pedestrian street of Shangxiajiu

pedestrian street of Shangxiajiu

Shangxiajiu pedestrian street is located between Shangjiu Road, Xiajiu road and Shifu Road in Liwan District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. It is one of the three traditional prosperous commercial centers in Guangzhou city. With a total length of 1237 meters, there are 238 commercial shops and thousands of merchants. In the long history, it has gradually formed the four characteristics of Xiguan customs, which are a combination of Chinese and western commercial pedestrian street, and built a unique and colorful Xiguan customs painting to create a beautiful tourist landscape.

The famous Shangxiajiu commercial street is located in Xiguan, the old city. It starts from Shangxiajiu road in the East and ends at Shifu Road in the West. It runs through Baohua road and Wenchang Road with a total length of more than 1237 meters. There are more than 300 shops in the whole section, with a daily passenger flow of 600000 times. It gathers the food culture of laoxiguan, the food culture of Lingnan and the folk customs of Lingnan. The landmark of Shangxiajiu pedestrian street is the Qilou street which stretches for thousands of meters.

history

Shangxiajiu is actually two roads. It used to be called shangjiufu and xiajiufu, but now it is called shangjiulu and xiajiulu. From Renmin South Road to Enning Road, it is more than 1000 meters long, including Shifu. According to records, as early as the 6th century, shangxiajiuyi belt became a commercial gathering place and one of the earliest places for cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries in Guangzhou. In Song Dynasty, Xiajiu road was called xiuyifang, which formed the earliest commercial settlement in Xiguan. In the Ming Dynasty, with the excavation of the Daguan River, Xiajiu road developed into the main commercial street in the west of the city, and gradually expanded into 19 "Fu". Today's shangjiufu, xiajiufu and Shifu are named after them.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the establishment of Huaiyuan post (on the south side of today's Xiajiu Road), the opening of Daguan River, and the establishment of ShiSanHang as an important port for foreign trade in Guangzhou, commerce and trade flourished day by day. For a time, merchants from all over the world gathered and became the largest commercial distribution center in Guangzhou. Later, ShiSanHang was destroyed by fire, and commerce gradually moved to Shangjiu road and Xiajiu road. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, this place was the most prosperous, and it was an important window for Guangzhou to trade with the whole country and at home and abroad.

In the Qing Dynasty, Shangxiajiu was the private garden of thirteen merchants. Xiajiufu, in the area of today's Liwan square, was originally the largest house of Liang Jingzhao. Each house has three or four entrances and stretches for one hundred meters. It is the residence of Liang Jingguo, a businessman of thirteen lines. It is commonly known as xiajiuliang. Since modern times, there have been seven generations of famous people here, including Liang Jingguo, Liang lunshu, Liang Tongxin, Liang zhaohuang, Liang Qinggui, Liang Guangzhao, Liang Fangzhong, Liang Jiabin and Liang Chengye, demonstrating the change of the times from business to official to Confucianism. In the late Qing Dynasty, Wenlan academy, located in xiajiufu Xiuyi square, was the "house of Representatives" of business circles in Guangzhou, and was the meeting place for the representatives of gentry and businessmen

. In 1918, the Guangzhou government launched a movement to demolish the city wall, and a large number of Xiguan merchants' houses were demolished. At the same time, the land was sold by grades, and the arcades were encouraged to be built instead

. In the early 1930s, the government focused on three business districts in Guangzhou, of which Shangxiajiu was one. Shangxiajiu was expanded into a 17 meter wide road and built arcades, gradually forming a commercial street.

Cultural characteristics

Business culture

With the increasing commercial atmosphere of Shangjiu road and Xiajiu Road, a number of related professional fairs have emerged around it. After a hundred years, some historical traces can be found so far, and it has developed into an important commercial network in the area. In the East, there are Guangfu middle road paper wholesale market and sewing machine professional market; Guangfu South Road cloth market; Yangxiang road cloth market; Dexing Road clothing ingredients market; in the south, there are famous shisanxing road "Guyi Street" clothing market and shibafu road cloth market; there are national famous Huangsha agricultural and sideline products market and Qingping Chinese herbal medicine market; in the west, there are Shifu Road (now the pedestrian street section) Baiyi street Taotaoju, lianxianglou and many restaurants for the elderly; Changshou Road barber products market, gold and silver jewelry industry in the north; xilaizheng Street jade market and Suanzhi furniture street with a long history; Yuansheng Street "antique street" and so on, constitute a huge business network of nearly 2.5 square kilometers, including various types of goods, meeting the needs of different types of merchants and citizens Please.

architectural culture

Traditional Xiguan houses include Xiguan big house, arcade, bamboo tube house, etc. Xiguan big house is a traditional folk residential form of Guangzhou with Lingnan characteristics, which was built in xiguanjiao (today's Liwan District) by wealthy businessmen in the late Qing Dynasty. In the heyday of Xiguan big house, there were more than 800, but now there are less than 10

. Arcades originated in India, then spread to Southeast Asia, and then to South China. Shangxiajiu arcades were built in the early 1930s.

