The life and death of Xi'an's "Fallen Street"?

Per reporter: Ren Gang Per reporter Per editor: Shi Anpeng

After March, the winter vacation of millions of college students in Xi'an continued to be "recharged"...

The merchants of "Fallen Street" are looking forward to their return - these groups of vendors living around the university have long been driven by the burden of the family on their backs to return to the empty university and continue to open shops.

In the past 20 years, the university town has sprung up in the north and south suburbs of Xi'an, and at the same time, the surrounding urban villages and commercial streets have become increasingly prosperous.

At noon, at night, or even between classes, groups of students surround the place until the lights go out in the dormitory at night, and the students gradually disperse.

The rent of some shops here exceeds that of the bustling commercial area, a breakfast shop of 30 or 40 square meters, the transfer fee is often more than 200,000 yuan, but there is never a shortage of tenants. A shop was "transferred" and soon someone took over, even if the homeowner reminded that the rent would rise every year.

College students affectionately call it "Fallen Street."

However, without students, "Fall Street" is nothing.

For example, at present, the "Fallen Street" merchants who have been operating are experiencing unprecedented heavy blows...

Tian Yu forcefully pulled open the roller shutter of the store, she had not returned for more than two months - dry glasses for more than ten years, or the first time.

"In previous years, when I returned to my hometown, I stayed for four or five days at most, because the pressure to start a business was also great. This year stayed for more than a month, like several years. ”

In 2017, she moved the optical shop in Xiaoju'an Village opposite Xi'an Wai Chinese University to Kangdu Village outside the south gate of Northwest University's Chang'an Campus, with only her own clerk, and the annual rent of 47,000 yuan is the biggest expense of the store.

Shops always surround the university, Tian Yu is interested in the student traffic here, "student customers account for 70%, there are also in the society, and then the surrounding residents." ”

But now, college students do not open school, and open their shops in Chang'an University Town, which is far from the main urban area, has become a burden for Tian Yu.

"Today I have a pair of glasses, sold more than 200", Tian Yu smiled bitterly, in fact, this is a relatively good situation, sometimes it is normal not to open for two or three days, "to exaggerate, now if the child wants to eat something, let me buy, I will think that today I did not earn a penny, but also to spend money." ”

Tian Yu's optical shop is less than a hundred meters to the south, and it is Zhao Li and Lao Gong's Buddha finger dish. It was already five o'clock in the afternoon, but the shop was empty.

"Yesterday I sold more than 200 yuan, about 20% of last year," Zhao Li said, "the original customers are about 80% of the students, and now only the side of the noodle restaurant business is better, because the surrounding construction site is working, there are more workers who come to eat." Impostor dishes are too expensive. ”

There is also a used bookstore next door, and the three rows of bookshelves are full of students' old textbooks, filling the store. The boss came to the store every day to feed the cats, bask in the sun, and went back, the business matter, he was already very "Buddhist".

This is only the case of a row of shops closest to the school in Kangdu Village, and further into the village, most restaurants, fruit shops, and small hotels have not yet opened, and you need to show a yard pass to enter the village.

Compared with previous years when students started school, the village seemed particularly deserted.

Northwest University has more than 25,000 students, of which the Chang'an campus has the largest number, and these students constitute the most important customer group of merchants in Kangdu Village.

Since Northwest University's Chang'an Campus was put into use in 2005, Kangdu Village has been one of the largest beneficiaries.

Xi'an has two university towns, "Chang'an University Town" and "Weiyang University Town", which are listed at the north and south ends.

In Weiyang University Town, the situation is not better.

On Longshuo Road, the new campuses of Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an Polytechnic University and Xi'an Medical College stand side by side, forming the main part of Weiyang University Town.

In the northeast corner of Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, a HKUST Times Square is the main place for the daily consumption of tens of thousands of students in the three universities.

The formats here are more abundant than those in urban villages, in addition to daily catering, there are clothing, training, entertainment, maintenance and other formats.

