China News Service, Shaoxing, March 8 (Xiang Jing) The weather is fine. Along the bluestone road in Anchang Ancient Town, Keqiao District, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, old shops along the river are lined up row after row, offering authentic delicacies such as sausages and white sugar. Arch Bridge Shiliang and Taimen lanes are criss-crossed, and small boats on the river occasionally carry passengers to enjoy the scenery on both sides of the river.
Food, beautiful scenery, and floating tourists make up the most beautiful picture of this Jiangnan ancient town.
Tourists check in to Anchang Ancient Town.
Photo courtesy of Anchang Street
“Blue water runs through the streets for thousands of people, and rainbows cross the river on seventeen bridges.” This refers to Anchang Ancient Town.
Anchang Street, where Anchang Ancient Town is located, is located on the south bank of Hangzhou Bay. With the acceleration of new urbanization construction across the country, the town has ushered in a new round of development opportunities.
As the inheritance place of water culture, sauce culture and Shiye culture, the local people regard "cultural town" as an important path for high-quality development.
Among them, the famous sauce products at home and abroad are a "golden business card" of the local area.
Touring the ancient town, tasting cured meats, rowing a black-topped boat... During the Spring Festival that just passed, the ancient town of Anchang, which "brings its own traffic", ushered in another highlight moment, and the scenic spot repeatedly issued "traffic restriction" news.
In view of the unique Jiangnan water town customs, Pavel's family of four from Russia tasted Jiangnan New Year customs and experienced the first authentic Chinese New Year flavor.
"The Chinese Spring Festival is not something that stays in books, but something that can be touched, felt, and experienced." After immersing himself in the customs of the thousand-year-old town, Pavel said bluntly in an interview, "In the ancient town of Anchang, you can see the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River in China. style".
Anchang Ancient Town was first built in the Northern Song Dynasty and rebuilt in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Today, every household still lives near the water, and the traditional custom of producing and selling "sauce" and "cured meat" has continued for thousands of years.
The long water culture gave birth to the authentic sauce culture. Especially during the Chinese New Year, every household will hand-make sauce meat and sausages and dry them on the streets along the river and in front of their homes, attracting batches of tourists.
A scene in the ancient town of Anchang.
Photo by Xiang Jing
Hu Lihong, the proprietress of the 15-year-old shop "Ahong Sausage", and her husband Hu Guoqing are a couple who returned to their hometown to start a business. They are also local sages who have inherited and developed the sauce culture in Anchang Ancient Town.
Hu Lihong said in a recent interview that her husband once focused on textile foreign trade. Because he was good at making sausages and saw the development prospects of the ancient town, the two returned to their hometown to open a sausage shop.
Purchasing pork, seasoning and enema, drying, packaging and shipping... In recent years, the couple's hard work has not only made their own shop prosperous, but also inspired surrounding people to join the "sauce" business.
"There are many sausage shops in the ancient town, and everyone will exchange experiences with each other. We hope that the popularity will become more and more popular and the business will get better and better." Hu Lihong said.
According to the relevant person in charge of Anchang Street, in order to expand the influence of sauce culture and promote the high-quality development of the sauce products industry, the local area uses the "festival economy" to release industrial dividends. For example, the Anchang Ancient Town Lunar Festival Festival has been held for 25 consecutive years. In keeping with integrity and innovation In order to inherit the New Year flavor culture; hold the sauce opening ceremony of the twelfth lunar month in Anchang Ancient Town, the second "Anchang Golden Sauce" traditional sauce product hand-making competition, etc.
According to statistics, there are now more than 330 local soy sauce-related production enterprises, small workshops, and distribution operators.
In 2023, the output value of Anchang sauce products industry will reach 360 million yuan.
Anchang scenery.
Photo courtesy of Anchang Street
As sauce products become more and more "out of the circle", the pace of integration of culture and tourism in Anchang Ancient Town is also accelerating.
In 2023, Anchang Ancient Town received a total of 4 million tourists, a record high. It was also selected as a demonstration case for historical and cultural protection and inheritance by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and won honors such as Zhejiang Provincial Characteristic Commercial District.
In addition, the local area has established a headquarters for the protection, development and construction of Anchang Ancient Town in Keqiao District to launch a new round of "New Residents in Ancient Towns" theme planning to integrate the ancient town and residents and promote the upgrading of the millennium ancient town.
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