In the history of Chongming, there are four famous towns, and they are named "gold, silver, copper and iron", namely "Yinbao Town of JinyouCheqiao, Tiebang Town of Tongxinkaihe", namely Oilcheqiao Town, BaoZhen, Xinkaihe Town and BangZhen. Among them, the town of Oil Truck Bridge is located in Mingqiang Village in the south of Shuxin Town, which later declined and was forgotten, and later people called the four famous towns of Chongming as: "Bridge, Temple, Fort, Bang". Hama Town was still prosperous until the founding of New China, and subsequently, due to the fading of the bay port at the northern end and the changes in related establishments, Hama Town began to decline, and was forgotten by young people, only remaining in the minds of the elderly.
Bangzhen, the largest town in the north-central part of Chongming, was founded in the late Kangxi Dynasty. It is said that at that time, there was a family surnamed Ao who first built a city house here, so it was originally called Ao Jia Town. The old people all know that the building is at the intersection of the east side street and Linglong Street in bang town, and there is a two-story brick and wood building facing the street, called "Ao Jia Lou", which is inhabited by the Gong family and opens a food snack shop. Later, Li Dushi in zhenxi and Bai Qian in zhendong were selected in the 59th year of Kangxi and the second year of Yongzheng respectively, and the town was renamed "Ao Jie Town", which means "stepping on Ao Jie, stepping on the Ao Steps, stepping back and going high". And because there are two rivers in the town, everyone is called "Bang Town", which is customary.
New look of the town
In the early Ming and early Qing dynasties, the bay port in the north was an important port leading to Haimen, Qidong and other northern Jiangsu regions, and Hama Town became an important town in and out of the north of Chongming. According to the data, in the 1930s, there were 101 Zhuang, lou, pavilion, garden, fang, pawnshop and shop opened at most, and from 1942 to 1945, merchants from Qidong and Haimen also came to open shops, and the economy of Hama Town was very active and prosperous. Hui merchants also came here to open shops, and there were descendants of Anhui merchants in Bangzhen. At that time, there were silversmiths, watt steam-powered mills, oil mills, candle mills, wine mills, mills, dyeing workshops, cloth houses, sauce garden shops, tea shops, Chinese medicine stores, traditional Chinese medicine, ancestral painting studios, tea house shops, silent movies and so on.
Bang town, after liberation after many changes, the beginning of the bang town, under the jurisdiction of bang dong township, the town has a police station (located in the West Street "West Wanxing" mansion courtyard), tax office (located in the East Street "high pergola" mansion courtyard) regime mechanism, and later with the change of township structure, changed to Datong Township, Datong Town, in December 2000, approved by the Shanghai Municipal Government: abolish the construction of town, Datong town, the establishment of a new construction town. The current town of Haman is under the administration of Jianshe Town.
Two rivers cross the town of Bang, and the intersection is the center of the town. A large river in the north and south, because it is relatively wide, is called "big river", now called "Panlong River", which flows north into the Yangtze River. An east-west river, because it is so narrow, it is difficult to associate with the historical name "grain transportation river", most people in the town call it "river bang". The Hamazhen River on East Street flows into the Panlong River at the west end and the Tongjiang River in the north-south direction of Shagou in the east. The east end of the Bangzhen River on West Street flows into the Panlong River through a culvert under the Panlong Highway, and the west end is connected to the Grain Transport River. After the two rivers crossed, the town was divided into four, making it a "Tianzi-type town", and there was no second in Chongming.
There are four major wang clans in bang town, "Gong Guo Zhao Huang", and the Gong clan is the head of the Wang clan.
According to the data, after the rise of the Gong family in Bangzhen, the three sons each opened a new house when they became a family, namely "West Wanxing" (Xidang) in Bangzhen, "Dongwanxing" (Dongdang) in Shagou Town, and "Hongqiao Wanxing" in Hongqiao Town, located in the construction area.
