Yangqiao old street

Yangqiao old street

Yangqiao Old Street (Yangqiao ancient town) block, also known as Yangqiao historical and cultural street, is located near Xili River, northwest of Caoqiao and southwest of Yun Village, Qianhuang Town, Wujin District, Changzhou City. The protection area is 18 meters east of dingjiatang, east coast of zhujiabang, at least 18 meters south of zhangxianbang, 10 meters west of guanyinbang, and 18 meters north of muzhaiyuan, covering an area of about 4 hectares.

In April 2020, it will be included in the list of the first batch of traditional villages in Jiangsu Province.

Brief introduction of ancient town

Yangqiao Old Street (Yangqiao ancient town) is a historical and cultural area with rich Ming and Qing architectural relics, cultural landscape and revolutionary struggle history, which takes the old commercial street around Yangqiao as the core and extends to yangqiaobang (also known as zhangxianbang).

There are more than 10 natural villages in this area, including Zhuangji village, qianzhujiatang, houzhujiatang, dujiatang and dingjiatang. There are yangqiaobang, zhujiabang, dujiabang, guanyinbang, xinjiebang and other rivers and streams around the territory. There are Nanyang bridge, Zhuangji bridge, Hongqiao bridge, Taiping Bridge (also known as Xieqiao), Dongyang bridge, Xinyang bridge, Xinhong bridge, xintaiping bridge and other classical and modern bridges with different shapes and sizes on bishuiqingxi. Many houses are built near the water, forming a group of pillow river people, small bridges and flowing water, which has the natural landscape of Jiangnan Water Town with both garden color and poetic flavor.

History of Yangqiao town

The history of Yangqiao town began in the Southern Song Dynasty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it has become an important town of Changzhou Prefecture, a province in the south of the Yangtze River. It reaches Taihu Lake and Gehu Lake in Changzhou Prefecture from east to west, and Jintan County in Zhenjiang Prefecture from east to west. It is the only way to Changzhou City in the north, Yixing County in the South and Huzhou City in Zhejiang Province. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Yangqiao town became the market and trade center of the junction area of Yanghu county and Yixing County in Changzhou. A large number of merchants gathered here, building gardens and buildings adjacent to each other. Its prosperity once surpassed that of Yixing County, so it was called "the first town of Taihu Lake". At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, although some towns gradually emerged in the surrounding areas, the business prosperity centered on Yangqiao old street was still more than HUTANG town. At present, from the East, West, South, North and other old streets with Nanyang bridge as the center, the remains of classical buildings and components can still reflect the prosperity of that year. According to local people's recollections, there were more than 100 shops in this area, including restaurants, silk cloth shops, North and South groceries, Chinese medicine, wooden shops, bamboo wares, silversmith shops, fishing shops, meat shops, dyeing shops, troughs, tofu shops, carpenters' shops, teahouses, snack shops, and even cigarette shops (opium shops), including Tongrentang drugstore, baihutang teahouse, dingjiatang grain shop, and Chen Wanlong tobacco shop Shop, Quansheng dowry shop, Rongguang Inn and other time-honored shops are famous. The opening of theaters and the creation of secondary schools in the town were earlier than those in the surrounding towns. At that time, the waterway transportation was very convenient. Every day, ships from Changzhou and Wuxi to Yixing and Liyang and irregular ships were berthed at Yangqiao wharf. Up to now, countless remains of niubikong rope stones between the well preserved stone revetments with a length of more than 1000 meters have witnessed the scene of ships being crowded at that time. In order to prevent thieves from committing crimes, the old street is equipped with fence gates which are open during the day and closed at night, and full-time watchmen are employed to patrol the reporting points.

Yangqiao ancient town (Yangqiao old street) was also an important area in the Anti Japanese war. From 1940 to 1945, most of the New Fourth Army and guerrillas used the Yangqiao area as a channel between Yixing and Wujin. This area is the main contact springboard of the underground organization of the Communist Party of Wunan. Now No. 24, Jinqiao Nanxin village, NaNTU West Street, Nanyangqiao, is the former site of Nanyangqiao underground transportation station of the New Fourth Army of Taige Prefecture Committee of the Communist Party of China. In May 1945, Dai Rongkun, an underground member of the Communist Party of China, who was in charge of the transportation station, was killed in Caoqiao by Japanese aggressors.

With the flow of time, the development of highway traffic, the rise and prosperity of the towns around Yangqiao, the decline of Yangqiao in remote areas, the prosperity of the old street gradually withdraw from the historical stage, and become people's memory. However, the traces of the prosperity of the old street are still there. There are more than 27000 square meters of old houses on the old street, which covers an area of more than 360 mu. The granite strips and green brick pavement on the street are still the same. There are also well preserved dingjiatang dingzhai, baishuizhuang, muzhaiyuan, the former site of Nanyangqiao underground traffic station of the New Fourth Army of Taige prefectural committee of the Communist Party of China, Nanyangqiao, Taipingqiao, etc., which belong to the newly announced cultural relics protection units in Changzhou. There are also stone inscriptions of rebuilding Yangqiao stele in Qing Dynasty, Wenchang Pavilion of Guanwang, baihutang teahouse sites, classical Shiliang Zhuangji bridge and Donghong bridge built in Qing Dynasty. They were built in Ming Dynasty and rebuilt in modern Baoding temple and Taiping temple. It is said that the temple in the famous "huoshao Honglian Temple" is on the east side of Nanyang bridge. A few years ago, a stone Scripture building with lotus pattern was unearthed, which is its relic. There are more than 500 well preserved classical residential buildings in the area, such as dujiatang and zhujiatang. Such a rich and colorful historical and cultural connotation, as well as the picturesque charm of the superior environment of the landscape, is rare in Changzhou. At present, Wujin District has decided to invest hundreds of millions of yuan for comprehensive planning, gradually repair and development, and invited Yixing to join hands to rebuild an ancient town of "Zhouzhuang" in Changzhou.

On February 26, 2008, the Municipal People's government announced it as the second batch of historical and cultural blocks in Changzhou.

In April 2020, it will be included in the list of the first batch of traditional villages in Jiangsu Province.

Address: Yangqiao old street, Wujin District, Changzhou City (330m north of Yangqiao line)

Longitude: 119.951767

Latitude: 31.542737

Chinese PinYin : Yang Qiao Lao Jie