Xinhua News Agency, Guangzhou, July 18th, report title: New neighbors in the old street
Xinhua News Agency reporters Ding Mei, Wen Jinghua, Lei Dongrui
On a hot summer evening, when the reporter met the 73-year-old Laojie resident Ji Tuzan in the Wuyue Historical and Cultural District of Pantang, he was sitting in a small courtyard surrounded by green plants by his new neighbor Zou Guangchao, drinking tea and chatting, cheering and laughing.
Located in the Liwan District of Guangzhou’s old city, Pantang Wuyue has a long history of more than 900 years. It is one of the few traditional villages in Guangzhou’s historical city that retains the complete Qing Dynasty pattern and typical Lingnan style.
In the 1970s, Pantang Wuyue was still a piece of farmland. Because it did not keep up with the pace of urbanization, it became a dilapidated urban village.
"The roads in the streets are rotten, and the roof tiles are rotten. Many foreign tenants and hawkers pull carts and set up stalls to sell goods in the streets and alleys. It is very noisy and chaotic." Memories of the past, floating in Ji Bo's heart, all It's a mess.
But the ancestors have lived here since the Ming Dynasty, and the strong nostalgia makes Ji Bo and the more than 100 old residents here reluctant to leave this stone road and blue brick house.
The "resurrection" of the Pantang Five Treaties began in 2017.
Based on the concept of "repairing the old and building the old" and "building the new as before", the Guangzhou Housing and Urban-rural Construction Department carried out house renovations, street renovations, and greening upgrades in the Pantang Wuyue historical and cultural block.
"General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech on July 1st again emphasized the people-centered development idea, which is what the old city transformation of Guangzhou has always followed. If historical and cultural buildings only emphasize protection, they will lose their vitality. Only to activate these buildings Get up, continue people's lives in these spaces full of historical and cultural information, so that the city can truly retain memories and let people remember homesickness." said Jiang Weihui, a second-level researcher of the Housing and Construction Bureau of Liwan District.
Uncle Ji found that the appearance of the streets has not changed, but the spirit is very different. The original quaint and beautiful Pantang Wuyue is back.
What makes him even more happy is that a group of new neighbors have moved in from Old Street.
Today, there are more than 50 shops in Pantang Wuyue, mainly artists, artisan workshops, and youth art creation studios. Each of them has been visited and inspected by the competent unit before moving in.
Yang Wei, director of the Liwan District Cultural Tourism Development Center, said that the introduction of high-quality new business formats will not only enable Pantang to form a humane environment suitable for business and living, but also improve the quality of cultural life for residents in the old city.
Strolling in the alleys of Pantang Wuyue, you can't see the same chain restaurants and snacks or bars, but merchants are interspersed in the houses, and the two are integrated.
Open the door to the door is the quaint Lefang Painting Academy. The sun shines through the colorful Manchurian windows into the avant-garde bookstore, where art, commerce and life coexist harmoniously.
A Xing, the owner of a small performance space, was worried that the performances at night would affect the neighbors around him. During the renovation, he spent the main investment on soundproofing equipment, and insisted that the performances end before 10 o'clock in the evening.
The aunt next door always said: "I watch TV until 10 o'clock every day, it has no effect at all, don't worry!"
As the lead singer of a band, Zou Guangchao visited Pantang two years ago in the summer and decided to move his planting space here.
What used to be ruined walls is now a small courtyard full of green Lingnan style. Music sharing sessions, plant salons, lectures and other activities are held from time to time, which has become a spiritual oasis for many young people.
"When the weather is good, when you share music in the yard, the smell of cooking from other people's homes will waft from the side windows." Many moments full of fireworks on Pantang Old Street comforted Zou Guangchao's heart and nourished his music. inspiration.
It's not just A Xing and Zou Guangchao.
In Pantang, the original Guangzhou Xiguan culture and young entrepreneurs with new ideas are attracted to each other, forming a multicultural ecology in which tradition and modernity coexist and coexist.
Fashionable businesses such as bookstore backpacker station and performance space have become the most popular places nearby, injecting youthfulness into the old city.
In Guangzhou, there are many micro-reconstruction projects in old urban areas like Pantang Wuyue, each with its own style.
In Yongqingfang, less than 3 kilometers away, an intangible cultural heritage street gathered 10 intangible cultural heritage studios representing regional cultural characteristics, including Guangcai, enamel, and lion dance, making the intangible cultural heritage better in the historical and cultural district. inherited.
According to reports, Guangzhou is carrying out a large-scale urban renewal operation, transforming 83 urban villages within 3 years, and promoting the transformation of 183 urban villages within 5 years.
The history and culture of the city will be better protected and developed, radiating new vitality.
The sun set, and there was a melodious singing in Zou Guangchao's small courtyard.
"The water in the mountains flows slowly, don't take away the light at that time; the road in the mountains, you look back, don't take away all the stories..."
More stories are being written in the old neighborhood where the old and the new blend.