Some time ago, the news that Dongshankou Wangfujing Department Store was about to close out came out, which instantly became the headline of Guangzhou's "hot search list" and caused heated discussion among netizens, who were telling the story and reluctance with Wangfujing Department Store.
Twenty-five years of time, like yesterday, the post-80s and post-90s have also become fathers and mothers from children. In the past, every festive season, Wangfujing Department Store became a must-visit shopping mall for the old Guangzhou, and it was difficult to walk in a sea of people, which was the existence of the "king" in the Guangzhou department store at that time.
However, standing under the rapid economic development of Guangzhou, Wangfujing Department Store still cannot escape the fate of being eliminated in the end.
If Wangfujing Department Store was the representative of high-quality consumption at that time, then Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street is undoubtedly one of the representatives of mass consumption places.
From the perspective of historical development, both represent the glory of Guangzhou, but it is always a moment, a moment that is eternal or a memory in people's minds. If it cannot be changed with the trend of the times and cultural development, when the next day is revisited, the sense of contrast that is difficult to blend will make the memory disappear with it.
Earlier, when we walked back to the Ninth Pedestrian Street, between the ancient buildings and the ugly billboards, between the quiet of the historical years and the hustle and bustle of commerce... Under the experience of all kinds of contrasts, I can't help but sigh: Shangxiajiu is gradually degenerating into a situation of "Bulao Street" (Cantonese: describing rustic and low-grade), resulting in "the old Guangzhou does not go, the passengers dislike", and its glory has long disappeared.
Fortunately, in recent times, Guangzhou city began to carry out research work on the quality improvement of Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street, Liwan District also did further quality improvement project bidding work, soon, Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street will be presented in front of our eyes, whether all kinds of contrasts can be solved, and present a sense of harmony, historical beauty, can only wait for the results.
Three kinds of "shock"
"How long have you not been going up and down nine?" At the beginning of this year, a social platform asked a question in the topic, and the reply at the bottom was a bad experience. In fact, many old people will fall into contemplation and fragmentation in the face of this problem. Many people may say, "I'd rather not go."
In fact, in December last year, when the Jiaoxin section of the Cultural Park of the Extension line of Guangzhou Metro Line 8 was opened, the long-forgotten Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street reappeared in the news headlines and major social platforms. The reason is that the traffic factors that are generally believed to affect the decline of this street have been solved.
After the opening of Hualin Temple Station of the subway, people no longer need to walk a long distance from Changshou Road Station, Huangsha Station or Cultural Park Station to Shangxiajiu, and Hualin Temple Station Exit E to the latter, only more than 300 meters away, and the walking time is 5 minutes. Distance and time-consuming, shortened by nearly half.
When we plan to go back to the next nine, we have also read a lot of recent news and shared experiences of the public, holding a good thought of the past memory, but also with a little bit of good thoughts and concerns about being broken, and the thoughts are mixed.
Indeed, after the opening of the subway, it is more convenient to go to Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street.
When stepping on this land, we took the junction of Shangjiu Road and Dade Road as the starting point, and went all the way to the west, walking through Liwan Square, Xintiandi, Nanyangli, Xiguan Shifu Hotel, LianxiangLou, Ping'an Grand Theater, Tao Taoju, Guangzhou Restaurant, until we stopped at the intersection of Baohua Road.
I was deeply shocked by three kinds, namely the visual shock of historical buildings and "plastic feeling" billboards, the auditory shock of "moving and playing" from the street to the end of the street, the loudspeaker shouting, and the smell shock of stinky tofu and kebabs.
Along the way, Xiguan's unique arcade style is the best "business card" of Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street, mountain flowers, Roman columns, curly patterns, Chinese-style qingshui bricks, Qing Dynasty Manchurian windows, etc., imprinting the early years of the Republic of China at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
This sense of vicissitudes was broken by the billboard "red and green" set on the wall, which seemed out of place. The arcade's unique symbol is captured by the gorgeous billboard, like a "psoriasis" on the wall.
