The “Misty Rain and Hongjiang River” Far from the Nighttime
Liao Tiecheng is “an old native in Hongjiang”. Having spent 50 years in his life, he is still lingering in his romantic life. He has decorated an old wooden house near the Yuanshui River with the popular LED lights and turned it into a fashionable Chinese and Western restaurant named “Sparkling Stars”.
The sunset glow on the river is his most anticipated moment of the day. At this time, the breeze of Yuanshui River feels fresh and smooth. People come out of their homes one after another, opening the prelude to the bustling night life, which is also the romantic beginning of “Sparkling Stars”.
“Hongjiang people are fond of the streets and the air here.” Photographer Huang Minwen raised the camera and began to record, “They walk in the street with extraordinary temperament and exquisite, especially for the women. It seems to deserve the reputation of the ‘Microcosm of Nanjing’.”
Hongjiang Ancient Shopping Mall Brilliantly Lit up
The junction of Wushui River and Yuanshui River in Hongjiang District became a historical material distribution center in southern Huaihua, western Shaoyang, eastern Guizhou, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei and other places. Local tung oil, wood, foreign porcelain and cloth were so abundant that they occupied the ships almost along the river. With merchants to come and go, guilds were set up one after another. It was so prosperous that it won the fame of “China’s First Ancient Shopping Mall”, “Microcosm of Nanjing”, and “Southwest Metropolis”.
However, at the end of the last century, with the development of the times, the progress of traffics and the decline of water transport, this millennium ancient mall could hardly find the hustle and bustle of bygone days. How could we bring yesterday once more? The problem deserves our refelection, especially for Hongjiang people.
Hongshang Cultural Museum Stepping up Construction
In recent years, Hongjiang District has enlivened the history and culture with “an embroidering attitude” to rejuvenate the old city with the micro-transformation mode with “the Party Committee leading, the government manipulating, the enterprise undertaking and the sociaty participating”.
“Different from the mode of demolition and reconstruction, our mode of micro-transformation is based on the premise that the original outline remains intact, and the building facade is updated, so that ‘old’ and ‘new’ are fully integrated,” on October 19, the relevant person in charge told the reporter.
The Archaic City Wall Restoring the Bygone Days of “Riverside Scenes during the Qingming Festival” in Hongjiang
With the aim at “making this old city more agreeable to modern people”, Hongjiang people combined Tianjun Theater, Xiangxiang Guild Hall, the newspaper office of the Republic of China and other symbols of nostalgia in the city to promote the creation of the window of foreign exchange for the ancient city with their practical actions.
Nowadays, a painting of “Misty Rain and Hongjiang River” becomes more and more visible.
It is reported that, with the cultural and tourism supporting facilities of Hongjiang Ancient Shopping Mall, “Misty Rain and Hongjiang River” covers an area of 90.94 mu, with a total construction area of about 80,000 square meters. It is planned by Wei Chunyu, Dean of the School of Architecture of Hunan University and chairman of Hunan Design Artists Association. It integrates cultural exhibitions, clubhouses and inns, featured shopping, restaurants and bars, restoring the dock culture of “merchants’ parallel collection, goods and wealth convergence”, and recreating the prosperous scene of Hongjiang in those days.
The first phase of the project includes Main Street, Michang Street and River Street. The main business forms of the main street are mainly cultural exhibitions and featured shopping. Michang Street is close to the main street, which is mainly a street for featured food. It is an area where snacks and interactive leisure businesses are most concentrated all over the country.The first floor of River Street is close to the river and is a gathering place for bars and leisure businesses. An immersive night tour of “Going into the Story of the Town Again” is held every week, and a series of activities of “Play in Hongjiang Ancient Shopping Mall” are held every month with different themes, attracting many tourists to visit and watch and participate.
“At present, Hongjiang District has basically completed the construction of 10 key projects, including “Misty Rain and Hongjiang River” Phase II, the performance theater for the opening ceremony of the city’s first tourism development conference, and the wharf of “A Generation of Hong Merchants”, on October 18, the relevant person in charge of Hongjiang District said.
