were many third-class brothels was mainly because the northern prostitutes of the first and second-class brothels in Shaanxi Lane, Hanjia, and Baishun Hutong were squeezed by the southern brothels, and they had no choice but to retreat here. At that time, this belonged to the urban-rural combination department, people from outside the city to do business in the city, to live here a day in advance, take advantage of the dawn to open the city gate to catch up with the morning market, if the day did not sell out of goods or did not finish the work, also here to invest in the shop to eat and live, and after doing business the day is too late to return home, but also to stay here for one night, wait until dawn and then go home, then people rarely rush to the night road, because the world is not peaceful, there are too many bandits.
Street view of Brown Tree Slope Street
Therefore, at that time, there were many small inns for people to eat and sleep in this alley, and some shops tried to get the daughters of poor families or invite prostitutes to play with in order to attract guests. At this time, there was a middle-aged woman surnamed Wang in the hutong who died of her husband, people called her Wang Widow, and the "Wang Widow Brothel" she opened on this street was very famous, so when people talked about this place, they said: "Go to Wang Widow Street". After a long time, plus this street is a diagonal street, the name "Wang Widow Diagonal Street" has been called open.
Halal one-pin incense bathhouse
Yuanxing sandwich road
On the east side of No. 40 Palm Tree Diagonal Street, there is a very narrow alley called Yuanxing Jiadao (formerly known as Yuanxingtang Jiadao and Yanxingtang Jiadao), which is a small alley leading from Palm Tree Diagonal Street to Peiying Hutong. The famous "Yipinxiang Bathhouse" stone carved plaque is at the YuanxingJiakou, which is a cultural relic of the "Eight Hutongs" of old Beijing. Unfortunately, the old bathhouse site has been demolished, and traces of that year cannot be found.
This is a Western-style gatehouse with a brick carved plaque: "YipinXiang Bathhouse", with the small characters "Hongji" on it, and the inscription is called Chen Shimin. Chen Shimin, Ming Shihong, Tao Gong, Late Qing Dynasty MinChuren, resume unknown, Zigong North Monument and Han Li. The words "incense" and "bath" will mean something, but there is still some of the meaning of the fat powder of the year. Imagine that most of the people who came here to take a bath wanted to find flowers and ask for willows, so let's take a nap here.
A poinsettia bathhouse plaque
In the old days, most of the owners of Beijing bathhouses were from Dingxing, Hebei Province, and the owner of the "Yipinxiang Bathhouse" was a Muslim, so the word "Halal" was specially engraved under the plaque of Yipinxiang. At that time, this halal bathhouse was popular throughout the Dashilar area, and many Muslims bathed here, and even the Peking Opera master Ma Lianliang (Hui) often visited here. It is said that Boss Ma and Liu Baoquan, the king of the drum world, are friends with Mo Rebellion, often walking together, walking, and then going to the "Yipinxiang" bathhouse to take a bath, going to the "Liangyixuan" together in the afternoon to eat, and then going to the theater garden together after dinner to observe the performances of Yang Xiaolou and Yu Shuyan, and the two masters push their hearts and exchange artistic insights with each other.
From east to west, the Yuanxing Road
In the past, the bathhouses of old Beijing were also divided into three, six, nine, etc., and the "one-pin incense bathhouse" of that year belonged to the high-grade baths, and there was a public large pond downstairs, which was the kind of large long pond, divided into "warm", "hot" and "special hot" three kinds, and there were private rooms on the second floor, which were exclusively for celebrities and rich people to enjoy, and there were guys waiting, most of them were regular customers, but the cost was higher. The function of the bathhouse is not only to wash, but also to pay attention to a "bubble" word, often a stay is a day, bubble comfortable calculation! Here, you can talk about trading, drink tea and chat, play cards and chess, you can also call for food and drink, and at the end of the year, it is still a good place to hide debts, all of which has bred a unique "bathhouse culture" in old Beijing.