There is another newcomer in the water town resort - Jiangyin Changjing.
The prosperity of Changjing Ancient Town is not far away. When we came to this ancient town where streets were built near the water and became a city because of the streets, we saw only old shops with ancient walls and gray tiles, small bridges and flowing water, and there was a familiar flavor of vicissitudes of life. Facing the river is a stone revetment of the same color, and the narrow street is paved with stone slabs of the same color. On the stone revetment, there is also a stone beach of the same color. The stone steps run along the river either toward the east or west, extending into the water. On the stone bank There is a well dug with stone well railings of the same color. It seems that the river beach is crowded with women washing their clothes. They are saying hello across the river, Wu Nong, a young man from the family, is talking softly, the exclamations are splashing as the boat passes, the proud laughter of the boatmen and the vendors. The cries of sales rise and fall... Jiangnan Ancient Town wakes up to this noise in the morning, and the old streets are filled with the aroma of fried dough sticks. All this still vaguely exists in the hustle and bustle of modern civilization.
Changjing is called Dongshun City in Jiangyin. According to the "Fengtu Ji" compiled by Zhou Chu of the Western Jin Dynasty, Shun once lived here, cultivated slash-and-burn farming, and civilized the ancestors. Since then, it has opened up The ancient civilization of Changjing and the ruins of Dongshun City have become a sight to this day. Therefore, the ancient town of Changjing has a saying that "Shun Zi lived in the south of the Yangtze River and the Yinxi vassal branch was spread over 5,000 years ago. The east city runs through the Jing River and cuts through thorns and thorns to open up forty miles of rivers and mountains." The prosperity of Changjing began in the Song Dynasty. Changjing is located at the central node connecting the Yangtze River and Taihu Lake. It has a developed water system and convenient transportation. It has gradually formed two major markets in the north and south, so it is named Dongcheng City. During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, the river was opened again, turning the three rivers into one water. The east and west were connected to the river, and the two sides of the river gradually became streets and markets. There are two streets, facing each other across the river and running east and west in parallel. The two streets in Henan and Hebei are connected by four bridges and form four lanes. The street is shaped like a dragon's body and its legs are shaped like a dragon's feet, with its head east and tail west, as if it is about to fly into the sky.
In the drizzling afternoon, we walked on this precious stone street. Most of the shops facing the street are two-story buildings, closely together, and there is a street every other The narrow and long alley, the narrow streets and the Ming and Qing style eaves cleverly form a "line of sky". The small buildings on both sides are so dependent on each other that you can almost hold hands across the street. There are shops in the front houses, and the shops vary in size. Looking through the corridors of the facade, there are always several deep courtyards, and some even have a deep courtyard hidden inside. Most houses have basements built under them. This is a rare building in the Jiangnan water town. Perhaps it is because the terrain on both sides of the Jingshui River is high and the groundwater level is low. There are many shops on the stone street, including rice stores, cloth stores, bookstores, teahouses, pharmacies, north-south groceries, inns, bathrooms, tailors and other shops. There are 7 pawn shops alone. Changjing's wealth is very famous in a radius of hundreds of miles. "It has become a large town in the southeast of Jiangyi."
On March 3, 1903, a special guest came to Shiban Street. He was the emperor’s teacher, Weng Tonghe, the Prime Minister of the Qing Dynasty. Changjing Zhang Shenyu Store is famous for its tea and snacks such as water chestnut cakes, snowflake cakes, sesame cakes, crispy cakes, flat beans, pink salt beans, and spiced peanuts.
The prosperity of Changjing Market is well-known far and wide. In this old street, people from all over the country come to buy necessities. Women buy oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, clothing, shoes and hats, and cosmetics. Men Buy hookah and old wine, hoes and rakes, coir raincoats and bamboo hats; everything from daily necessities to production tools. When we went there, this street had long lost its former prosperity, with only a few small restaurants still open. One of them is called "Old Hotel", facing the street and river, and the people in the restaurant will talk about the old days of the town. Of course, this old hotel on Shiban Street is still doing a prosperous business.
At the east end of Shiban Street is the 80-year-old Dafu Silkworm Breeding Farm. It has a huge courtyard, a building of the same color from the early Republic of China, and a two-story semi-open long... Building (including a semi-basement), all the buildings in the courtyard are connected by corridors, winding and scattered, with small courtyards scattered among them, which are deep and elegant. Although it is midsummer, there is still a cool breeze when walking into the breeding workshop. This was once the largest silkworm breeding farm in the south of the Yangtze River, with an annual output of more than 50,000 high-quality hybrid silkworm seeds, which were exported to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Xinjiang under the "Sailboat" brand.
Judging from the two maps of the ancient Silk Road on the wall, silkworm seeds, silk and silk were transported from the rivers, lakes and ports of the Jiangnan water town, through the Yangtze River and canals to Luoyang, Kaifeng, and then to Chang'an, out of the Western Regions, and all the way to the Western European continent.
Out of the gate of Dafu Silkworm Breeding Farm, facing the river is a declining ship wharf. Standing on the pier, I thought about the time when the Changjing River was connected to the Yangtze River. When the tide rose at the Yangtze River estuary, the river tide poured into the inland river. Especially at high tide, the river water surged into Changjing, like a hurricane coming from the west, and the river water rolled up thousands of piles of white snow. There is a poem that proves it: The water in Changjing has been long for thousands of years, and there is a tidal current below that connects Jiangpu. Morning and evening, spring and autumn, the divine fish jumps into the abyss. Suddenly a huge wind came from the west, boiling and angry as loud as snow.
Although the sound of the tide, the shadow of the sails and the bustle of the crowd have faded away, Changjing’s pioneering celebrity style is still spread by people. Shangguan Yunzhu, a generation of movie stars, was born on March 2, 1920, in an old brick-and-timber building on Shiban Street, which has now become the Shangguan Yunzhu Memorial Hall. It is on this narrow stone street that many celebrities have walked out, including Zhang Dayu, the founder of the "two bombs and one satellite", astronomer Shen Xuan, and isotope expert Zhang Ligang. Anti-Japanese strategist Bao Hansheng.
Growing up by the Jingshui River in Yiwan, the traces of history and the accumulation of culture impact your senses and stir your heart all the time, and you will spontaneously have a sense of The urge to collect, the beauty of history, culture, and the beauty of people immersed in history and culture, this is the beauty of Changjing. ”