Many times after singing songs from Windsor, I took a taxi home and passed through Dongcheng Root Street, and I felt that the atmosphere was strange and extremely deserted. In the golden location of the city center, it shouldn't be.
As the beginning of the year passed again, some houses disappeared, and the old buildings suddenly appeared, like fish that suddenly jumped up in the backwater. Here, there is actually a large-scale old house.
Whose house is in the house? Curiosity was lifted, and I quickly opened the map, which turned out to be the Ping'an Bridge Catholic Church that everyone in Chengdu knew and was opposite the Housing Authority.
Roughly sandwiched between Dongchenggen Street and Xihuamen Street, change the angle, expose the backyard, do not know the Heian Bridge Catholic Church, which is actually depressing.
The Housing Authority and the Catholic Church are two of the most recognizable landmarks in the neighborhood. In the two places, there are two different needs of Chengdu people. There is nothing to do on a daily basis, in fact, it is not often visited.
Ping'anQiao Catholic Church is slightly better, and in 2013 it was selected as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units. The combination of Chinese and Western styles, in addition to the believers, also attracts many humanities enthusiasts to take photos and punch cards to see the style of century-old architecture.
However, due to the epidemic, it is not easy to enter the interior of the Heianbashi Catholic Church. Those who came to visit had to look at the Virgin Mary through the iron railings and corners, and vaguely looked at it.
Not dead hearted, wandering several times, any possible entrance, do not want to let go. On the side of the Church on Xihuamen Street, in the statue of the deity along the way, there is an inconspicuous small door that is slightly open.
I used to know that this was a niche hotel, not many rooms, not low price. Tentatively entering, surrounded by greenery, I did not expect to open a café that was unique in Chengdu and hidden in a century-old church.
Cafe, which is used as part of the church complex. Enter, enough to be in a corner of the cathedral, feel the new features of the old building, the new vitality.
The steel structure has a hint of industrial wind, and the table on the rock slab looks high-grade in the cold. The decoration of the café interior and the choice of chairs and utensils still retain the classical beauty.
In addition to the interior, the corridor sandwiched between two old buildings, the string of seats under the eaves, makes people happy at first sight. The sound of water is babbling, simple and quiet, and the rate of photography is high.
Cafes are common, but in cafes in pure old buildings, there is nothing to replicate.
The café, named WANDERLUST, began a soft opening in April this year and was not slowly discovered until June, and is still niche and low-key. Barista: We haven't done any publicity yet.
Prior to this, the space was the lobby of the hotel, which was used as a reception for the guests who stayed in. The opening of the café allows the wider public to enter at will and enjoy the special environment.
Half of the customers, who go to punch in, and the residents who live in the surrounding area, account for half of them. Open daily at 10.30am and closed at 6.30pm.
There are only six types of coffee, mainly special. The choice of beans, each quarter, will be adjusted appropriately.
I asked for a special cup of grass and wood No. 1. Coffee beans are blended with beans from Colombia and Papua New Guinea. The time to wait for the coffee is just right to take a closer look at the details of the café.
Antique plates and clocks became part of the café's décor. In the middle, there is also a mixture of tableware for sale, and the display is exquisite and exquisite.
The traces of time on the masonry, flower windows and wooden structures of old buildings add more light to these plates. But the price of dozens of yuan is generally much cheaper than thought.
I love this kind of coffee shop where the sense of detail and ceremony is very well done.
Baristas say that almost every coffee will use a different container. On the counter, there are seven or eight kinds of patterned glasses.
My coffee comes in a metal container, a coaster, and also thick metal. In the cup, a little milk foam, not mellow, and the overall gentle and refreshing temperament of the coffee is very suitable.
In the tone, the fragrance of cucumber makes people miss the summer just this past, and miss the cucumber-flavored potato chips they ate when they were children.
WANDERLUST has no hidden menu, if any, it's an ice café called Endless Summer. Baristas who have been in the industry for 6 years will quietly judge the status of the guests and then make some appropriate adjustments.
