A Journey to the Old City Gates

□ Written by Yang Yan Photo by Ma Yanyan

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A Journey to the Old City Gates

□ Written by Yang Yan Photo by Ma Yanyan

Not all cities are suitable for taking a walk, but Chongqing, an exception, is suitable for walking.Because of its mountainous terrain and the high-rise buildings,Chongqing is a tridimensional city with special scaled streets and rich history. It is the unusual terrain that contributes to the unique architectural form. Wandering is just the best way to measuring the contour of the whole city.

When we wander around the city along the winding path without turning back, we are able to communicate with the buildings, people and the passing vehicles through our body. Inadvertently, we pass by a century-old house, looking at the stains and marks, and then all the imagination and memory about it come to our mind. The old architectures are beautiful not only because its eroded “style” with time passing by, but also people’s experience living in the old houses. Appreciating the old city is the aim of this journey.

Walking in Chongqing, the places we visiting are not always the popular scenic spots but they do show us the historical accumulation and excellent landscape of the city. “Wandering in the city”, we aim at experiencing its original taste and f avor.

Walking route:

T ongyuan Gate - S hibati - Cr ude Medicine Association - Bu Feng Residence - Taiping Gate - Wa nglong men-Dongshuimen- Huguang Guild

Tongyuan Gate: the fortress to defend the city

There are total 17 gates in ancient city of C hongqing, named “nine open, eight closed”, but after the vicissitudes of hundreds of years, there is not much left. The elder Chongqing citizens said that they regarded entering the Tongyuan Gate as“going into town” and called the areas outside the city suburb at that time.

In the past, it experienced several wars and numerous warriors were buried at i ts feet. According to t he historical records, Zhang Xianzhong led the insurrectionary army to attack the Chongqing city defended by soldiers during late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Even commanding army of 600 thousand, ten times more than the defenders, it’s still hard for Zhang Xianzhong to at tack from the front. For this reason, he had no choice but to make a detour to Jiangjin District, reached Caiyuanba, and f nally sealed off Fotu Pass, the only escape routine for Ming soldiers. At the time, the area ranging from Fotu Pass to Tong Yuan Gate was a piece of rugged cemetery hills and it’s difficult for infantry to c ombat. The infantry and the army by boat joined forces in Chongqing and declared the main war at Tongyuan Gate. After six-day fierce fight, Zhang Xianzhong gave orders to dig tunnels to bury gunpowder and exploded the Tongyuan Gate; finally they entered the city. A group of great bronze anaglyph on the city wall represented the scene of Zhang Xianzhong attacking Chongqing city.

Shibati: a place for civil life

Walking in the direction of J iaochangkou to S hibati, it is an old street leading to l ower urban area. The winding stone stairs is an old street linking prosperous commercial zone and the old city area near river. Buildings around are mainly stilted buildings and buildings of we stern colonial style of t he 20th century.

It was like a “slum” of the bustling city, but when strolling, you feel like going back to 1980s. In the past, there were hundreds of immigrants who mainly made a living by ear cleaning service, pedicure, woodworking, tailoring, selling baked wheat cake, playing Mahjong, manual porting and so on, which made the old street a place for civil life and drew a picture of t he daily life of Chongqing people. Shibati ref ected the past life of Chongqing people, but now, most people move out and the lower urban area return to s ilence. Going past these old buildings, the life in the past is still in our mind, but we also look forward to its great change in the future.

Crude Medicine Association: the distributing center of crude medicine

Wandering among the old buildings, you will see a house built of black bricks in both Chinese and Western styles; that is the former site of Crude Medicine Association, which located at Yangziba, Chuqimen in Yuzhong District. Viewed afar, it has carved beams and painted rafters. In those days, Yangziba was always the distributing place of forest products and medicines.

People involved in medicine industry formed a variety of factions and groups. There were seven factions, namely the Lin Faction of J iangxi, Guang Faction of G uangdong, Hankou Faction of H ubei, Chuan Faction of Sichuan, etc., which were collectively known as “Medicine Seven Factions”. Among them, the Chuan Faction centered at Chuqimen was counted as the leader. In June of 1926, in order to know market conditions of each other and protect the common interests of m edicine factions, the merchants officially set up the Chongqing medicine trade council at Chuqimen and built an off ce building. Just as the saying goes, where there is a f action there is a society; where there is a society there are disputes; and where there are disputes there are vicissitudes. Standing at the feet of the old house, it seems that you can feel the changes that the old house has been through.

Bu Feng Residence: lighting up the f rst electric lamp in Chongqing

Walking along the Baixiang Street, a m ottled building at the street corner with wood window lattice comes into view; the marks engraved on the stone door read “Bu Feng Residence”. There is a story about this door which is almost forgotten and the hero of it is Li Yaoting, the “richest man in southwest China”in late Qing Dynasty.

Bu Feng Residence belonged to Li Yaoting. Covered by the shade of high f cus virens, this building was facing north, the Yangtze River. The three f oors on the front and four f oors on the back look well-spaced. The whole building is like a ship. It was made of bricks, wood and grey tiles, combined the Chinese and western architectural styles and had arched wall corners, which was particularly rare when Chongqing opened as a c ommercial port. The f rst electric lamp was lighted up in this building. In 1906 A.D., the 32ndyear of Emperor Guangxu’s reign in the Qing Dynasty, Liu Peigao, a s quire of B axian County, installed a direct-current generator of 100 kw at Taiping Gate and f rst supplied power to others It was the 70th birthday of Li Yaoting, and at the night 50 electric lamps were lighted up together in Bu Feng Residence, which was a hit in Chongqing.

According to t he records in History of Economy in Yuzhong District, Li Yaoting was born in a poor family. At f rst, he transported Yunnan tea leaves and crude opium to Sichuan and sold it, then carried salt of Sichuan to Yunnan; later, he run a business bank, a branch of Tianshunxiang. By the early 20th century, Tianshunxiang opened branches nationwide and set up organizations in Hongkong and Hai Phong in Vietnam; f nally Tianshunxiang became the leader in Chongqing business banks. On base of this, Li Yaoting, known as “the richest man in southwest China”, gradually established Shunchang Company, Xinji native bank, and many industrial corporations involved in electric lamps, silk, steamship and so on, further his reputation among people of all walks of life increased day by day.