□ Lee Yong An
Xi'an Beiguanzheng Street is also an old street among the four chengguan in Xi'an, and the section of streets from Chengguan to Xiaomen in the four chengguans is called zhengjie. During the Republic of China, Beiguanzheng Street was not bustling, and after the founding of New China, the road was renovated and both sides of the street gradually became prosperous. In the early 1960s, when I lived in Daobei, I lived in Beiguanzheng Street for a while, and I also left an unforgettable memory.
The section from beiguan train bridge to beishaomen is about 850 meters long, and the street is not wide. Out of Anyuan Gate, is the Suspension Bridge East Street and The Suspension Bridge West Street, after the Suspension Bridge Street Railway Bridge, it is to Beiguanzheng Street, the first alley on the east side is Dongxin Lane, the alley is very short, not far into it is "Four Daogou", and later changed to Sunshine Village. When I was in middle school, there were more than a dozen students in the class living in Sunshine Village, this place is relatively low, it is easy to accumulate water when it rains heavily, a ditch is close to the railway, and when the train comes, the house is shook, followed by two ditches, three ditches, and four ditches. Later, the place was demolished and transformed, and a sunshine residential community was built. After passing the Sunshine Village, there is a high platform on the side of the road, and in addition to a hostel, there is also a North Guan Photo Studio. This photo studio is quite large, and there are two shop windows at the door, where there are enlarged photos of workers, peasants, merchants, and soldiers. In March 1971, I was about to go to the Ankang Third Line to build the Xiang-Chongqing Railway, and a few days before leaving Xi'an, my mother led our whole family to this photo studio to take a group photo, which still exists in the family album.
At that time, there were no taller buildings on Beiguanzheng Street, but all of them were bungalows close to a shop, and the roof was covered with small blue-gray tiles and weeds on the tiles. Past the photo studio, there is a grocery store that sells not only daily necessities, but also farm tools. After the grocery store, is the Beiguan food store, this food store is relatively large, there are three facades, the depth of the house is longer, the south row of counters in the entrance mainly deals in candy and pastries, the north row of counters is tobacco and alcohol side food, the counter is placed on the two black loose wine porcelain jars, the jar lid is wrapped in red cloth, next to a small bowl with a wine lift, mainly convenient for customers who drink loose wine, a dime or two wine. At that time, the food was bought in paper packages, and the salesman's packaging technology was very strong, wrapped in food paper square, tied with rope and handed to customers. I remember that the chicken cake in the Beiguan food store was soft and delicious, which left a deep impression on me. Heading north along the food store, there is the Recreation Cafeteria, where the shortbread is famous. The shortbread has the size of a crystal cake, crispy yellow and fragrant, the master in the canteen uses a bright copper spatula to put the finished shortbread into the white enamel plate one by one, the customer comes, the master gently uses the spatula to put the shortbread into the dish, the shortbread that has just come out of the pan is very crisp, the chopsticks touch, and the layers of golden puff pastry fall down, very delicious. Later, there was a fire in the canteen, and it was not open for a long time.
There is a small alley next to the recreation canteen, called East Lane, also known as the compound. It's a half-cut alley, and walking inward is the gate of an iron factory. This alley is inhabited by villagers and residents of the Beiguan production team. My grandfather had rented for many years in a yard next to the iron factory, which was relatively large, inhabited by seven or eight families, the landlord was a farmer of the Beiguan production team, and the rest were tenants. Every day after school, I would go to my grandfather's house for dinner. After our family moved from Xushimiao Street to my grandfather's own yard on Ziqiang East Road, my grandmother died, and my mother asked my grandfather to move back to Ziqiang East Road, and I also left Dongda Lane. Out of the East Lane, there is an alley on the opposite street called West Lane. Later, both East Lane and West Lane were demolished and buildings were built. There is also an old washing and dyeing shop next door to the recreation canteen, and the door panels in the shop are piece by piece, which are unloaded piece by piece when the door is opened, and installed one by one when leaving work.
