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Since Fenghuang, Xitang and other ancient towns became popular on the Internet, ancient town tourism projects have become more and more popular. During the Golden Week, those quaint bluestone streets were gradually congested.

Everyone goes to the ancient town for different reasons. Some people want to escape from the fast-paced city life, while others want to feel the charm of history. However, once I really set foot on the land of Eden, my dream collapsed instantly.

The population density of ancient towns is even greater than that of cities!

In the past, in order to have a look at the Border Town written by Shen Congwen, I rushed to Phoenix, only to be blocked on a narrow arch bridge. At night, the gurgling stream reflects the bright lights of shops on both sides of the strait, like the milky way in the sky flowing into the stream, which is beautiful and always lacks that tranquility and nature.

In fact, if you can go to a little-known antique town, listen to the local old people telling history and reminisce about the lost time with the breeze, it will really be a very pleasant thing.

0 1 Hengmian was once the trade hub of Shanghai and one of the towns of Pudong 18.

In Shanghai, where the market is like a sky, there is actually an ancient town that has been low-key for thousands of years-Hengmian.

According to historical records, Hengmian area was formed from the late Tang Dynasty to the late Jin Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, with a history of more than 1 100 years. Because the terrain is like a disk, it is also called "Jimsky disk". In the Yuan Dynasty, it was renamed "Luxi" because there were many waters and streams were often full.

The name "Heng Mian" began in the Ming Dynasty. It is said that the Mian River passing through the town is shaped like a flagpole, and there is a two-part allegorical saying that "the flagpole falls-Heng Mian", hence the name.

In the era when transportation was dominated by waterways, because of its criss-crossing waterways, Hengmian had frequent trade with other places, and gradually became an important commodity distribution center in Chuansha and Nanhui, also known as "one of the 18 towns in Pudong".

There are many shops in the street, including oil mills, cotton stalls, department stores, flour shops, restaurants and pawn shops ... large and small 100. There are even two "small steamboats" that travel to and from Shanghai every day, and cargo ships come and go frequently. Folk arts such as silk and bamboo, pipa, shadow play and storytelling are widely circulated.

"Hutong Garden": A Centennial Yiyuan Garden

Yiyuan Garden, also known as "Chenjiayuan", covers an area of 2 hectares and is located in the east of Hengmian Town. There are different opinions about its construction, but they are all related to the history of Hengmian people.

* Old photos

Some people say that Chen is the housekeeper and adopted son of Jewish real estate tycoon Hatton. He built a garden behind Harbin Garden and named it after his nickname Yibin. It is said that Harbin invited Chen to choose a site for construction, but later, because his wife suspected that the surrounding environment was not good, he gave it to Chen to live in.

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However, it has already become the second mental health center of Shanghai civil affairs and is not open to the outside world.

It is said that Yiyuan Garden is famous for its strange stones, ancient trees and landscapes. There are pavilions, lakes, mountains and flowers in the garden, and the scenery is infinite. Five-colored stones and porcelain tiles are laid on the ground, with auspicious patterns such as "Feng Dan facing the sun", "Kirin sending the son" and "Songhe prolonging the year".

There are also Lingbi Stone and Ruiyunfeng in the park, which are the treasures of the town garden-lead-filled white marble tablets. There are small holes drilled in the inscription, which are filled with lead water. This technology is very rare.

Forgetting gradually fades under the washing of time.

Later, due to the increasingly developed land transportation, water transportation was gradually replaced, and the Hengmian (township) government moved to Hengmian New City, two kilometers away. The old street of Hengmian declined year by year, and no one cared about it.

Naturally, young people who leave their homes rarely come back, and the aborigines in the old streets are gradually left with only ancient and rare old people. The long streets are silent, and the old houses stand quietly in time, and few people hear them. Only when cooking at noon, sparse kitchen smoke will float from the roof.

When the weather is fine, the old people will take out the bedding to dry. The old mattress was placed on the opposite side of the bridge, flapping gently in the sun, and tiny dust flew out, waving it at will, and turned back to the house.

Occasionally, the kitten will pass by the roof, wagging its tail, as if patrolling its own territory.

The once prosperous trading hub, Hengmian, has fallen into silence day after day, and it is difficult to see the lively street scene again.

Due to disrepair, Hengmian has become increasingly marginalized, depressed and dilapidated, and has gradually been forgotten by the new generation in Shanghai. ...

A single spark can start a prairie fire.

However, the appearance of Disney Resort awakens the deep sleep.

In the 13th Five-Year Plan of Shanghai International Tourism Resort, Hengmian was included in the protection and development plan. The transformation of the western area of the resort focuses on the ecological demonstration area with Hengmian ancient town as the core, which integrates ecological conservation, ancient town leisure, cultural experience, ecological human settlement and country recreation, and will complement Disneyland.

The houses in Hengmian Old Street are all double-decked, with people living upstairs and shops downstairs. There are lines of slogans painted on the door of the shop, but now they are all mottled.

At the corner of Zhong Street, the word "barbershop" is written on the wall on the right hand side with charcoal pen, which is quite casual and has a market atmosphere in some dramas of the Republic of China.

According to people in the town, it used to be "Xiao Li Barber Shop", and now the boss is an old man who has helped his neighbors to repair their beards for nearly 47 years.

I usually like to keep myself clean and fresh, even my shoes are polished. The red light radio in the shop plays Shanghai Opera all the year round. Whenever a guest comes, he will greet people with a smile in front of the rusty old square mirror. The operation of the razor is quite sophisticated.

"He has good craftsmanship and low price. He washes his hair, cuts his hair and shaves, and he only needs 7 yuan. " People in the town praised. However, this once-popular "Internet Celebrity Barber Shop" is now closed, and there are no cats meowing.

There is also a dental shop with wooden signs. The signs hanging on the wall are very dangerous. The city wall was devastated, and some lime walls fell off, revealing uneven bluestone wall tiles.

Looking through the locked window of the old house, the furniture is already empty, and only the calendar that has not been removed from the wall shows the traces of the owner's life.

Turning left is a low wooden arch bridge, which spans both banks. I don't know when it was built, but just looking at the lines on the surface, it seems that it has really experienced some wind and frost.

Walking up the steps, you can see the dilapidated houses that extend far away along the river bank line. Some tiles on the low roof have fallen off, and the broken asbestos tiles are hanging low.

The breeze caressed, the waves rippled, and the floating grass on the river rippled, and time suddenly became slow and long. It turns out that the heaviness of the years will also present a different kind of beauty.

The dusty two-story building in the distance has obviously been abandoned for a long time, and Shimada Hanzo has added a rare mystery to the lush high weeds.

In the former site of the town government, the locked iron gate is rusty, so fragile that it can be easily broken. broken walls is everywhere, but all kinds of nameless green plants grow extremely tenaciously.

Maybe I was in a hurry when I moved out. The lonely little yellow car was left on the side of the road and appeared at the same time as those old things. There is a sense of consternation that dreams and reality overlap.

Postscript countdown to reconstruction, looking forward to witnessing the rebirth of Hengmian.

Inquired about the development information of the lower horizontal plane, some old buildings will be preserved and some dangerous buildings will be rebuilt.

On the basis of sorting out, restoring and renovating historical relics and intangible cultural heritage, we will dig deep into the historical and cultural connotation of Hengmian ancient town and create a cultural and leisure ancient town with characteristics, quality and charm.

In a few days, Hengmian Old Street, which bears the memory of several generations, will return with a brand-new look. At that time, we will walk into this historical ancient town that has been baptized by years, feel the passage of time, and record the rebirth of Hengmian again with the lens in our hands!