In the past, the "West Wanxing" on the west street of Bangzhen occupied "half of the country", and hundreds of houses were connected. Because of the pawnshop relationship, people later called it "Xidang", and generally rarely called it "Xi Wanxing". In the 1940s, some rooms were lent to Hama town elementary schools for use, and after liberation, they were also used by police stations. The buildings in the Xidang Mansion are second to none in the town, and the study rooms, patios and other elegant designs include bonsai, flower beds, etc.
West Street, Bangzhen
Speaking of "Dongdang", it is "Dong wanxing", only because of The West Dang, it is called "Dongdang", there is no pawnshop there. Dongdang's mansion is surrounded by house ditches, and there are rare stained glass doors and windows in the yard, which is unforgettable. A few tall elm trees on the side of the road in front of the East Dang House hug a thick tall elm tree, the shade of which is like a giant umbrella, and passers-by often pass by in the summer to cool off under the trees. After the land reform, the houses were distributed to poor peasants.
Hamama Town East Street
The Gong family courtyard house on Linglong Street is also a treasure land of "Heavenly Spirit and Earth", and talents are born. Born here, Gong Pingying (Zi Xinfu), Xianfeng was put into the Zhizhi in October of the Tenth Year by the Chief of the Punishment Department, and the Fuzhong Tongzhi Nongzhi Jinshi was edited by the Hanlin Academy. The mother of Mr. Cao Binglin, a famous calligrapher and founder of Chongming Middle School and Power Plant, is the daughter of the Gong family in Linglong Street. The famous singer and film actress Gong Qiuxia of the 1940s, formerly known as Gong Shasha and Gong Qiuxiang, was born on December 4, 1916 in Linglong Street, Bangzhen. The Gong family of doctors is also in Linglong Street, Bangzhen.
Gong Qiuxia
The Huang family compound is in the middle of Hama Town East Street, north of the Hama Town River. There is a large number of real estate surnamed Huang mostly. There are two gates facing the street, the east side is the main Jincheng house, so it is only called "Huang Jincheng", and the west side is called "West Huangcheng", and the middle is separated by street houses. The two Huang Jincheng compounds are connected by a passage behind them, the back door on the north side can see the City God Temple, and to the east it is connected to the Huang family's home on Linglong Street, which is like a dividing line: the west side of Linglong Street is the Huang Family's Residence; the east side of Linglong Street is the Gong family.
The Guo family is in a large gathering area on the south bank of the Hama Town River in the east city of Bangzhen. The houses inside are arranged, from north to south, and then a bend, bending west to the stone door set of the Panlong River, like an L-shape. Before liberation, in order to resist the attack of the People's Liberation Army in northern Jiangsu, defend Chongming, and prevent the People's Liberation Army from crossing the river south, the youth army came to bang town for the first time, and a company of hundreds of people was stationed in the Guo family compound.
The Zhao family in Bang Town does not know much, only that it opens a hotel in the east market, and there is a courtyard house in the west city.
In the history of Bangzhen, before liberation, there were four old buildings: one in the Gong family mansion in Xidang; three in the East Street, one in the Guo family mansion on the East Street, one in the Gong family building at the intersection of the street and Linglong Street, called "Ao Jia Lou", and one in the Gong family mansion on Linglong Street. Before liberation, these old buildings were very rare buildings, so they were called "ancient buildings".
The Gong family courtyard house on Linglong Street
The river on the east-west street of Bang town is covered with wooden bridges, ten steps and one bridge, or one shop and one bridge, connecting the shops on the north and south sides. These bridges were probably originally built by merchants in front of their own stores for the convenience of customers, increasing the circulation of customers and increasing business.
The main bridge of Bangzhen is a bridge across the Panlong River, before liberation was a wooden bridge, thick bridge columns, bridges, bridge slabs and bridge railings, let people feel rough and simple, can pass the heavy wooden ox cart, trolley, is the largest bridge in the town, so the people of Bangzhen town call it "bridge". There is a stone bridge on the Panlong River at the southern end of the bridge, the street on the south bank of the Bangzhen River in the east street is connected to the west, and the eastern side of the bridge spans the Hamazhen River on a wooden bridge, connecting henan to hebei.