However, what is even more uncomfortable is that the dance music of the shop using loudspeakers to play "moving times and playing times" resounds throughout the street, which has evolved from a simple "shouting" to noise pollution, and has also broken the unique quiet beauty of the old neighborhood.
It is a very romantic thing to meet traditional food in the old town. The original upper and lower nine, with fun cake home, silver kee sausage powder, Nanxin double skin milk and other old brands, traditional Cantonese snacks, exquisite. Today, the "aroma" of Changsha stinky tofu, the burnt taste of grilled squid, and the loosely cut fruit have become the "protagonists" here.
In Xiguan Food City, there is no Xiguan cuisine, but it is still "occupied" by Changsha stinky tofu and Oden.
The final struggle
As a traditional culture pedestrian street, Shangxiajiu once had its own unique slogans, such as Chicken Olive, Spicy and Not Spicy, and played with the accompaniment of The Whistle.
Nowadays, all kinds of traditional cultural factors have gradually disappeared, and the upper and lower nine pedestrian streets are like Maotai packed in plastic bottles, and people have no desire to open, and naturally cannot be immersed in it.
Just relying on the "measuring clothes" and "playing useless" several sculptures, it is really difficult to support the simplicity of the upper and lower nine. Guangzhou Restaurant, Tao Tao Ju, Lian Xiang Lou, etc. have become the last struggle here. Look closely, the above three are basically displayed in the form of a window, and the store display has always maintained the original taste.
Located at the junction of Wenchang South Road and Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street, Guangzhou Restaurant still stands, with scarlet tiles, calligraphy characters of "Eat in Guangzhou", golden tiles, white guardrails, colorful glazed windows, and golden ceiling lamps. The Guangzhou restaurant is still the one in the impression, but there are very few people who go, the door is closed, and the black lights are blind.
The billboard formed by the combination of gold, red and green can see the historical vicissitudes of Lianxiang Building. Under the bright lights, the exquisite taste of wax and biscuits makes LianxiangLou a good place for some tourists to buy souvenirs.
Opposite the Tenth Fu Xiguan Hotel, it also maintains black-brown tiles, white walls, dark green doors and windows, and the simple European-style architectural style is integrated in a number of Xiguan arcade buildings, which are mixed with some differences.
Ping An Grand Theatre, as a representative of the cultural and entertainment industry in Yangcheng, from the original Cantonese opera performance to the song and dance party, movie, karaoke, dance hall, nightclub, to the electronic game hall, and then to the café, its development and transformation of history is exactly the process of Guangzhou's cultural entertainment. Going to the Ping An Grand Theater to "see the big drama" has become a tradition of many laoguang.
Today, the Ping An Grand Theater has just passed 70 years, and the billboard with red background and gold characters has become brown background and white characters, and perhaps the speed of time has made it quickly fade color. Fortunately, in recent years, ping an grand theater has been "cared for", and after many transformations, it is still an important performance and film screening place in the Xiguan area.
The Tao Tao Residence, which "wears a new shirt", is one of these traditional buildings, and only the old Guangdong people stop to take photos to take photos. The whole is still the arcade style, black rickshaws, Roman columns, curly patterns, Chinese scarlet columns, red lanterns, roof pavilion decorations, plus the overall tone is emerald and beige, just right to show the fusion of Chinese and Western architecture.
After the tortuous construction of Liwan Square, after a short period of prosperity, now the number of people is rare, but also seems to be somewhat dilapidated, reduced to a logistics distribution center, many logistics trucks unload and load goods here.
Among them, the shops on Shangjiu East Street are all dilapidated, mostly small trinkets, high cartons are piled up in front of the door, and the goods in the store are placed casually.
Go
The former Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street was a "king" with a single-day flow of 200,000 or 300,000 people. During this year's National Day, there were only 413,000 people in 7 days, and the scene of crowds and difficulties in walking has become a "long- and long-standing" past.
