| Dachuan Hotel incident to the reconstruction of RongYuan Park, to the future of the sky bridge, here to witness the 400 years of Chengdu (middle)
| Chengdu Memories Series 017
Review of the previous issue
In the last issue, we talked about the origin of Luoma City, the Yaoguang Temple built by Wu Sangui, the famous anti-Japanese action "Dachuan Hotel Incident" in Chengdu, the former residence of the famous Kuomintang general Sun Yuanliang and its mixed praise and criticism of his life.
In this issue, we will talk about the food that once appeared in Luoma City, the future flyover and the foreign trade building, and the light industry and commerce field.
In the previous issue, it was mentioned that Luomashi is a precinct, which contains many well-known streets in Chengdu. For example, Zhengfu Street, West Yulong Street, Yudaiqiao Street, Qinglong Street, Yangshi Street are all places that old Chengdu people love to visit, and almost all these streets in the past have their own exclusive food.
The "Mapo Tofu Restaurant" of "Chen Ma Po Tofu Restaurant" on Xiyulong Street is a must-order dish at every table. The oily red oil is filled with tender white tofu, fried crispy cheeks, and a few green dots, which looks like a very good meal. The "ancient buns" at the east entrance of Qinglong Street are all thin-skinned and stuffed, and they are full of fillings when they bite down, which is very enjoyable. The sweet water noodles and brine pot helmets of the "Zhang Liang Powder Shop" are the first choice for sharpening. In addition, the bun of "Mole Beard Longan Small Bag", the "Liu Chicken" of Babao Street, the "Little Tan Bean Flower" of West Street, and the "Bell Dumpling" at the intersection of Luomashi Road are really easy to find your heart on any street.
Mapo tofu is one of the classic Sichuan dishes
When it comes to the most famous restaurant in the Luomashi area, Rongyuan Park is undoubtedly on the list. This "Rong Paradise" is one of the 21 chinese time-honored brands in Chengdu recognized by the Ministry of Commerce. As a state-owned restaurant, his history dates back to 1912.
If you want to talk about Rong Paradise, you have to say Zhengxing Garden. It can be said that RongYuan and Zhengxingyuan are in the same vein.
From the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the People's Republic, the rich people in Chengdu invited guests to set up banquets in their homes. At that time, all the famous restaurants in Chengdu only went to the guests' homes to do private banquets, which is also called "private banquet hall". (Just like now you can call a star chef to cook through a mobile phone app, this kind of play has been around for many years) In the concept of the people at that time, those who could eat in restaurants were not high-grade, called "South Pavilion". The custom of Chengdu people going to restaurants to set up banquets did not gradually rise until the 1920s, becoming a "sitting field".
Zhengxing Garden was founded by Guan Zhengxing, a Manchu. Guan Zhengxing was a Manchu and stayed in Chengdu with Manchu Officials entering Sichuan. He is a chef who has seen big scenes and is said to be able to cook a full table. This was second to none in Chengdu at the time, and it was a "differentiated selling point" in today's terms. In addition to this selling point, another major feature of "Zhengxing Garden" is that it actively absorbs the advantages of the northern and southern dishes, as well as the length of the various restaurants in Chengdu, thus forming its own style. RongYuan also inherits its characteristics of absorbing the strengths of each family, improving many traditional Sichuan dishes and developing many innovative Sichuan dishes. However, at that time, Zhengxingyuan was also the same as Chengdu's chartered banquet, and only some banquets such as "Bao Shanshi" were served in the city.
Images are from the web
"Zhengxing garden" was closed during the Xinhai Revolution, and then its business methods and dishes were inherited by the "Rong Paradise" jointly organized by its chefs Qi Lezhai and Blu-ray Jian. Rong Paradise Rong" is mainly based on "side dishes with the hall, delivering dishes to the door, and making package banquets", and also opened a famous noodle shop in Chengdu, "Ji Xue". In 1933, it was expanded into 16 private rooms, which could accommodate hundreds of people at the same time.
SakaeEn is known for making high-end banquets and family-style dishes, and their famous dishes include "Roasted Deer Tendon with Green Onion", "Dried Grilled Shark Fin", "Sour and Spicy Sea Cucumber", "
Many of the classic Sichuan dishes are no longer eaten, and today's Sichuan cuisine is only spicy
"Wait." The noodle shop "Jixue" under the "Rongyuan Garden" also had a variety of famous noodles, such as "crystal cold cake", "pork skin hair cake", "beef shoot noodles", "eel shoot noodles", "ear-tearing noodles" and so on, which were quite popular among diners at that time.
Rongyuan Can be said to have made a creative contribution to Sichuan cuisine. Sichuan cuisine can go out of Sichuan and be loved by people all over the country and even the world, and Rongyuan is also indispensable. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, British Tank Commander Han Ke, Captain Chennault of the U.S. Army Flying Tiger, and diplomats from the Anglo-American and French Consulates in Chengdu visited Rongyuan Many times. In June 1980, Teresa visited the New York restaurant in Rongyuan and went to the kitchen to meet the chef. U.S. Secretary of State Schultz once went to the New York restaurant in Rongyuan to eat, and after eating, he was very satisfied, and specially invited the restaurant's celebrity chef Zeng Guohua to take a photo with him.
