Before leaving, I decided to go to Shidetang, Chongqing, Chengde Building and Qin Zhi Village. When I arrived at the ancient town of Songkou, I walked along the street with my camera and gradually lost my established direction. I didn't know until it was dark that the ancient town of Songkou, which I visited for a day, was actually just one of the scenic spots. Songkou Town includes three towns: Songkou Town, Song Dong Town and Songnan Town. There are many scenic spots such as Songkou Town Scenic Area, Xianxi Scenic Area, Mei Yun Scenic Area, Songnan Scenic Area and Songdong Scenic Area.
The best arcades and shops in Songkou Ancient Town are all built along Meijiang River, concentrated in the old street from Immigrants Memorial Square to Meidongqiao, but the legendary main attractions are scattered and not here. For example, Yuan Kui Tower is five kilometers away from the town, and it takes at least two hours to go back and forth, which shows how big the ancient town of Songkou is.
On the "Fireboat Wharf" in Songkou ancient town, advertisements for cigarettes and soap from the Republic of China were restored on the wall, and there were many sculptures on the steps. Dockmen carried goods, vagrants carried boxes and took their children to see their wives off. People from Jiaoling and Pingyuan, and even people from Jiangxi and Fujian, all arrived in Chaoshan by boat from Fireboat Wharf. Lee Kuan Yew's great-grandfather Li Muwen, Thaksin Shinawatra and Yingla's great-grandfather Qiu Shunsheng all set out from here and traveled across the ocean to Singapore and Thailand.
There is a five-story building with a combination of Chinese and western styles above the pier. Songjiang Hotel, built in the Republic of China, still looks very modern today. It's the best hotel in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. People who leave home and return home like to stay here. 1924, Chiang Kai-shek came to live. Later renamed Songjiang Hotel, it is now Songkou Overseas Chinese Literature and History Museum. There is a ruler on the building wall on the left side of the wharf, which records that the highest water level in the history of Songkou ancient town is 60 meters, which is about three stories high. Songkou ancient town has suffered more than 400 floods.
"Success is Xiao He, failure is Xiao He". The decline of Songkou ancient town is related to water, but the prosperity of that year was also due to water. At that time, there was no land transportation, and the waterway in Song and Yuan Dynasties was an important transportation channel. Songkou Town has become an important commercial center in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, and is also known as the four ancient towns in Lingnan with Chenghai in Shantou, Xingtan in Shunde and Zhuji in Nanxiong. However, only Songkou Town still retains its past appearance.
At the end of Shide New Street in the ancient town is China (Meizhou) Immigrants Memorial Square established by UNESCO. There are arrows in four directions on the road sign in the square, indicating the distance between Songkou and the rest of the world. Lima 1809 1 km, Toronto 12309 km, San Francisco1081km, Amsterdam 9224 km, London 9565 km, Sydney 7463 km and Kuala Lumpur 28. , may be a reminder.
From17th century to 20th century, more than 7 million immigrants left their homes in Songkou and drifted to more than 80 countries and regions. Up to now,180,000 people have lived overseas, but there are more than 80,000 overseas Chinese in Songkou Town with 70,000 people. Overseas Chinese wear exquisite clothes and bring back a lot of money, or send their hard-earned income back to their hometowns to build houses and shops that combine Chinese and Western styles. Renovated his home.
Hundreds of meters long and only 3 or 4 meters wide, Shide New Street once had hundreds of shops, including department stores, restaurants, hotels, tobacco and sugar grocery stores, restaurants, rice shops, cloth shops, gold shops and money houses. Below the arcade are shops, upstairs are houses and even balconies. What a magnificent look it was. The arcades are all connected, so even if it rains, you won't get wet when you visit a whole street of shops.
On the road to prosperity, there are two or three floors of small foreign buildings, balconies and walls. There are gothic doorposts in the streets where only wagons are allowed to pass. There are many diaojiao buildings in the house near Meijiang. There are steps leading to the river, and there are many small docks that can be docked. At the peak of Songkou Town, there were 29 docks along the river.
Different from the arcade, there are many pure Chinese buildings in Songkou Town and nearby villages-Hakka enclosed houses, for example, Shidetang enclosed dragon house, with more than 200 rooms. Drive to Nanxia Village to shoot the Yuan Kui Tower, and pass by a house surrounded by Dexinju. This old enclosed house with 12 families now looks quite big. Walking carefully on the second floor of Longwei, the worn floor was covered with dust, which seemed to awaken the memories of the past.
It is said that when you climb the 400-year-old Yuan Kui Tower in the Ming Dynasty, you can enjoy a panoramic view of the enclosed house in Dexin. On the way, there are countless complete enclosed houses. At first I saw a closed house, so I got off to shoot. Later, I found too many, so I enjoyed it in the car.
Fangyumao Wharf is another wharf in the ancient town, which is much smaller than Fireboat Wharf, but there is a Little Square next to it, and the residential buildings along the river have the best scenery. Western-style wall lamps, doors and windows, yellow-brown walls, if not a local fisherman by the river, would really think that this is a foreign seaside castle.
