On the dilapidated arcade, a ninety-year-old lady stood in front of the window on time every day and watched, firmly believing that her husband, who left home more than 70 years ago to resist the war, would return safely;
Opposite the arcade, the old lady and nephew specially opened a small shop, and kept an eye on the aunt's living room through the attic window at any time, treating her as a mother and respecting and supporting her......
Such a poignant love story and touching family affection in the world are the legends of Jeonnam's Liberation Road recorded by Jeonnam female writer Zhang Xiaofan.
▲After the upgrade, the western section of Jeonnam Jiefang Road has a smooth and tidy road surface, clear and standardized markings, smooth and orderly traffic, and beautiful and simple shops on the street, which greatly enhances the happiness and sense of gain of the surrounding residents.
Recently, the reporter went to visit Jeonnam Jiefang Road, and while people were still on the road, a friend sent Zhang Xiaofan's documentary essay "The Watch of the Arcade".
Jeonnam Jiefang Road, located in Chengxiang Town, the county seat, is named to commemorate the liberation of Jeonnam. In August 1949, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) marched to southern Jiangxi and pursued the enemy fleeing south day and night. At about 5 p.m. on August 20, the advance force of the People's Liberation Army entered the county seat of Quannan, opening a new era in the history of Quannan. In order to commemorate the liberation, the local government built a stone and wooden beam structure bridge on the Taojiang River at the east end of Hebian Street in 1951, named "Liberation Bridge". In 1980, Hebian Street, which started from Qiaotou, was connected to West Street and named "Jiefang Road". The road is divided into two sections, east and west, with a total length of 360 meters, and the eastern section is Riverside Street.
The riverside 100 meters away from the north end of the Jiefang Bridge is the location of the old house on the riverside street of Liu Yuanhao, a resident of the county seat. In the evening, Liu Yuanhao, who had moved to the south bank of the Taojiang River for ten years, habitually paced across the Jiefang Bridge and walked near the original site of the old house. Here, more than 150 old neighborhoods, including his home, have been replaced by the renovated Riverside Street business district.
▲The old man Liu Yuanhao, whose ancestral home is Xingning, Guangdong, talked about the vicissitudes of Jeonnam Jiefang Road and the county town of Quannan, and sighed with emotion.
Liu Yuanhao, whose ancestral home is Xingning, Guangdong, is related to commerce and trade when he is associated with Quannan Jiefang Road. When his grandfather was young, he "carried the burden and walked the feet", selling oil, salt, sauce and vinegar in the markets in the Quannan and Xingning areas, and the market in Quannan County was on Hebian Street at that time. Liu Yuanhao told reporters: "This street was built in 1944, outside the city gate at that time, surrounded by sand bar. Liberation brought social stability, and the number of times he came here was too much, so like many foreign traders, he built houses along the street in Shaba with the approval of the government, and became the 'old stall' here. ”
▲Aerial photography of the cityscape on both sides of the Taojiang River in Jeonnam County. A beautiful and livable modern landscape garden town is rising in southern Jiangnan.
Because more than half of the border borders Guangdong, there is a saying in history that "no vast is not a ruin" in Quannan. Influenced by Lingnan culture, the arcade building was introduced into Quannan at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the riverside street also became the "arcade street". On the first floor, a three-foot-high stone foot was built, and then the blue brick columns, the adobe brick walls, and the walls were whitewashed; The second floor is walled with slabs, and the exterior wall is carved with small windows. Zhang Xiaofan, who married from the north in 1995, felt that the riverside street was deeply hidden in the south as soon as he arrived in the south.
Zhang Xiaofan's ninety-year-old lady, a native of Xiawei Village near Hebian Street, tied the knot with a young man surnamed Quannan who was studying in Ganzhou, and the year after the wedding, her husband participated in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression from Rong, and it didn't take long for him to be heard from again. Her insistence on waiting for her husband touched everyone, and her father left her the arcade house on Riverside Street before his death, because there were beautiful woodcarvings made by her husband on the second-floor slab wall.
In Liu Yuanhao's memory, Hebian Street has always been the most prosperous area in the county. The 67-year-old was born here and lived here as a child. Around 1995, due to the restructuring of the enterprise he worked for, he chose to start his own business, opened a shop in his own arcade, and resumed the business of his grandfather's generation. "Fifteen or sixteen years ago, it was still a county market. On the day of the market, bamboo and wood utensils, clay pots and clay pots, and dried goods from the mountains and fields are piled up all over the street, and there are skillful mothers-in-law selling Hakka clothing such as tiger head hats and blue scarves, and there are also catering merchants making and selling local delicacies such as grinding and fasting, scalding skin, and mugwort fruit. ”
The continuous erosion of the wind and rain over the years and the rapid development of urban construction have gradually made Hebian Street the largest shantytown in the county. Time into the 21st century, most of the attics of the arcade here can no longer live people, many neighbors are crowded in the bedroom of more than ten square meters on the first floor, leaking rain in summer and wind in winter. Liu Yuanhao said, "Especially in winter, many people still have the habit of using fire cages to keep warm, and it is very frightening at night." ”
The people have called for it, and the government has responded. Bidding farewell to the shantytown, this dream that haunts the hearts of many residents of Hebian Street has become a livelihood problem that the county party committee and county government are determined to solve. In 2015, the county began to renovate the shantytowns here in conjunction with the construction of the core landscape belt of "one river and two banks".
