Talk about "Hongjiang Ancient Mall"

With a baggage and an umbrella, you come to "Hongjiang" to become a boss - this is a saying that has been widely circulated in Hongjiang and surrounding areas for hundreds of years. The Hongjiang here is what Shen Congwen described as "Hongjiang is the center of Western Hunan...usually known as 'Little Chongqing'". It is now a famous tourist attraction "China's No. 1 Ancient Mall - Hongjiang Ancient Mall" .

During the Ming, Qing and Republic of China, tens of thousands of people, with their dreams and hopes, took boats from all directions along the Yuanjiang River system to join the Hongjiang River, set up businesses and start families, and do business for generations. Some people have become wealthy businessmen and big bosses, some people have become small bosses living a well-off life, and of course more of them are common people at the bottom. In any case, they created a myth. In the wild land of western Hunan, in the place of natural farming, with the convenience of waterways, they established a commercial center through the exchange of wood, tung oil (tung oil), cloth, and salt, leaving behind A big "living fossil" of the germination of capitalism.

The ancient shopping mall of Hongjiang is like a picture of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and is a specimen of China's modern industrial and commercial development. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was an important material distribution center in southwestern Hunan, guarding Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Hubei, and was known as the "thorough of the five provinces". At that time, "merchants were gathering in Hongjiang, goods and wealth were flowing, thousands of houses were lined up, and sails and boats were gathering in the clouds." During the Republic of China, 35% of the population in Hongjiang City was engaged in business, and its currency circulation was second only to Changsha in Hunan, making it the political, economic and cultural center of western Hunan.

The rise of commerce has driven the development of all walks of life in the ancient mall. In the ancient shopping city, there are guild halls, shops, banks, foreign banks, leasing bureaus, newspaper offices, escort agencies, shops, workshops, docks, theaters, temples, brothels, opium dens, etc. There are currently more than 380 buildings that carry these, such as cellar houses, covering an area of ??nearly 300,000 m2, and these are only 1/3 of the original ones. Those who started businesses were here, those who made fortunes were here, those who ate, drank and had fun were here, and those who lost both their lives and money were here. Tragedies and comedies in the world were staged every day.

Hundreds of years of commercial development have gradually formed Hongjiang’s unique “business culture”. As experts from the China Tourism Forum Expert Group said: “You cannot feel the origin and development of ancient Chinese commercial civilization without visiting the Hongjiang River.” Business concepts, couplets and warnings, and even the design of streets and buildings all contain rich business culture. For example, Liu Anqing Oil Company's "Benefit is beauty", Chen Rongxin Trading Company's "Suffering loss is blessing", Yang Sanfeng Trading Company's "Innocent Family", Flood Control General Administration's "Don't deceive God", "Be benevolent and righteous", and The couplets are engraved with the following words: "Being a step ahead in life and treating others with kindness is a blessing", "Creating a card is like ascending, destroying a card is like falling apart", "Righteousness is more important than gold", "Fish and dragon change", the outside is round and the inside is square. "Yifang abides by justice" and so on, all reflect the essence of the ancient shopping mall business culture.