"Wake up" the century-old street
Zhang Guosheng
About 1.5 kilometers away from Deng Xiaoping's hometown tourist area, Xiexing Community, Xiexing Town, Guang'an District, there is a street built in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China - Xiexing Old Street. Walking on the bluestone slab in the old street, the houses on both sides are built next to each other, with a hanging mountain roof, a small green tile roof, and a bucket beam frame structure, which still maintains the architectural style of the eastern Sichuan folk house.
With the passage of time, the once bustling old street has long since returned to tranquility. In June 2023, Guang'an City introduced the Jianchuan Museum Settlement Project in Archway Village and invested in building a village-level museum settlement in Xiexing Old Street. In the near future, this century-old street will surely be full of vitality and return to the world's vision with a new look.
The quaint and quiet Hip Hing Old Street
Old Street Nostalgia: Beishan Primary School was once the place where the young Deng Xiaoping studied
Hip Hing Old Street has a long history and rich cultural connotations. Among the well-preserved ancient buildings, in addition to the township office, Juwenyuan teahouse and other buildings, there are also national key cultural relics protection units, Deng Xiaoping's childhood study of the new-style school - Beishan Primary School. On August 22, 2020, on the occasion of the 116th anniversary of Comrade Deng Xiaoping's birth, Beishan Primary School was reopened to the public free of charge after being renovated at the original site.
Kitayama Shogakudo
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Chinese society gradually transformed in the process of continuous conflict and integration of Chinese and Western cultures, promoting the transformation of traditional education to modern education, and new schools sprung up on the land of China. Located in the center of Hip Hing Old Street, Beishan Primary School was founded in the first year of Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty (1909) and was the first new-style primary school in Hip Hing Field.
Entering the gate of Beishan Primary School, a book sculpture catches your eye, which is engraved with 8 characters of "Zhaoli New School Cultivating Talents". In the exhibition hall on the left and right, the exhibition is divided into three chapters: "The Way of Self-improvement, End in Education", "The Rise of New Learning, Striving for the First in Shu", "Dingxin Ancestral Hall, Running a School and Cultivating Talents", a total of nearly 100 pictures, more than 30 pieces of cultural relics and materials, 1 scene multimedia, and 1 phantom imaging interactive experience, focusing on the rise of new education, the formation of Guang'an new education, the establishment of Beishan Primary School, and the story of the young Deng Xiaoping's new school life and hard work.
Walking inside from the exhibition hall, there is the classroom of Kitayama Elementary School. Beishan Primary School has 4 classrooms, each classroom can accommodate 6 students. On the desk on the right side of the second row of the Ding classroom, there is a seat sign that reads "Deng Xixian Seat". The establishment of Beishan Primary School has broken the stereotypes of traditional education, and the new ideas, new theories and new models contained in it have cultivated a large number of young people with new ideas, such as Deng Xiaoping and Hu Lun.
Beishan Primary School is the site of Deng Xiaoping's youth activities recognized by the State Council. 113 years ago, 6-year-old Deng Xiaoping entered this school to receive a new type of education and spent an unforgettable four years of study. Around 2004, Beishan Primary School was renovated and opened to the public free of charge. Later, the building of Kitayama Elementary School was severely damaged and closed to the public in the summer of 2017. With the approval of the national and provincial cultural relics departments, the restoration and repair of the original site of Beishan Primary School will be launched from 2019.
Looking for the old in the old street: the traffic artery of Guang'an in the old days
At the north entrance of Xiexing Old Street, Xiexing Town, an ancient yellow cypress tree is flourishing, and residents sit under the tree drinking tea and chatting, leisurely.
The yellow cypress tree at the north entrance of Hip Hing Old Street
According to historical records, Xiexing Town was formerly known as Wangxi Township, and there used to be a field town only in the north, called the old market, with a total of more than 100 shopkeepers. With the economic and social development, the old city can no longer meet the needs of people's daily life, and during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty (1862-1874), a new city was added to the south, and more than 80 shops were opened. The new city and the old city are only dozens of steps apart, and the villagers take the meaning of "working together to develop and prosper", so they get the name Xiexing, commonly known as Xiexing field.
