Qianmen Avenue is located on the central axis of Beijing, from Qianmen Moon Bay in the north to Zhushikou in the south, with a total length of 840 meters, and was called Zhengyangmen Avenue during the Ming and Qing dynasties to the Republic of China. In 1965, it was officially named Qianmen Street.
Since the expansion of the outer city in the Ming Dynasty, Qianmen Avenue has become a place of land and gold in Beijing, where people come and go, merchants gather, and lively for hundreds of years. Someone described the prosperity of the qianmen business as follows: "The five colors are confused and blind, and the goods are lined up in all directions." The sky is clear and obscure, and the narrow road is followed by people. In the "Yanjing Miscellaneous Records", the commercial scene of Beijing is described as follows: "Jingshidian City, Su talks about the situation, carved red carved cui, Jin window township households, signboards to the high three zhang. At night, the lights are lit, and dozens of sand cage horn lamps shine like daylight. It is particularly outstanding in the East Fourth Arch Building and the Dashilar Of Zhengyang Gate. "Old Beijing has a slip of the tongue, called: East Four West Single Drum Tower Front. In the old days, these places were bustling commercial areas with tourists, and the most prosperous of them was Qianmen Street.
Zhengyang Gate Arrow Tower and Urn City. Fang Yan painted
The reason why Qianmen can become the most prosperous street in Beijing is inseparable from its important geographical location, historical development, objective environment, transportation and various factors. Since the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, a paved "corridor house" was built outside the front door. In the first year of Yongle (1403), the Ming government relocated wealthy merchants from Zhejiang, Suzhou and other places to settle here. In the twenty-third year of Jiajing (1553), the outer city was built in the south of Beijing, and after the goods transported through the Grand Canal arrived at the Tongzhou wharf, most of the goods were transferred here for distribution, and merchants from all over the world were recruited to settle in the south city, and stalls and markets appeared, and finally formed the Qianmen Commercial District, creating the prosperity of Qianmen Street.
Old Beijing Qianmen Street. Fang Yan painted
The Qing Dynasty scholar Yu Qingyuan once described the prosperity and bustle of Qianmen Avenue in the "Chunming Cong tan": "Zhushikou was the chong of the Zhengyang Gate, counting two or three miles before and after, all of them were yin merchants and giants, and set up a city to open a city." Where gold and silver jewelry and food goods are piled up, wine and song houses, cheers and drinks, and the sun is endless. It can be seen that turning around Qianmen Avenue can meet the needs of shopping, catering and entertainment. Not to mention the "gemdale" fence on Qianmen Street, only fresh fish mouths, cloth alleys, and long-established shops in Meat Market Street are enough for you to visit for a while.
In 2008, the renovated Qianmen Street was officially opened. Customers line up to shop in front of the Yuesheng Zhai gate on Qianmen Avenue.
Yuesheng Zhai, an old shop with a history of more than 200 years, can be found after five arches to the west of South Road. It was moved here from Hubu Street in 1950 due to the renovation of Tiananmen Square. Just like its shop name "Yue Yue Xingsheng", the five-spice sauce lamb of YueSheng Zhai has been marketed throughout the country as early as the Qing Jiaqing period, and even Cixi has been famous for eating the sauce lamb here. In order to facilitate the delivery of meat to the palace, in the twelfth year of Guangxu (1886), four waist plates were specially issued to Yuesheng zhai. Tourists from other places who come to Beijing can't forget to bring a box of sauce meat with the moon festival when they return. The name of The Moon Festival is also found in various documents. In the "Miscellaneous Records of the Dynasty and the Wild Since Daoxian", it is written: "Zhengyang Gate Street Road Dongyue Shengzhai made of spiced mutton is the first in Beiping, the foreign port is widely sold, and the price is also incomparable." In the "Dumen Jiluo" during the Tongzhi period, the mutton sauce of the moon shengzhai was also highly appreciated, and he wrote a poem praising: "Feed the sheep fat and tender number of Beijing, the sauce is boiled red with clear soup color; the sun and noon are burnt and rotten, and the throat is tasteless and greasy." ”
Along the west side of the road and further south, there is a dragon mutton restaurant, built in the fifty years of the Qianlong Dynasty (1785), the boss hopes that business will be prosperous and everything will go well, so he named it "Nan Hengshun". Legend has it that one day in the spring of the twenty-third year of Guangxu (1897), two people came to the shop after eating but had no money to pay the bill, and the treasurer said to the two of them: "Nothing, you two please go to the toilet, when it is convenient to bring it." "The next day, a small eunuch sent the money, and at this time everyone knew that it was the Guangxu Emperor who came to the shop yesterday to eat. Nan Hengshun quickly offered the square stool that Guangxu had sat on as a "throne", and before long, the news that the emperor had eaten in Nan Hengshun spread in the capital, and the business in the shop was more prosperous. Later, people changed the name of Nan Hengshun to "a dragon".