There are many reasons for the large loss of traffic in Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street, such as chaotic management caused by inconsistent commercial ownership, high rents forcing away a number of old brands, commercial formats contrary to consumption trends, dilapidated external walls that have not been repaired for a long time, and traffic congestion problems that have not improved for a long time.
Regarding the commercial format, from the street to the end of the street, you can see that New Balance, New Balance of the United Kingdom, New Balance of the United States, Adidas with ® words, Nike with "golden tattoos", Golden Luck Glory Jewelry and other "cottage brands" are the "protagonists" of today's Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street.
While foreign and domestic big names are constantly sinking the market and marching into third- and fourth-tier cities, the old city commercial streets of first-tier cities have bucked the trend and become a hotbed of "cottage brands". This is an incomprehensible phenomenon. Earlier, when guangzhou Tianhema site block was planned to be transformed into a national famous CBD project such as Beijing SKP, it showed that Guangzhou's consumption trend was gradually extending to a higher grade.
Although it is impossible to overthrow and recreate a "Liwan version" SKP on Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street, it is clear that at this stage, it is urgent to renovate, eliminate the existing buildings and formats that do not conform to the style of Xiguan, repair dilapidated and dangerous houses and solve traffic problems, and the northern extension of Line 8 alone cannot save it.
However, the fact that no change has taken place now does not mean that there has been no work to promote the modernization.
As early as February 2020, Guangzhou issued the "Planning for the Protection and Utilization of the Three Historical and Cultural Blocks of the Upper and Lower Ninth to the Tenth Fu", mentioning that after 2020, it is necessary to improve the protection of the overall traditional style of the block, demolish high-rise buildings such as Liwan Square and Minghui Building, and restore the historical style.
Among them, it is required that the façade along the street should continue the architectural form of the arcade, including Tao Tao Ju, Lian Xiang Lou, Guangzhou Restaurant, Old Baohua No. 3 Residence, as well as 12 historical building clues and 43 traditional style architectural clues.
In terms of commercial formats, it is proposed to protect the traditional business represented by the traditional catering industry, protect the trademarks and trade names of long-established key enterprises, try to avoid the introduction of a large number of commercial shops of the same type, reflect the uniqueness of the old-fashioned brands; excavate the commercial types that have flourished in the history of the neighborhood, and select individual shops as historical memory display nodes.
This year, the transformation plan of Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street has received great attention, such as in-depth research by leaders of various departments in Liwan District; then, in July, Guangzhou Liwan District issued a pre-approval feasibility study report on the Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street Quality Improvement Project, which will invest about 153 million yuan for upgrading.
The above plan was approved in mid-August, and on September 17, the Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street Quality Improvement Project was officially tendered, which means that it will soon usher in a new look.
From the perspective of comprehensive planning expectations and transformation plans, Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street will undoubtedly become the next "Yongqingfang".
At present, Yongqingfang, although it is still in the process of transformation, some blocks are open to the public, but the street scene seen during the visit is obviously "different from the upper and lower nine", and the two are on the same street and only a few minutes on foot.
As early as December 2015, Yongqing Area became a pilot project for the reconstruction of Enning Road, and vanke won the bid for the first and second phases of the Yongqingfang renovation project. Yongqingfang, which has been launched with a new look, has now become one of the must-visit Internet celebrity punch points in Guangzhou. In the future, there will be more areas in Yongqingfang to complete the renovation.
The whole block of Yongqingfang restores the style of the old Xiguan, on this basis, the introduction of various types of cultural and creative small shops, special restaurants, bar, etc., will also introduce hotels, homestays and other formats, the whole will be built into Cantonese opera art, intangible cultural heritage, business circle formats, Xiguan style of the old block.
Seeing Yongqingfang, I also hope that the next time I revisit Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street, I will meet "Yongqingfang".