There is a Qingxi Old Street in Fengxian District, which I just learned about on the Internet not long ago, and in my impression, there is no such place.
I grew up living in Lao Minhang, just across the river from Fengxian District. It stands to reason that there is something over there, as long as it is a little famous, it should not be unaware. Is it because of the rapid change now, or is it because of my sluggishness? Taking advantage of the good weather today, I decided to visit the site. This is something I thought about a few weeks ago.
Qingxi Old Street is not too far from where I live, I only go to one point a day, whether the time is a little too extravagant, I thought about it, first go to the Guhua Garden in Nanqiao to take a turn, and then go to Qingxi Old Street. Because in terms of transportation, if you choose to take the bus to Qingxi, you also need to transfer at Nanqiao.
The traffic is really convenient now. When I was young, I went to "Xiangjiang" once, and we old Minxing people used to go to Fengxian on the other side of the Huangpu River as "Xiangjiang", which means the other side of the river. At that time, there was only one way to go to the river, to Minhang Old Street, take a ferry to the west of the opposite bank, and then transfer to the bus to go to the place where you want to go. It's very different now. To the river, in addition to the ferry that is still preserved, because of the construction of the second bridge of Minpu, there are Metro Line 5 and multiple buses to cross the bridge directly across the river, and you can reach the bus hub station of Fengxian District, Nanqiao Bus Station.
There is a mobile phone navigation, which makes it very convenient to travel. Get out of your home and hop on the bus hub No. 5 that arrives on time, which is the bus line between Nanqiao and Hongqiao bus hubs. In less than 40 minutes, I arrived at Guhua Garden.
This is the old gate of Guhuayuan before the reconstruction, and the southeast gate now
The first time I knew about Guhua Garden was more than 20 years ago, when I came to Nanqiao to meet a friend who came here on a business trip, passed by the gate of this park, and saw these three words on the lintel. When I visited Guhua Garden today, the first gate I saw was the old gate, not the main gate after the renovation. Is it because of that passing by that that time that I want to continue on the front edge today?
The main entrance of Guhua Garden
Guhua Garden is not large, covering an area of less than 200 acres. It is not very old, it was built in 1984 and expanded in 1996. However, she collects the essence of Fengxian humanities in one place, designed by the famous architect Mr. Chen Congzhou, "Ligu Lihua", gathering the essence of Fengxian famous gardens in the past dynasties, known as one of the four ancient suburbs of Shanghai. Especially after the renovation in 2003, Guhua Garden has been further improved and has become one of the most famous gardens in Shanghai.
Although I had read some introductions to Guhua Garden before I came, it was still shallow on paper, and I still had a feeling of being shocked when I really stepped into the garden.
Entering the garden from the southeast gate, walking a few steps along the road, you will see a double pavilion bridge across the lake, and several amusement boats cruising on the lake.
Shuangting Bridge
On the shore of the lake, wicker hangs low and is surrounded by greenery. Against the backdrop of the blue sky and white clouds, I suddenly gave birth to a trance like the Slender West Lake in Yangzhou.
Walking around the lake, I came to a building, and saw a long horizontal red banner hanging on it: 2023 Calligraphy, Painting and Photography Exhibition. Through the leaves of the ginkgo tree, I also saw the three words of the evening garden engraved on the lintel. Entering the building, in the two-storey building, the first floor is the exhibition of calligraphy and paintings, and the second floor is the exhibition of photography.
Evening Garden
Passing through the hall, there is the evening garden. According to the stone carvings standing next to the Evening Garden, this garden in the garden was built in 2004 when the eastern area of the park was renovated, and the name of the garden was taken from Tang Li Shangyin's famous sentence of "Heaven's will is merciful to the grass, and the world is heavy on the evening sunshine". The main structures in the garden are "Reading Cultivation Building", "Ammonite Building" and "Drinking Fragrance Pavilion", all of which are influenced by the creativity of famous gardens such as "Yiqiu Garden", "Wild Garden" and "Houyuan" in Fengxian dynasties, which can be said to be the essence of Fengxian gardens in the past dynasties. Therefore, when you enter the garden, the exquisite beauty of the unique Chinese garden integrating nature, architecture and humanity comes to the face, which makes people feel that it reveals the interest of poetry and painting and the connotation of artistic conception.