Now the Panlong River Bridge
The Panlong River Bridge at the end of the last century
Bangzhen Primary School, from the Bangzhen Damu Bridge, along the Panlong Highway to the south, past the rice mill oil mill, bus station, Huangjiayuan house, Guojiayuan house, soon to a stone bridge across the Panlong River, to the east across the bridge to the playground of Hamazhen Primary School. Bangzhen Primary School is west of the Panlong River, facing north and south, and several black characters of "courtesy, righteousness, and shame" on the white wall of the primary school are very eye-catching. Born in the 1930s of the last century, the child is the development period of the Hama town primary school in history, the primary school classroom is not enough, borrowing the house in the courtyard of the large mansion of The West Wanxing (Xidang) in the town of Hama as a classroom, in the early liberation period, the bricks and wood of the City God Temple were demolished to expand the Hama Town Primary School. Now Hama town primary school has been silenced in the glory of history.
There is a city god temple at the north end of Linglong Street in Bangzhen, so Linglong Street is also referred to as "Temple Lane", when the temple was built, there is no information to check, the temple gate is facing east, there are two bluestone drums in front of the door, the entrance is a two-story theater stage, the temple kitchen is located in the southeast wing, the hall is facing east, there is a big Buddha, and there are bodhisattvas in the box rooms on the north and south sides. Before liberation, it was also common to see boats from northern Jiangsu, and the boat boss with stubble on his face bought pig heads and other tributes in the town, went to the temple to burn incense and worship the Buddha, and prayed for peace and good fish on the sea.
The north end of Linglong Street is the location of the historical Hama Town City God Temple
Once upon a time, a small bang town, full of shops, handicrafts, department stores, teahouses and bookstores, and sometimes mobile opera teams came to Hama town to perform traditional opera and acrobatics, which basically met the material and cultural needs of the people. According to the data, in the 1930s, there were 101 trang, buildings, pavilions, gardens, shops, pawnshops, and shops in bang town.
The morning market in Bangzhen is full of crowds of people rushing to the market, which can really be described as shoulder to shoulder, the voice is boiling, and the sound is spread for more than ten miles! When the old man of Bangzhen talked about this, he always showed indescribable pride, cocked his thumb and said: This is the town howl of our town, and the prosperity and pride of our town!
In 1932, an earthen highway (now known as the Panlong Highway) was built from Chongming County to Bangzhen, and from then on, south of Guanjia Lane, south of damuqiao in Hama Town, adjacent to the rice mill oil mill in the north, there was a private station next to the road, and a garage for two trucks was built.
After the construction of the dirt highway from Bangzhen to Nanmen Port, the road traffic network in Northern Jiangsu and Qidong and other areas was underdeveloped, and the access to cars was limited, so there was a route from northern Jiangsu to Shanghai transiting to Shanghai via Chongmingbang Town. This is one of the most convenient transportation routes recently: take a boat to the bay port of Chongming, walk a quarter of an hour to Bangzhen; then take a car to Nanmen Port; and then change to a steamship to Shanghai.
A bus passing through the town of Bang on the Panlong Highway photographed at the end of the last century
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, Bay Port was an important port for Chongming to Haimen, Qidong and other important ports in northern Jiangsu, and Bangzhen was also one of the important routes for merchants from all over the world to enter and leave the northern region of Chongming. The current bay port has long disappeared, and the riverside of the original bay port has long been swollen into a large tidal flat by sediment, and then reclaimed into a vast farm, and the riverside has been far away from the town of Bang. Hama Town, formerly located in the north-central part of Chongming, has now become the central point of Chongming.
This article is excerpted from Lu Wenbin's series of blog posts "Hama Town Reminisces"
Source丨 Look at Chongming