Shed reform needs to be moved. The difficulty of the demolition work, which is known as the "most difficult of the difficulties", lies in the fact that some people are afraid of suffering losses and do not understand. Chen Guifu, who has lived and operated a weighing and weighing shop on Riverside Street since 1982, experienced a fierce ideological struggle in his heart at that time. He knew that the shantytown renovation was imperative, but he was worried that the demolition would affect his own business, so it was the repeated door-to-door visits and patient explanations of the requisition and demolition cadres with true feelings, which finally made him eliminate his worries and change from "I want to change" to "I want to change".
The work is done in place, and the people take care of the overall situation. Of the more than 150 expropriated households in the entire street, 146 households signed compensation and resettlement agreements and completed their relocation in more than two months.
The demolition point is located near Liu Yuanhao's old house. Early in the morning on the day of the demolition, the area around the first demolished house was surrounded by neighbors. At the beginning of the construction, a thin old man suddenly desperately squeezed into the crowd, everyone was surprised, but she spoke first: "I'm not here to make trouble, the public has compensated me, I am content, I came to see the house for the last time, I have lived here for 72 years!" In his just-finished "Old Street, Last Memories", Zhang Xiaofan described in detail everyone's reluctance to the old houses on Riverside Street and their support for the transformation of shantytowns.
The progress of the project has been smoother than expected. On New Year's Day 2020, the renovated Riverside Street was opened, and the arcade business network was prosperous again. By the end of 2023, the urban renewal project on the north bank of the Taojiang River will be completed.
▲After the completion of the urban renewal project on the north bank of the Taojiang River in Jeonnam County by the end of 2023, the newly built Riverside Street Park, the newly renovated Jiefang Bridge and the Riverside Street opened in 2020 will be connected together, becoming a beautiful scenery on the banks of the Taojiang River.
This urban renewal project, including the renovation of Riverside Street Park and Jiefang Bridge, commercial block, and underground parking lot, is committed to creating a modern and prosperous urban business district, highlighting the people's livelihood orientation and people's needs, and most of the demolished land is used for public facilities and greening construction, truly achieving "returning the land to the people and benefiting the people". At the same time, through functional remodeling and system transformation, a new museum, a leisure book bar, a covered bridge and a water pavilion have been built, and the landscape along the river has been connected, so that citizens can feel comfortable and convenient living environment, and the root and soul of the riverside street have been preserved.
▲ Two citizens walked together in the riverside street business district. The shantytown here has been renovated to make citizens feel comfortable and convenient living environment, and the roots and soul of the riverside street have been preserved.
"This project has completely changed the environmental appearance of Riverside Street, greatly improved the city's appearance and temperament and the happiness index of the people, and is known as a masterpiece of the city's comprehensive improvement of the urban and rural environment." Liu Yuanhao's daughter, who works in the local government department, said that because of the solid work and the remarkable results of the remediation, the urban and rural environmental improvement work of Quannan County ranked first in the province and the first in the city in 2020 and 2021, and was rated as an advanced county in the province's urban function and quality improvement assessment in 2023.
▲The renovation of the business circle of Riverside Street Park highlights the people's livelihood orientation and the needs of the people, and improves the city's appearance and temperament and the happiness index of the people.
The environment improves the quality and the development adds vitality. Soon after the renovation of Hebian Street opened, Liu Longsheng, who opened an optical store in another corner of the county, immediately set up a branch here. He said, "The location here is good, and the government has coordinated with the landlord to reduce the rent of the tenants by 20%, and the good location, popularity, and policy support are the primary factors for me to make this choice." ”
▲A corner of the street on Jeonnam Jiefang Road. At present, Jeonnam is continuing to improve the level of civilized city creation, consolidate the achievements of the creation of national health counties, and accelerate the creation of a national ecological garden city.
Chen Guifu, who was afraid that the demolition would affect his own business, has always been "inseparable" on Jiefang Road. After five or six years of transition in the county farmers' market, his weighing and weighing shop finally moved to the western section of Jiefang Road. In the past few years, this and the surrounding area have been transformed into a residential block, and he is nearly seventy years old, and now he is more likely to meet friends here. He said that now Hebian Street has become an urban business district integrating ecological leisure, cultural experience, catering and shopping, and the pulling effect of popularity agglomeration on the activation of consumption is becoming increasingly prominent.
▲Residents near Jeonnam Jiefang Road dance square dance in Riverside Park. The renovation of the riverside street area has changed the new life of the citizens and the new style of the city.
When practical things are done to the heart, the people will naturally blossom. Walking and chatting along the Taojiang Riverside trail, Liu Yuanhao suddenly turned around and stared, and said with emotion: "In the area of Jiefang Road now, not only are the neighbors willing to come and come often, but there are also more and more foreign tourists who come here to check in and shop. My daughter said that this is already an Internet celebrity street! ”
▲Jeonnam Liberation Bridge was built in 1951, rebuilt into a reinforced concrete structure in 1976, and a covered bridge was added on both sides during the upgrade and renovation in 2017.
"The old-fashioned arcade on Riverside Street no longer exists, but it will definitely become a memory that will settle in people's hearts." Zhang Xiaofan sent a WeChat message to the reporter who returned at night, saying that "The Watchman of the Arcade" won the first prize of the county's literary propaganda work ten years ago, and now it is still attracting the attention of many readers. Entering the new era, the charm of Jeonnam Jiefang Road has become more and more prominent, she has finished writing "Old Street, the Last Memory", and will continue to write "Old Street, the glory of the new era", so that the old stories and new stories on this road will be widely spread.
Source: Gannan red client
Curator: Zhong Yiyong, Peng Xueying
Author: Reporter Huang Qiaolu / Text Reporter Zou Zhonghui / Picture
Drafting: Xie Zhongying
Editor: Huang Songlin Editor: Zhang Anran
Duty Officer: Ming Xinwu Xiao Jing
Editor: Xie Ruihong