Xiguan folk culture

Besides shopping in the pedestrian street, people can take this as the center to lead the Hualin temple, wuyanjing, Wenta, Xiguan Dawu nature reserve, Chenjiaci, Renwei temple and Shamian European style area with a little Xiguan style. Almost every street and Lane on the pedestrian street has a beautiful legend and profound historical origin. The following nine roads still have "Wenlan lane", which confirms the history of "Wenlan academy" established by the thirteen line rich merchants in the past. The old house of "Lingnan art garden" set up by the masters of Lingnan Painting School in the past still exists in zhanluzhi street of Shifu Road.

In history, Tao Tao Ju was a gathering place for Cantonese opera artists. He was famous for "Xiguan ancient (story) altar" and "Shuanghua Xiaoyuan painting and calligraphy exhibition". The people here are also famous for entertaining themselves and singing "private group bureau" in Cantonese opera. The Liwan Yayuan calligraphy and painting exhibition hall of Shifu bookstore and the Ping'an theater where Cantonese Opera is performed are the cultural oasis on this pedestrian street.

Food culture

There are dozens of restaurants in the pedestrian street, including taoju, a century old restaurant, and Guangzhou, a "national super restaurant". There are also a number of special snack shops, such as Nanxin dessert shop, oucheng noodle shop, laoxiguan niuza and laoxiguan lachang, which are operating "famous snacks in Xiguan". There are also famous traditional cake shops, such as lianxianglou, taotaoju, quxiang cake shop and Guangzhou Restaurant, Every Mid Autumn Festival, all kinds of moon cakes produced here sell well at home and abroad to comfort the homesickness of tourists. Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and domestic and foreign restaurants have also entered the pedestrian street, becoming an area of traditional and modern, ethnic and international food culture exchange, fully reflecting the food culture of "eating in Guangzhou, taste in Xiguan".

Since its opening on September 30, 1995, the pedestrian street has achieved good economic and social benefits after several years of development. In 1992, it was named "no distribution (production) of fake and shoddy commodities Street" by Guangzhou municipal government, in 1996, it was named "youth civilization Street" by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, in 1997, it was named "Xiguan commercial corridor, one of the top ten tourist attractions in Yangcheng", in 1998, it was named "Xiguan commercial corridor" by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of domestic trade and the State Council The State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the State Bureau of technical supervision have been rated as one of the 15 "100 cities and ten thousand stores without fakes" activity demonstration streets in China, which have played a certain role in the development of trade and tourism in Guangzhou and Liwan District.

It's a very attractive place. The pedestrian street is full of middle and high-grade department stores, including Yongan department store, Guangzhou clothing store, Heming shoes and hats store, mainland watch store, women's and children's department store, Guangzhou textile store, Jinhua bedding store and other time-honored brands. Interestingly, some of the top brands of new and old products are sold in "Qingcang" all the year round; as for restaurants, there are Qingping Hotel, laoxiguan sausage, Emperor Huang's preserved meat restaurant, Guangzhou Restaurant, taotaoju restaurant, Lianxiang restaurant, Shifu non-staple food store, etc.

In addition, there are quxiang bakery, teahouse, Wenchang Chicken, Qingping chicken, Taotao ginger and scallion chicken, ginger milk, double skin milk, ouchengji wonton noodles, wuzhanji congee, cantonese moon cake, glutinous rice chicken, wife cake, frozen food, all kinds of famous dishes and snacks, and Hualin Jade Street. Qingping road is not only a food street, but also the largest miscellaneous Market Street for farmers in China. Besides, there are many cultural goods stores, professional shopping malls and department stores. It is worth mentioning that there are large commercial and residential buildings in Liwan square, where the opening ceremony of the annual International Food Festival is held.

After comprehensive construction, great changes have taken place in Shangxiajiu. Under the skyline, tall buildings are crowded together. People will feel the rich characteristics: the arcade style buildings on both sides of the road are relatively perfect; the streets and alleys are still west gate, big house, and Mashi alleys; the 300 meter long large-scale spot painting "Yangcheng scenery Gallery" and nearly 100 neon signboards are newly built on the road; the huge neon signboards on the pedestrian street, large-scale spot painting, and more than 2000 lanterns and colorful lanterns are hung along the road Lights It really adds some beauty to this metropolis. At night, the night and neon lights set off, especially people feel brilliant.

Food: taste Xiguan in the street

In the old days, there was a saying in the area of Xiguan that there must be snacks within a hundred steps. Many street snacks with unique flavor have been handed down till now. From Changshou Road subway station to Guangzhou Restaurant, you must keep your eyes wide open. There are snacks that make you have a good appetite in the small streets and corners that you don't pay attention to.

There are nine kinds of delicious food, including "Yinji" vermicelli; "ouchengji" shrimp wonton noodles in soup; "wuzhanji" congee and fish skin congee; "Guangzhou Restaurant" Guantang dumplings, shrimp dumplings, Shaomai and radish cake; "lianxianglou" Lianrong moon cake

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