Today, except for the workers and clerks in the surrounding North Third Ring Building Materials Market who come to eat, other formats are struggling to maintain.

Semir clothing store on the first floor outside the square resumed business in mid-March, tens of thousands of yuan of spring clothes have arrived years ago, seeing that summer clothes are about to be listed, the boss Liu Meng had to use the "decoration of the big clearance" gimmick, the whole field three folds up.

"Originally, march was the peak season for students to start school, but the first half of this year was over, down 70-80% from this month last year." Liu Meng guarded the store alone, and she did not ask the clerk to go to work.

In fact, from morning to afternoon, there are almost no customers in the store, and there are only some customers in the evening. This clothing brand is mainly aimed at young people, "in fact, there are very few residents, and then there are some people in the North Third Ring Road building materials market." ”

The entrance to the square was closed at 6 p.m., and Liu Meng wanted to wait more, and would persist until after 8 o'clock.

Not far away, the books at the entrance of Shaanxi University of Science and Technology also burned immortal grass, and the boss came to open a shop after returning from his hometown in Jiangxi to isolate for 14 days. But you can only sell a few hundred yuan a day, "the consumption is mainly students, he will not come to drink this when he is older, some parents will take their babies out in the afternoon, there will be some people, and they will not see anyone at all in the morning." ”

Usually, she doesn't close the store until the lights go out in the college dormitory. And now, at eight o'clock in the evening, she pulled down the roller shutter.

Near 12 noon, more than a dozen takeaway riders were still sitting around the mall chatting, waiting to receive orders.

The owner of the milk tea shop said, "There were not so many takeaway riders before, and they could not win the delivery." ”

Some people can't stick to it, and the Li Ji Fake Vegetable Fragrant Pot Shop on the east side of HKUST's Times Square hung up a notice of transfer a few days ago.

The store opened in August last year and has been in operation for less than half a year. The shopkeeper said, "The big boss can carry it, but our little one can't carry it." ”

But most people asked about the transfer price and found a reason to leave.

Zhao Li's fake vegetable shop in Chang'an University Town also needs to be transferred, but she does not plan to do it before the epidemic, "it is also a little more than working, and she is young and does not want to mix." ”

"The biggest impact of the epidemic on me is that the store can't go out." Years ago, Zhao Li's transfer fee was quoted at least 150,000, "this year as long as 120,000, others are still too expensive." ”

The old bookstore also wants to be transferred, this store was opened when the Chang'an Campus of Northwest University was put into use, and now it has been fifteen years, the boss said that a few years ago, a Gansu person was willing to take over 250,000, but to give it in installments, he did not agree, and now it is 170,000 and few people ask for it, "delayed."

But after all, there are still a few who transfer stores.

Under normal circumstances, except for winter and summer vacations, college students spend only more than 9 months in school every year. Even so, the annual profit of the University City store is very impressive.

Today, in addition to hard shoulders, they are still waiting for landlords to reduce rent.

"When you do a report, you should pay attention to this room rate, which is the best." We have more than 10,000 a month, and the landlord does not give a waiver", the owner of the Li Ji Mao Vegetable Fragrant Pot Shop suddenly changed the topic, and his face was full of businessman's shrewdness, "The landlord even if it is exempt for a month, let everyone slow down, this is not even a chance to slow down." ”

Tian Yu and Zhao Li are the same landlord, and there is no intention of reducing or waiving rent for the time being. Both of them paid their rent for the next year in August, and some merchants who paid in January told them that the landlord would raise the rent by another 1,000 yuan a month this year.

Tian Yu said, "We want to talk to the landlord, don't say it's free, you can make it later." ”

Regarding the future, Tian Yu, Zhao Li and Liu Meng are not clear, they do not know when the university will start, and whether it will be closed after the opening of the school.

The only certainty is that a new batch of students will come after graduation, a group of merchants will leave, and a new batch will come...

(Wenzhong Tian Yu, Zhao Li, Liu Meng as pseudonyms)

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