Hip Hing Old Street is in a north-south direction, with a total length of 350 meters and a width of 7 meters, with rows of houses, green tiles and powder walls, and simple and elegant eaves and wooden doors. In 2016, Hip Hing Community was included in the fourth batch of "Chinese Traditional Villages" by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development; At the end of December 2017, the Guang'an Municipal People's Government named Xiexing Old Street as "Guang'an Historical Building".
Hip Hing Old Street has been a traffic artery since ancient times, starting from Guang'an City to Yuelai, Maba, Jinghe and other towns along the way, you must pass through this street paved with bluestone slabs. Now it seems that although this old street is very narrow, it was an important part of the official road of Guang'an North Trunk Road at that time.
Lu Dazheng, assistant of Xiexing Community in Xiexing Township, recalled that when he was a child, he often followed adults from his hometown of Maba Township to Xiexing to catch up with the scene, and the old street was very lively. "People from all over the surrounding towns carry agricultural products to the market for trading, and then buy back the salt, tobacco and fertilizer they need from the market." The most memorable thing for Lu Dazheng is the bean curd shop on the old street, and the spicy taste of the bean curd dipped in chili sauce still remains in his memory.
Beginning in the 80s of the 20th century, with the development and construction of the town, Xiexing Town built a new Xinhe Street next to Xiexing Old Street, and later gradually built a number of spacious streets. By the early 90s, many vendors began to relocate from the narrow old streets to Xinhe Street and other streets to do business, and the once bustling old streets gradually became deserted.
Kuang Zhengyu, a 59-year-old resident of Xiexing Old Street, has been running the "Jingwu Photo Studio" in Lao Cai for more than 40 years for three generations. At the beginning of 2004, due to the overall renovation of the old street, Kuang Zhengyu moved the photo studio from the old street to Xinhe Street. "The people of the old street are simple, the neighbors get along harmoniously, and everyone is reluctant to leave." Kuang Zhengyu said that in October 2019, all the residents of Hip Hing Old Street moved out after being replaced by the former Hip Hing Park Management Committee, and Kuang Zhengyu's family never returned to live in Old Street. "As residents of Lao Cai, we hope that Lao Cai can be built well and restore its popularity." Kuang Zhengyu is full of expectations.
Laojie Prospects: Join hands with Jianchuan Museum to build the largest village-level museum settlement in China
In February 2023, Guang'an City signed a cooperation agreement with Jianchuan Museum to build the country's largest village-level museum settlement with the theme of red gene inheritance and folk nostalgia with Xiexing Old Street as the core. In June, the Jianchuan Museum Settlement Project of Guang'an Archway Village was officially signed.
The simple and elegant eastern Sichuan houses in Xiexing Community, Xiexing Town, Guang'an District, Guang'an City, are lined up one after another
Guang'an Archway Village Jianchuan Museum Settlement Project is located in Xiexing Old Street, and will build 10 theme pavilions such as Sichuan Opera and Quyi Museum, Xiexing Township History Exhibition Hall, Old Textbook Exhibition Hall, Comic Book Exhibition Hall, Enamel Art Museum, Ticket Exhibition Hall, and Historical Mirror Art Museum, and develop new tourism formats such as night tour museum settlements and Wenbo New Street, and will also introduce a number of high-end homestays and first store brands to settle in, so as to promote industrial development with museums. After the completion of the project, it will echo and drive each other with the red cultural tourism destinations in Deng Xiaoping's hometown and the surrounding areas, and become a hot spot for investment in cultural tourism and cultural museums and a new check-in place for tourists to enjoy leisure and entertainment.
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Source: Sichuan Provincial Office of Local Chronicles
Text/Photo: Zhang Guosheng (Guang'an District, Guang'an Rong Media Center, Guang'an City)
Contributed by: Guang'an Local Chronicles Office