There is a new neighbor in the old street

Xinhua News Agency, Guangzhou, July 18th: New neighbors are coming to the old street

Xinhua News Agency reporters Ding Mei, Wen Jinghua, Lei Dongrui

On a hot summer evening, reporters were in Pantang When I met Tuzan, a 73-year-old old street resident in the Wuyue Historical and Cultural District, he was sitting in the small courtyard surrounded by green plants by his new neighbor Zou Guangchao, drinking tea and chatting, laughing and laughing.

Pantang Wuyue, located in Liwan District, the old city of Guangzhou, has a long history of more than 900 years. It is one of the few traditional villages in the historical urban area of ​​Guangzhou that retains the complete Qing Dynasty pattern and typical Lingnan style. In the 1970s, Pantang Wuyue was still a piece of farmland. Because it failed to keep up with the pace of urbanization, it became a dilapidated urban village.

“The roads in the streets and alleys are bad, and the roof tiles are also bad. Many outside tenants and vendors pull carts and set up stalls to sell goods directly in the streets and alleys, making it very noisy and chaotic.” Recalling the past , all that came to Uncle Ji\’s mind were bad things.

But generations of ancestors have lived here since the Ming Dynasty. The strong nostalgia makes Ji Bo and the more than 100 old residents here reluctant to leave this area of ​​granite roads and blue brick houses.

The \”resurrection\” of Pantang Wuyue began in 2017. The Guangzhou Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Department has carried out minor renovations such as house repairs, street renovations, and greening improvements in the Wuyue Historical and Cultural District in Pantang, based on the concepts of \”repairing the old and making it old\” and \”building the new like the old.\”

“General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech on July 1st once again emphasized the people-centered development idea, which is what Guangzhou’s old city reconstruction has always followed. If historical and cultural buildings only emphasize protection, they will lose their vitality. Only by revitalizing these buildings and continuing people\’s lives in these spaces full of historical and cultural information can the city truly retain memories and let people remember their homesickness,\” said Jiang Weihui, a second-level researcher at the Liwan District Housing and Construction Bureau. .

Ji Bo discovered that the appearance of the streets and alleys had not changed, but the spirit was completely different. It turned out that the simple and beautiful Pantang Wuyue was back. What makes him even more happy is that a group of new neighbors have moved in to the old street.

Nowadays, there are more than 50 shops settled in Pantang Wuyue, mainly artists, craftsmen workshops, and youth art creation studios. Each store has been visited and inspected by the competent authority before settling in. Yang Wei, director of the Liwan District Cultural Tourism Development Center, said that the introduction of high-quality new business formats can not only create a business-friendly and livable cultural environment in Pantang, but also improve the quality of cultural life for the residents of the old city.

Walking in the alleys of Pantang Wuyue, you won’t see the same chain restaurants, snacks or bars. Instead, businesses are interspersed among private houses, and the two are integrated. Opening the sliding door is the antique Lefang Painting Academy. Sunlight shines through the colorful Manchurian windows into the avant-garde bookstore. Art, business and life coexist harmoniously here.

Axing, the owner of a small performance space, was worried that the evening performance would affect the surrounding neighbors, so he spent most of his investment on soundproofing equipment during the renovation and insisted that the performance end before 10 p.m. . The aunt next door always said: \”I watch TV until after 10 o\’clock every day, and it doesn\’t affect me at all.\”, don’t worry! ”

As the lead singer of a band, Zou Guangchao came to Pantang two summers ago and took a look and decided to move his green space here. The ruins of the past are now a green Lingnan. The style courtyard holds music sharing sessions, plant salons, lectures and other activities from time to time, and has become a spiritual oasis for many young people.

“When the weather is nice, we can do music sharing in the courtyard, and the window next to it is right. The aroma of someone else’s cooking wafts out. \”The many pyrotechnic moments in Pantang Old Street soothed Zou Guangchao\’s heart and nourished his musical inspiration.

It\’s not just Ah Xing and Zou Guangchao. In Pantang, the authentic Guangzhou Xiguan Culture and young entrepreneurs with new ideas attract each other, forming a multicultural ecosystem where tradition and modernity coexist. , performance spaces and other fashionable businesses have become the most popular places nearby, injecting a youthful temperament into the old city.

In Guangzhou, there are many micro-renovation projects in old urban areas such as Pantang Wuyue. Every place has its own style. In Yongqingfang, less than 3 kilometers away, an intangible cultural heritage street gathers 10 companies including Guangcai, Enamel, and Xingshi. The intangible cultural heritage master studio represents the cultural characteristics of the region, allowing intangible cultural heritage to be better inherited in historical and cultural districts.

According to reports, Guangzhou is carrying out a large-scale urban renewal operation, covering 83 areas in three years. Urban villages will be renovated, and 183 urban villages will be renovated within 5 years. The city’s historical culture will be better protected, developed and rejuvenated. New vitality.

As the sun sets, melodious singing comes from Zou Guangchao’s courtyard.

“The stream in the mountains flows slowly, don’t take that time with you. Go; look back on the road in the mountains, don’t take away all the stories…\”

The old neighborhood where the old and the new blend together is writing more stories. (End)