Walking along the busy road to Meidong Bridge, there is a house that is obviously different from other houses, and the door reads "Taishidi". Taishi is an official of the imperial court, belonging to the Imperial Academy of Qing Dynasty, which can also be called "Taishi Di". Brother Tai was once regarded as Songjiang Academy, but now he has a family. Go in from the alley on the right of Taishi, turn right at the end, and there is a college not far away, called Shuyuan Street.
Songkou ancient town is a place with books. It has always been a place where teachers are respected and Taoism is emphasized. There have been dozens of Hanlin, Jinshi and Juren in Songkou Ancient Town. 19 18 In May, Dr. Sun Yat-sen visited Songkou, lived in Ai Chun Building and gave a speech at Songkou Public School (now Songjiang Middle School). The famous Yuan Kui Tower was built by Li Shichun, a bachelor of Hanlin in Ming Dynasty. He is the 18th Hui Kui, so it is called the Yuan Kui Tower.
Chongwen is a place that attaches importance to education and has simple folk customs. In a small restaurant in front of Zhongshan Park, we found a local delicacy "bamboo shoots", and the owner of the restaurant specified that we would buy it in another restaurant, which is impossible in the city. In an alley, I saw an old man with an old ring and an old watch. He used a cigarette on the steps and asked me to take his picture. He handed me a cigarette when I left. It's a pity that I quit smoking, otherwise I really want to smoke with him and feel the leisure time in the ancient town.
You can't visit the ancient town of Songkou without going to Meidong Bridge. At sunset, watching twilight on the bridge is a great enjoyment. Walking from Meidong Bridge to the ancient town, there are old western-style buildings on both sides, most of which have been abandoned or idle, but it is a good place to take pictures.
Two blocks behind the old street, the house is relatively new. It is a vegetable market in Songkou ancient town, and tourists seldom patronize it. This is the world of local people. In a stall selling stuffed tofu, I saw the stall owner making stuffed tofu, which contained a lot of meat. Really sincere. At another corner, I saw a shop saying mallet meatballs. A master was chopping meat, watching me take pictures and telling me that he was making meatballs with wooden sticks.
The vegetable market sells all kinds of vegetables and fruits, as well as many dried vegetables, wild vegetables and Chinese herbal medicines. If you like to make soup, there are also various medicinal food materials such as Ficus hirta, Paederia, Abrus cantoniensis, Myrtle, Patrinia, Gynostemma pentaphyllum and so on. , smells good. However, one of the most famous fruits in the vegetable market is not listed, that is, Songkou Jinyou, and then traveling is to eat enough for four seasons.
Speaking of eating in the ancient town of Songkou, I still remember it clearly. In J Hotel, they ate eight-treasure rice, purslane and meatball soup, and only spent 70 yuan. Matsuguchi's hammer pill is very famous. Beat pork or beef into paste, add mushrooms, eggs, tofu, onion and ginger, and be sure to add cassava powder, or stir-fry or cook soup, all of which are delicious. In addition, don't miss brine chicken, tea, sweet sheep and sheep vinegar soup.
Lunch at Jubinyuan Restaurant, Fried Beef with Pickled Tomatoes, Fish Head Soup with Bitter Vegetables, and 85 yuan. The boss fried bitter vegetables with distiller's grains to remove bitterness. I bought a bamboo stick from another small restaurant near Park Lake, 1.5 yuan. The skin of bamboo shoots is made of potato powder, which is crystal clear and has a super strong taste. Wrapped with bamboo shoots and a little meat, shrimp, mushrooms and other ingredients. If you eat one, you must eat the second. Go back to the store to ask for directions and have breakfast. A bowl of Hakka instant noodles, a bowl of Shan Zhi soup or pork liver medlar soup, and a perfect breakfast is only ten yuan.
Songkou Ciba is a kind of paste made by Cao, which can cool off the heat after eating. Add honey and banana oil, and the black one looks like Guiling Cream, which is sweet and delicious. With a piece of robing, the yin and yang of the food are balanced. Fried rice noodles with fish, ginger and distiller's grains are the famous fish meal; Many people in Taiwan Province Province and Malaysia have eaten Mitai (moss), which is actually a mouse hairpin in Meizhou. The rice noodle ball is rubbed into white vermicelli with a sieve, and the two ends are sharp and shaped like mouse excrement, so it is called "mouse excrement hairpin", which sounds like mouse hairpin.
Traveling to Songkou ancient town is still convenient by car. If it is public transportation, you can take a bus and train to Meizhou, and take a bus to Songkou Town at Yuemei Bus Terminal. There are not many hotels in Songkou Ancient Town, but the hotels in the town can definitely accommodate people. Many old houses suitable for hotels need to be activated.
The ancient town of Songkou is most famous for Hakka folk songs, but unfortunately not many people can sing them. After the roads extended in all directions, Songkou lost its waterway advantage and its former prosperity. Young people left the ancient town, and the old house was gradually abandoned. However, the high-speed railway in Meizhou will be opened at the end of the year, and it takes only one or two hours from Shenzhen and Guangzhou to Meizhou West Railway Station. Songkou is likely to become a popular tourist town and regain its glory.
Strolling in the devastated western-style small building, the alleys carved in the Millennium are like wonderful sketches, which makes people sad and can't help but think of the sentence "She is old before she is old". When traveling to Songkou Ancient Town, if you are looking for a dormant small town, it is better to find a quiet place far away from the city and let go of your increasingly impetuous mood.