At present, in combination with the “Misty Rain and Hongjiang River” project, the district has carefully selected 10 key projects of the conference represented by Hongshang culture, such as the Longevity Palace Wharf, the “Half Copper Coin” Theater, and the Hongshang Museum, to vigorously improve the software and hardware of Hongjiang District’s tourism. At the same time, there are 24 packaging integration projects, with a total investment of 2.44 billion yuan, to promote the upgrading of the hardware facilities of the region’s cultural and tourism industry.
At the beginning of this year, the TV drama “A Generation of Hong Merchants” came to be on show. The play takes Hongjiang Oil as the main line, which not only shows the glory of the oil, but also shows the cultural character and family attachments of Chinese businessmen. Many people came to Hongjiang for sightseeing merely for their appreciation of this play.
“A Generation of Hong Merchants shows the hardships of Hong Merchants’ entrepreneurship, and the feelings and appeal of Liu Yunxiang in the play remind me of my days in the past.” Growing up in Hongjiang, influenced by his father’s entrepreneurial spirit and Hongjiang’s business culture, Qu Yutian resolutely gave up his job with an annual salary of one million yuan and returned home to start his own business.
Now, Qu Yutian is the General Manager of Huaihua Hongjiang Yihong Trade Development Co., Ltd. and the founder of “Qianyang” and “Yihong” brands. She told reporters that as a new generation of Hong Kong merchants, she hoped that she could also encourage more people to start businesses and seek their fortunes, and promote rural revitalization.
In Chuanshan Village across the river from Hongjiang Ancient Shopping Mall, Zhang Lizheng, the “post-80s” village secretary, led the masses to develop Paibang cuisine based on Yuanshui culture, and opened a “Yifang Shuitu” shop in the ancient shopping mall to facilitate local specialties in Hongjiang District to go global through this window.
She used the Internet to gather 15 villages in the area to creatively design a digital village platform. Through small programs, APP and other communications, she realized the online communication of village features and local specialties, interaction with consumers and e-commerce sales. According to the analysis of the insiders, in the future, more and more goods from Hongjiang District will reach the world through Hongshang.
When night falls, the misty rain and Hongjiang Street near Yuanshui River is brilliantly lit up. People come from all directions to immerse themselves in this bustling ancient street. The night breeze blows gently, and the smell of this world’s life comes into the air from time to time.
The open-air bar in the 1915 square opened online live broadcast. The Na Night Bar and Panda Bar are entirely occupied. The Beer and Lobster, Barbecue String, and Sparkling Stars Snacks in the River Street all appeared. The Guest Rooms of Huizhou Guild Hall, Xiangxiang Guild Hall, Yanyu Hongcheng, and Shishui Nianhua were incredibly full.
Groups of addicts for archaic styles put on their favorite han Chinese costumes and revel in the dazzling night. The city near the Yuanshui River is already the “Riverside Scene on Qingming Festival” in the night of Jiangnan.
Tourists Lingering about on the Delicacies Street
In July, Hongjiang Ancient Shopping Mall was rated as a national night culture and tourism consumption cluster. From January to September, Hongjiang District received 3.4322 million person times of tourism and realized 1.285 billion yuan of tourism revenue, up 27.2% and 38.2% year on year respectively.
In May this year, the district successfully applied for the first Huaihua Eco-cultural Tourism Industry Development Conference. The District Working Committee and District Management Committee attached great importance to it and promoted it at a high level, and did everything possible to promote the high-quality leapfrog development of the cultural tourism industry. After five months of hard work, the cultural and tourism commercial complex of Hongjiang Ancient Shopping Mall has been basically completed. The Hongshang Cultural Museum has completed the collection and exhibition of related cultural relics, and the construction of the main venue for the opening ceremony has entered the final stage.
Hongjiang Ancient Shopping Mall, a new star of culture and tourism, is emerging, attracting the attention of the outside world.
On a sunny day, Zou Zongde, one of the “Seven Masters of Hunan Couplets”, set foot on this beautiful land in Hongjiang District and wrote passionately: “Go back thousands of years, if you meet the ancients, ask how the wealth gathered up and then spread away; come now with the scenery of the mountains everywhere, which is like a new history witnessing how prosperity declined and how it was reborn.”
People in Hongjiang District are turning pages of new history. The content is rich and thick, and there is still much to fill in.
(Translated by Tian Xia)