There is a department store next to the North West Lane, which is also the larger storefront on Beiguanzheng Street, with a long façade with two doors and several shop windows in the middle. Entering through the north door, the first counter was a cloth counter, and on the shelves were rows of various kinds of cloth, all rolled on a wooden board. Further inside, there is the counter selling cosmetics, and on the counter is a large glass bottle containing bulk alabaster. Then there are sewing counters, stationery counters, and finally toy counters, which often attract the attention of many children. At that time, department stores generally only sold department stores, and rarely sold food and other things. Not far from the store is the Beiguan Post Office, the overall door wall is green, the green wall hangs two newspaper columns, and there is a tall circular postbox at the door. In 1969, my aunt died, and my eldest brother and I came to the post office at night to make a long-distance call to my second brother who was far away in Jingyang. At that time, the long-distance business of the post office was open 24 hours, and the small business room was crowded with people. Remember to contact for a long time, the phone was connected to the production team where the second brother is located, look at the convenience of the current mobile phone, I really can't think of it.
When we arrived at BeiguanShizi, to the west was a shop that nailed the mules and horses, the shop was not large, and there were often two or three mules and horses tied to the wooden stakes at the door, and the hooves of the horses kicked on the ground from time to time. Nailing mules is a technical job, and every time you nail mules, you will attract a lot of people to watch. To the west, Beiguanshizi is Ziqiang West Road, which was relatively quiet at that time, mostly the warehouses and schools of some enterprises. To the east is Ziqiang East Road. To the north is still Beiguanzheng Street, there is a vegetable shop at the crossroads, next to a large car shop, which used to be larger, and the carriages brought from Weibei often stay here, and the hotel,The ride-riding is still relatively busy. Later, because the traffic slowly developed, the big car shop gradually disappeared.
Beiguan Shizi further north, is Beiguan Primary School, which is also my alma mater. In 1963, I transferred from Xu Shimiao Street Primary School to Beiguan Primary School until I graduated from elementary school. The school has two doors, one facing Beiguanzheng Street and one opening in a small alley next to the school. Entering the school gate, there are several old classrooms, the teaching building is a two-story house with brick and wood structure, wooden stairs, wooden floors, and later a three-story teaching building was built on the east side. Opposite the school is a villain bookstore, the door is not wide, the steps are very high, the walls around the house are hung with the covers of the villain's books, the book covers are numbered, you choose which book, just report the number, the owner takes out the book you want to read on a half-high shelf, read a penny, a slightly thicker two cents. At that time, whenever I got out of school, I would carry my school bag to the villain bookstore to read books, and sometimes I saw that it was almost dark, so I ran home at the urging of the owner.
There is a high-rise yard next to the bookstore is a bank, further north is a sweet shop, the mash here is very delicious, the mash is used in a shiny copper scoop, bowl by bowl, drink a bowl of endless aftertaste. The sweet shop is not far to the north, there is a row of façade houses, and the porcelain wholesale department of Xi'an Tuza Company is here. In 1986, I was transferred to Xi'an Tuza Company and came to this wholesale department many times to collect and write reports on porcelain commodity information. At that time, the wholesale department launched a new business called porcelain baking, that is, writing poems or famous words on the tea pot and tableware, and then putting it in the electric oven to bake, the porcelain after the oven is very beautiful and elegant, and the business is quite good. However, the calligraphy on porcelain is very good, and it looks good after it is baked. I remember that there were two people who wrote on the porcelain at that time, including Xiao Liwei, a female calligrapher I knew. Later, Beiguanzheng Street was widened and renovated, and the porcelain wholesale department was relocated elsewhere.
In my impression, beiguanzheng street not only has merchants, but also some small factories, such as iron shoveling factories. Beiguanzheng Street is fast to the location of the North Gate, and there are units such as the Meteorological Bureau, but there are fewer merchants, more residents on the street, and the house is relatively low. I remember that there was a sweet shop on the west side of Beishaomen Road where the Lantern was very well cooked, big and round, and sold all year round. Earlier in the New Year, there was also a lamp market on Beiguanzheng Street, the location was just outside the train bridge hole, in the past, some of the lamp sellers were pulling rack cars, some were tied to a long pole on the bicycle, and some were driving a small carriage with various styles of lanterns hanging on it, and some were selling lanterns with lanterns on their burdens, which was very lively. At the beginning of this century, Beiguanzheng Street was widened and renovated several times, which made this old street undergo great changes.
Today, walking on Beiguanzheng Street, the old shops and old houses of the past have disappeared, only the railway suspension bridge is still there, deeply remembering the past history. Looking at the streets of Beiguanzheng Street, which are lined with high-rise buildings and wide avenues, and watching the traffic and people flowing back and forth, my mood cannot be calm for a long time. Yes, Xi'an Beiguanzheng Street has changed really much, and Xi'an is really beautiful.