A corner of the Evening Garden
Interestingly, there is a "husband and wife tree" planted in the evening garden. Two trees of different varieties grow together, and the trunk of the "husband and wife tree" in the photo is white wax on the left and pomegranate on the right. And this pomegranate tree is more than 300 years old. Therefore, it is said to be rare in the world. Yes, if you don't remind you, you really think it's the same tree.
A rare "husband and wife tree" in the world
On the lawn on the east side of the Guhuayuan Grand Stage, I saw a long section of petrified wood. The so-called petrified wood is a fossilized tree, which evolved from ancient trees in geological changes. The petrified wood was originally transported to Guhua Park on a hill in Bali, Indonesia, with the approval of the Indonesian government. The petrified wood is divided into 12 sections with a length of 28 meters, and is regarded as the treasure of Guhua Garden.
The treasure of Guhuayuan town garden petrified wood
After walking for about ten minutes along the road, take the Shinan Line and head to the next scenic spot. It was 11:05 a.m. In addition, the time spent in Guhua Garden is just over an hour. Yes, because it's incidental, it's just a matter of sightseeing.
Thirty-five minutes later, I got off at Qingcun Station. Get off the right side and see a small archway, with the book "Qingxi Old Street". Entering from the archway, a narrow alley shows in front of you, the alley is deserted, and there are no pedestrians and tourists. Along the alley, the alley gradually widened, and there were more pedestrians. Later, I learned that the place I entered was the westernmost part of the old street, and if I really wanted to enter the main gate of Qingxi Old Street, I should get off at the next stop, the Qingcun Farmers' Market.
Qingxi Old Street
Qingcun is a name that I am very familiar with, and I often heard adults mention it when I was very young, because at that time there was a well-known Chinese medicine practitioner here, but I forgot what diseases he was good at, and it seemed to be orthopedics. Qingxi is the ancient name of Qingcun. In today's tourism-driven economy, it has become fashionable to choose a good name for a tourist attraction. However, the name Qingxi is indeed more eye-catching than Qingcun.
Qingxi Old Street is in an east-west direction, with a total length of 1.3 kilometers, connected by east, middle, west and south streets, and the street is three or four meters wide. As a town, Qingcun was formed in the Yuan Dynasty, developed in the Ming Dynasty, flourished in the Qing Dynasty, and was the most prosperous during the Republic of China. Like most of the ancient streets and towns in the south of the Yangtze River, Qingxi Old Street is also built by the river, retaining a relatively complete original house building, which has a certain historical and cultural value in today's era of large-scale demolition and construction. To be honest, don't say how far away such old streets, that is, twenty or thirty years ago, there were many rural areas in the suburbs of Shanghai, and they could be called five miles and one village, ten miles and one town. It's a pity that what can be preserved more completely is already precious.
Wanghai Tower
An ancient well
The old street is not long. Even if you stop and go, it doesn't take long. There are not many storefronts in the old street, but they are very distinctive, and the stalls that sell Yiwu small commodities that are common in various tourist attractions are difficult to find here. This is the preciousness of Qingxi Old Street. The more local it is, the more it will be social, which should be the dialectic of tourist attraction management. I would love to see the residents of Lao Cai and rural villagers, carrying baskets and hawking the streets and alleys, selling local agricultural and sideline products or special products. No, I bought two catties of soybeans and two catties of oranges from a peasant woman on the street. She said it was all home-grown. Oranges are used to satisfy cravings, soybeans are bought home to make soy milk, and newly dried soybeans must not be genetically modified.
When I was about to end my tour of the old street, I crossed the bridge and turned to the back of the houses along the street, and in the local dialect Nanshou (south), I saw the houses that represent the local countryside in the seventies and eighties of the last century, and took pictures of them. The bungalow in the front should be from the sixties and seventies, and the two-storey building in the back should be from the eighties. Will such a dwelling become a "monument" again after a few years?
At half past two in the afternoon, I came out of the archway of the main gate of Qingxi Old Street, and while waiting for the bus, I looked at both sides of the road in front of Qingcun Town, where shops were lined up one after another, and the goods were dazzling, and the flow of people was rubbing shoulders.
It's been half a century since I first passed through Qingcun Town, and when I came here again, I couldn't use the old phrase "things are people". For I am no longer who I was, and things are not what they were.
But Qingxi is Qingcun.
2023-10-29