What kind of experience is it to walk through the labyrinth-like century-old streets and alleys with small wooden windows and exquisite brick carvings?
In the center of Linxia City, Gansu Province, there is a labyrinth of ancient streets and alleys, where you can see unique folk museums every few steps.
There are no locals to guide the way, but it is easy to get lost. This is Bafang Shisanxiang, and it is also one of the must-see tourist places in the coming summer.
What is Eight Lanes and Thirteen Alleys?
Since the Tang Dynasty, merchants of the Hui nationality have gathered here, and 8 temples have been built successively. The people live around the temples, and there are 13 lanes, hence the name.
Linxia is known as "a city painted on green bricks". The most eye-catching thing in the streets and alleys is the exquisite and complicated brick carvings all over the walls.
Eight years ago, Bafang Shisanxiang was a typical "urban village". Within an area of 0.41 square kilometers, nearly 10,000 people of various ethnic groups lived, and nearly half of them were urban low-income households.
The streets are bumpy and the houses are crumbling...
Today, on the premise of keeping the original overall pattern of the block unchanged, cultural theme transformation has been carried out to form folk museums, handicraft museums, Hezhou Academy and other courtyards, and more than ten ancient residential courtyards have been repaired and protected.
Residents who grew up here have witnessed the changes at their door step.
So how do you navigate this labyrinth of alleys?
What historical stories are hidden in the alley?
How do the residents who grew up here describe the changes in the appearance of their homes?
Today, Xiaoxin opens his legs for everyone, let's go shopping together.
(Reporter Gao Ying)
Responsible editor: [Luo Pan]