Each cup may be different, presenting a state without boundaries. Just as life is not copied, tomorrow and today are not the same. "It's all 24 hours, our mentality, the dress, it's all different."
Probably, everyone's luck is also very different.
It was a rainy morning, and the café was playing Leonardo Cohen, with a slightly hoarse whispering bass, which was also very suitable for the church. I was the only one here to enjoy a cup of coffee.
A young lady who seemed to have come to the café complained twice, came twice, and there was no way to enter the church to visit, and then left.
I was lucky enough to walk around the church.
According to the records, the Heianqiao Catholic Church was designed by the French priest Luo Shuya in 1895, and was officially completed a few years later in 1904, and is now 117 years old.
Distinguished status, this is the Catholic Diocese of Chengdu Cathedral. The sister of the big list, YOU Chengdu, has a detailed depiction of the style and architecture of this church:
The combination of cylindrical European-style buildings and blue tile eaves on the left-hand side shows the innovative Chinese and Western works of the craftsmen...
The cathedral is called the Church of the Immaculate Conception, and from the three-dimensional space, the internal structure of the church is a traditional beam-type wooden frame, and the top of the two rows of huge columns is Corinthian column heads.
Above the pillar head, there is no continuous arch used in Romanesque churches, but a simple columnar. The interior of the chapel is made of Classical European Decorative Arts, the ceiling is a flat-roofed wooden square, the walls of the hall are uniform round coupon windows, and the interior is a glass window sash.
In addition to the obvious traces of Roman style and Byzantine style, the whole church has a very obvious taste of traditional Chinese architecture.
The layout of the courtyard has a grand western Sichuan feature, with a deep cloister, a lantern hanging high, and a large number of wooden structures.
Most of these thick woods are nan wood. It is said that the beams, columns, doors, windows, and floors of the entire church are all made of nan wood transported from the Qionglai Mountains.
The sun rises, the light and shadow are dappled, and the rain falls, which is more quiet. At the same time, in the garden, maple trees and pomegranates are full of feminine style.
The green space added to Dongchenggen Street and the back of the church are an opportunity to revisit the Catholic Church of Ping'anqiao, as well as a gap to observe the changes in the traditional central urban area.
At the beginning of the year, I went to the Housing Authority to eavesdrop, and I stepped out of Mule And Horse City, a huge and open green space, although temporary, but enough to guess that there will be great changes here, and the pace of change is accelerating.
Many people should have such a feeling, since the back door dug out of things, there is no longer a sports event concert, Tianfu Square Science and Technology Museum behind a piece, has been a little out of sight, away from the daily life of Chengdu people.
West Yulong Street, almost forgotten, here was once a bicycle street in Chengdu, gathering the general generation of Brands such as Merida and Giant in Chengdu.
Unless, you have to go to the Housing Authority or the Third City Hospital, or change to the subway, you will think of Luoma City, Houzimen. Occasionally, I will learn about Luoma City from the media.
Tianfu Cultural Park will be in this area. Luoma City TOD will become an interchange station for Metro Lines 1, 4, 10 and 18, and the planned office building of more than 300 meters high will be erected.
It's grand and very exciting to look forward to the updated precinct.
The road closest to the entrance to the backyard of the Heian Bridge Catholic Church is actually not Dongcheng Root Street, but wufu Street, next to it, and Ping'an Lane.
Wufu Street starts from Ping'an Lane in the south, to Dashuqiu Street in the north, there is a fork in the middle section, and it is said that the Tang Dynasty Jiannan Xichuan Jiedu made Wei Gao build the Wufu Building here, so it got its name.
Wufu Lou has long been gone, and the places on the intersection of DashuLu Street, the nearest to the church, the mixed chicken slices in the city, and the emperor barbecue have also moved.
A notice posted on Friday showed that the courtyard at 28 Yangshi Street would be demolished this weekend. What doesn't move is the church.
I hope that the nearby Gongsun trees, all kinds of big trees, can also be good. The next time you visit the church and have a coffee, stop by.