Old Guiyang people know that there is a "Nanjing Street" in Guiyang. The "Guiyang Fu Zhi" records: "Nanjing Street, from Liuguangmen south to cross, connected to Guangdong Street. The Guiyang Fuzhi was created in the twenty-third year of Daoguang (1843) of the Qing Dynasty, written in the first year of Xianfeng (1851), and published in July of the second year of Xianfeng (1852), indicating that the name "Nanjing Street" had appeared at least more than one hundred and fifty years ago. "Nanjing Street" refers to a section of Zhonghua North Road from the intersection of Liuguangmen to Qianling West Road, which is slightly north of Shibei Road Primary School today. Nanjing Street was renamed Nanjing Road in 1932 and renamed Zhonghua North Road in the early 1940s, and has been used ever since.
In the old days, Guiyang had a saying after a break: "The bowl ear cake on Nanjing Street - really big (steamed). This sentence has two meanings: one is that the cakes on Nanjing Street are big; the other is that the bowls and ear cakes on Nanjing Street are steamed, so hurry up and buy them. In the old society, Guiyang people were not rich, and primary and secondary school students ate more bowls of ear cakes and sweet potatoes early, and the price was cheap. At that time, there was a bowl ear cake shop diagonally opposite the North Elementary School, and the bowl ear cake was steamed and swollen, broken and flowered, soft and delicious, without any sour taste. In the early morning, the front of the store was crowded with students who bought bowls of ear cakes, and the steaming was sold out.
In that year, there were the most oil shops and rice shops in Nanjing Street, with more than a dozen each. Oil shops sell vegetable oil, but also sell candles, lanterns, soap, cigarettes, and matches. Ordinary people buy vegetable oil, which is used to eat and light lamps. The owners of the oil shop are mostly surnamed Du from Fengcheng, Jiangxi, and they are almost related to each other. I heard that when I first came to Guiyang, I was selling oil on the street, and then I opened a shop with savings.
Every one or two months, big oil shops ask a special master to make red candles, called "pouring candles". The procedure for pouring candles is to make the wick, wax, and dye. The wick is wrapped in corduroy grass on a bamboo stick, and sometimes the wick is sent by farmers in the countryside. Red candles range from small thumbs to fist thickness, but big red candles can only be bought by large households, and the poor cannot afford to buy them. Every New Year's Festival, the red candle business is booming, and the boss has a smile on his face. Rice shops are filled with large wooden pots, and different wooden pots are packed according to the place of origin and quality. When selling, use buckets and liters: one pair is used for purchase when farmers in the four townships use horses and camels, and the other pair is used when selling rice. It is engaged in "big bucket buy, small bucket sell".
At the end of the 1940s, there was a restaurant opened by Sichuan people on Nanjing Street near the intersection of Yuxiu Road, and the customers were mainly rickshaw pullers, trailers, and people who carried burdens. The rice sold is called "hat head", first fill a bowl of rice, and then add a flat bowl to cover, the rice is higher than the bowl. There are two things that impress people the most in this hotel: one is the cleanliness of the tables and stools, and the other is the competence of the running hall. As long as it is a sunny day, after closing in the evening, the staff will move the square table and stool to the door, wash it with alkali water, brush it with a brush, and brush it clearly with a clear wood grain and a white board.