Luxi also has a long-established shop is the Qianmen Sheng Xifu hat shop, which opened in the 26th year of the Republic of China (1937), when some famous hat shops operated old-fashioned hats, and Sheng Xifu operated a new four-season hat, such as Panamanian straw hat, American tweed hat, Western-style women's felt hat, forward hat and so on. Fashionable avant-garde style, meticulous selection of materials and workmanship, and courteous hospitality make this store full of customers every day.
From the Wupailou along the Qianmen Avenue Road east to the south, there is a Qinglin Chun Tea Village, which is the third store opened in Beijing by Lin Zixun, a Fujianese, in 1927. The name of this shop is quite knowledgeable, which can be explained as "the tea house that celebrates Lin Zixun flourishes like everything in spring.". Qinglinchun's tea leaves pay attention to the color is light, mellow, there is staying power, the packaging of tea is also different, each tea bag paper is printed with the words "QinglinChun Tea House, Qianmen Avenue Road East, Red and Green Flower Tea" for advertising. Not only that, but this shop also has two or three "out-of-the-box" salesmen, carrying a variety of small packages of tea leaves to sell in tea houses, bathhouses, theater gardens, and restaurants. It is precisely because of its good location, complete goods, good prices, coupled with a unique way of operation, so as soon as it opened, the business was very prosperous, becoming a number of famous tea houses in Beijing. Today, the jasmine leaf flower tea specially made by QinglinChun Tea House is still loved by Beijingers and has been included in the list of intangible cultural heritage at the Dongcheng District level.
During the Republic of China, on Qianmen Street, tongsanyi dried fresh fruit bureau.
Further south, Tong Sanyi, which is famous at home and abroad for selling secret autumn pear paste, will arrive. It was founded in the 20th year of Qing Jiaqing (1815) and is a long-established old beijing family with three doors. Because it is the semicolon of Tongzhou Sanyi Zhennan Goods Store, it is named Tongsanyi. The most famous thing about Tong Sanyi is the "Drunken Autumn Pear Cream" made by this shop according to the secret recipe of the Qing Dynasty palace, which is now called "Qingsong Autumn Pear Paste".
At the intersection of the south side of Tongsanyi, you can see the century-old quanjude located in the meat market, which was founded in the third year of Qing Tongzhi (1864). Quanjude implies the character Quanren of founder Yang Shoushan, which means "with Quanjude, the source of wealth is luxuriant". Because there was no word roast duck in the Qing Dynasty, it was called roast duck at that time, so Quanjude was called Roast Duck Shop when it was born, and because its roast duck was made by hanging oven, it was also called hanging stove shop. In 1964, a building was built in front of the shops in MeatShi Hutong, and a sky bridge was built between the old and new buildings to expand the operating area.
Further south, there is a well-known roasted wheat restaurant, which is also famous for the emperor's patronage. Duyi was opened in the third year of Qianlong (1738) and has a history of 283 years. According to legend, in the seventeenth year of Qianlong (1752), Chinese New Year's Eve, in the middle of the night, a "big man" rose on a whim, led two attendants, disguised himself, concealed his family, and quietly came to the main street of Beijing. He wanted to come out to find a lively, did not want all the shops to be closed, only a small restaurant with the banner of "Li Ji" in front of the door also heard the shouting of the shop xiao er, so he went into the store and sat down, asked for a few small dishes, felt very tasty, asked the guy: "What is the name of the hotel?" The guy replied, "The little shop is not named." After listening, this person looked around, listened to the sound of firecrackers outside, and said with great emotion: "At this time, the door is still open, kyoto is the only place for you, let's call it 'all one place'!" No one in the shop paid much attention to this matter, but suddenly one day, more than a dozen eunuchs sent a tiger head plaque with the words "All in One Place" to the Li Hotel. Only then did everyone understand that the person who came to drink Chinese New Year's Eve night was the Qianlong Emperor. So the people in the shop hung the plaque of the emperor's personal letter in the shop in a dignified manner, and the chair where the Qianlong Emperor sat was also offered. In this way, the Qianlong Emperor drank wine in every part of the capital, and all of them had "thrones", so that the capital soon prospered and developed.
Speaking of the bustle of Qianmen Street, Xianyukou Street cannot fail to mention. This street is opposite Dashilan Street across Qianmen Avenue and was built in the Ming Dynasty and became a scale in the Qing Dynasty. The density of shops and footfall here is no less than that of Dashilar. To buy a head-on, here are the Horse Juyuan Hat Shop and the Black Monkey Hat Shop. "Wearing Ma Juyuan on his head, wearing Rui Feixiang, stepping on the inline rise, and wrapping his waist around the four hengs", this is spread in the old Beijing Shunkou slip, indicating that Ma Juyuan's hat ranks first in the Beijing hat industry in the late Qing Dynasty and is a famous brand. The Black Monkey Hat Shop has a more story.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Yang Xiaoquan, a native of Shanxi, came to the capital with a black monkey and opened a hat shop in the mouth of fresh fish. Yang Xiaoquan cleaned up the black monkey and let it come and go in and out of the store to greet guests. When he was busy, Yang Xiaoquan only needed to shout to the black monkey: "Go, open the door." The black monkey obediently walked to the door of the store, pulled open the door, and then waited for the guests to enter the door before leaving. This surprised the people in the capital, and simply called Yang Xiaoquan's hat shop a black monkey hat shop.