However, RongYuan Park has not been smooth sailing in the ups and downs of the past century. Rongyuan Park, founded in 1912 at Xinglong'an (now the second section of Dongfeng Road) on Huguangguan Street, was once relocated to Buhou Street, and was closed in 1948 under the great depression of Baiye. It was only after more than 20 years that it reopened in Luoma City, which was also called Hongqi Restaurant at that time. In 1980, the Sichuan provincial government decided to open a high-end Sichuan restaurant in the United States, so it decided to restore the "RongYuan" sign in Sichuan first, so the Rongyuan Park, which had been closed for more than 30 years, reopened at the old site of the Hongqi Restaurant. Therefore, in the hearts of many old Chengdu people now, RongYuan Park is in the position of Luoma City.
Later, in June 1980, Sichuan Vegetable Catering Company and New York Health Food Company jointly operated the "New York Rongyuan" opened. At that time, the restaurant made and provided fairy duck, Chengdu whole fish, chicken bean blossoms, mapo tofu, etc. were widely sought after in the United States, and even a wave of Sichuan cuisine fever arose.
Later, due to the needs of municipal construction and demolition, Rongyuan Park moved to No. 51, Section 2, Renmin Middle Road. After 2004, the restructured Rongyuan Park reappeared at No. 169 Liangui South Road. Then in 2009, the century-old catering brand Rongyuan quietly ceased to operate.
Times have changed, people's tastes have changed. Classic old tastes may be sought after by feelings, but they are not accepted by younger consumers. Nowadays, many long-established brands in Chengdu are like a sentence that Mr. Ma Weidu said after eating the dragon scribe in June this year.
"The old brand is left with the signboard."
In the late 1980s, there was a building in Luoma City that was built with funds raised by 500,000 primary and secondary school students in Chengdu, and it was the Future Sky Bridge.
In 1987, there were suddenly many elementary school students on the streets of Chunxi Road. Children wearing red scarves sell newspapers, sodas, and small craftsmen. Most of the passing citizens will stop and listen to what the children say, and some adults will directly sell the children to "wrap the rounds", and give money to not let them find change.
All of this happened on April 27, 1987, when the Chengdu Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League issued an initiative to launch a preparatory plan for the city's youth.
At that time, the city's primary and secondary school students responded positively, in addition to selling soda and newspapers, you can also see the collection of old newspapers everywhere, selling toothpaste skin children. A few cents and a few dollars from selling things were put into the donation box without hesitation, to know that at that time, a few dollars was a huge amount of money for children, a bottle of soda was only 2 cents, and a few dollars could be changed to buy snacks for a few weeks.
According to the data, before the start of construction, the future flyover raised a total of 313,065.97 yuan in donations. Construction of the Future Flyover began on June 18, 1987, and was completed on September 25 of the same year, with a ceremony held on September 27.
The Future Sky Bridge is a four-way pedestrian bridge with an X-shaped crossing in plan, the net span of the main bridge is 44.10 meters in the northeast-southwest direction, 40.60 meters in the northwest-southeast direction, the total width of the bridge deck is 3 meters, and the net height of the bridge hole center is 5.57 meters. Viewed from above, the shape of the overpass resembles today's small drones.
Because this overpass was donated by more than 500,000 teenagers and citizens in the city, it was named "Future Sky Bridge". The most impressive thing about the overpass is that there are many dove-shaped decorations on it, and there is a round ball supported by four hands in the middle. I remember that at that time, many children came to the completion ceremony of the overpass to see the overpass they participated in.
It is a pity that 16 years later, the "Future" flyover has become a bottleneck restricting the traffic of Luoma City. Those four piers hindered the expansion of the north-south avenue of Renmin Middle Road, so it had to be demolished later.
Fortunately, the Future Flyover later left traces. The scrap steel of the "Future" flyover was sold for 219,000 yuan, and a "Future Hope Primary School" was built in Longwang Town, Qingbaijiang District, Chengdu. In elementary school, you can also see the iconic "four hands holding a round ball" of the Future Sky Bridge.
As I wrote a paragraph, the fat yellow man next to me showed a look of great nostalgia.
"The Future Sky Bridge was like a childhood dream, when I wanted to run to Mule City to see it whenever I had time. I saw the overpass being repaired little by little, and when I wanted to drink soda, I desperately held back, thinking of adding more bricks to the overpass. Later, we often ran around on the overpass, went to Xinhua Bookstore to read story books, and went to Zhong Shui Dumpling to eat a bowl of dumplings. ”
"When I heard the news that the future overpass was going to be demolished, I felt like I had lost something. Now that Zhong Shui dumplings are gone, Xinhua Bookstore is gone, the Light Industry Building is gone, and the Future Sky Bridge is gone, sooner or later our old Chengdu memories will be gone. “
Luoma City carries the memories of our generations, and in the next issue, we will talk about the rise and loneliness of the Luoma City business district.
【Past Reading Links (Phase 1)】
From the Dachuan Hotel to the reconstruction of Rongyuan Park to the Future Sky Bridge, chengdu has witnessed 400 years of change