The pharmacy in the mouth of fresh fish is also famous. In 1933, a kind of Chinese-developed wen medicine replaced the Japanese baodan and dominated the first place, which was located at the north entrance of the toutiao of the long lane of xianyukou and developed by ChangchunTang, a small medicine shop facing west and east. At that time, there was such a smooth slip: "Three volt fever, don't panic, quickly buy and smell the medicine Changchun Hall, wipe it into the nose and lungs, cool off the heat and dispel the fire and protect the health." ”
Not far from the fresh fish mouth, a little attention will find that there is a two-story old-style paved small building on the south side of the road, which was once the famous Huixianju fried liver shop in Beijing. The shop was opened in the first year of Tongzhi (1862), but at first it was just a tavern, but later they made their own fried liver, which sold quite well and became a Beijing-style snack that has spread to this day. Only later, it was not well managed and was replaced by Tianxingju diagonally opposite it. Therefore, whenever beijing's fried liver is mentioned, people will think of Tianxingju in the mouth of fresh fish, and gradually forget Huixianju.
If you want to eat a big meal, you can go to the cheap roast duck shop located in the fresh fish mouth, which is also a well-known old shop in China and abroad. It was founded in the fifth year of Qing Xianfeng (1855) and has a history of 166 years. Cheap Place is different from Quanjude in that it is made here with roast duck in a stew oven. This practice was introduced from the south, and the "Southern Furnace Duck, Roasted Piglets, Hanging Stove Meat" recorded in the "Imperial Age Jisheng", of which "South Furnace Duck" refers to the roasted duck of the cheap shop.
I bought something, ate my food, and then I had to take a shower to relieve my fatigue. The Xinghuayuan bath located at the mouth of the fresh fish is a nice place. Legend has it that in 1940, an officer made a fortune, bought the original Tianyou Xinbu Shop, changed it to a bath, and named it Xinghua, which was specially designed for the service of rich people. Because the Beijing bath industry flourished in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, the history of Xinghua baths is not very long.
The bustle and bustle of Qianmen Avenue, in addition to the many buying and selling merchants, the most eye-catching thing is the gong and drum point of the pear garden. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, due to the prosperity of Peking Opera, officials, people, businessmen, and workers all loved Peking Opera, and because at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government had explicitly ordered the inner city of Beijing to "forever prohibit the opening of theaters", making the theater garden on Qianmen Street, which is close to the inner city and located in the outer city, quite prosperous. The "Miscellaneous Records of the Dynasty and the Wild Since Daoxian" is recorded as evidence: "The theater garden was forbidden in the inner city at that time, but it was the most prosperous outside the Zhengyang Gate. "Whoever wants to see Peking Opera has to come to the front door." There is a description of the "Hsinchu Branch Words": "Qianmen Street Pear Garden, beating gongs and drums and singing Peking Opera; after listening to Beijing Opera to buy things, kill two birds with one stone to catch the market." ”
The oldest and most famous theater garden outside the front door is the Guanghelou Opera Garden on the east side of Meat City Road, which was a garden built by the Ming Dynasty merchant Cha Shi. At that time, Qianmen Avenue was still a dirt road, because the vendors on both sides of the road were gathered, and the Cha family also came to make a bustle, changing their garden into a tea garden, known as "Cha Jia Lou". During the Qianlong period, Qianmen Street was changed from a dirt road to a stone road, and drainage ditches were added, people built shops on the side of the road, and the "ChaJia Lou" was blocked behind. Later, Cha Shi expanded the area of the tea garden, added a small opera stage, said commentary, juggling, singing lotus flowers, etc., and renamed it "Guanghe Cha Lou". In the Guangxu period, the Guanghe Building was rebuilt, expanding the stage and seating for listening to the opera, accommodating more than 900 people, which was the big theater garden at that time, and also attracted many famous people to appear on the stage here.
Qianmen Street was overhauled since 2004. On May 9, 2007, the qianmen to Zhushikou section of Qianmen Avenue began to be repaired, completed on May 28, 2008, and opened to the public on August 7, 2007. After the repair, the section from Qianmen Street to Zhushikou became a pedestrian street, and reproduced the architectural style of Qianmen Street in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. The tram "Bell Bell Car", which used to run from Qianmen Street to Zhushikou in the past, also began operation on New Year's Day 2009.
Qianmen Avenue was once a lively area in Beijing, and even now, people like to come here to find memories of the past.
Text | Li Junling
Photography | Yan Wen, Zhang Weimin, Zhang Yanhui, Cheng Gong, etc
Some of the pictures are from the WeChat public accounts of "Qianmen Publicity", "Qianmen Street", "North Evening New Vision", "Beijing City Tourism" and "East of the Forbidden City"
Edit | Little nine