Photo: Yang Heping/Wen: The earth leans on the river

■ Written in front: These streets are as close to us. They have been involved in our lives, and have accompanied and will continue to accompany us every autumn and winter and morning twilight, every pain and joy, and countless dullness and loneliness. They can't change the direction of our life, but they give us a lot of shelter and care both materially and spiritually. This is a series of streets in Guangzhou.

Beijing Road in Yuexiu Old Town, as the main street in Guangzhou, existed at least in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and it is one of the oldest streets in Guangzhou. As we can see from the "ruins of the Millennium Ancient Road", at first this street was just a simple passage paved with stones, which were not very regular and paved neatly.

At that time, the Qinghai Building was built in the middle of the street, and the stone pedestal was built with double doors, which were changed to double doors in the Song Dynasty. This building has been destroyed and rebuilt many times in history. It was called Gongbei Building in the Ming Dynasty until it finally disappeared, but every time it was rebuilt, it kept the pattern of double doors, so the old citizens used to call this place the bottom of double doors. In the Qing Dynasty, Gongbei Building was the middle partition, Chengxuan Street in the north and Xiongzhenfang and Yongqing Street in the south. These ancient streets are roughly equivalent to Beijing Road today.

Beijing Road is actually not very long. It starts from the Renaissance-style Provincial Finance Department building at the eastern end of Guangwei Road in the north and ends at Jiangdong Road along the Pearl River in the south, with a length of only over 1 km. However, this street is rich in meaning, with internal historical elements and external diversified structures, as well as colorful street scenes. Visitors may unconsciously spend a lot of time while walking, so they don't think the street is short. Beijing Road has many entrances and exits from south to north, and its appearance is plain and simple. It is this rich and simple characteristic that exudes the unique charm of the southern city that attracts people into this street.

Beijing Road is a typical representative of the traditional urban streets that have remained vibrant so far. In the long history, it has always existed as a central street, and it is still the central street of the city today. The ancient style with a long history still exists, and the fashion is full of movement, which is the most remarkable feature of Beijing Road today. This street and its vicinity are easily reminiscent of the rigorous chessboard-shaped block layout in ancient Guangzhou, such as the "Midtown" in the Song Dynasty, and also make people feel the Lifang atmosphere where the old lanes are interlaced with the city. The "Millennium Ancient Road Site" in the street has an intuitive and strong sense of history. However, unlike Xiaobei Road and Cangbian Road, another ancient street in the city, Beijing Road has always been the symbol of the city's trend and wind direction. It's old and fashionable. There are many old streets in this city, but the only street that has always been the central street of the city is Beijing Road. Beijing Road is a seamless example of the integration of ancient and modern times.

Entering from Xihu Road may be the best choice for roaming this street. Because when you approach Beijing Road along Xihu Road, the ruins of the Western Han Dynasty city sluice, which can be clearly seen through tempered glass in the lobby of Guangming Square on the right, have already reminded you how old this city is. Followed by the oncoming "Millennium Gu Lou Site", the ruins of the oldest buildings in the city are presented, which makes the hazy description of a drum tower in the city in the historical records clear and vivid. People stepped into this street here and immediately felt its historical weight. However, when you turn left to the north with this feeling, you will see another kind of landscape in an instant: a colorful, fashionable and dynamic street that is not too wide and makes people feel more cordial.

it's quite a pleasant experience to walk north along the street from here. On both sides of the road are continuous three-to five-storey buildings, all kinds of shops are closely connected and beautifully decorated. In this thick commercial air, there is a clear breath of culture-among the numerous commercial buildings, there are alternately the "Baishaju" gate house commemorating the philosopher Chen Xianzhang of the Ming Dynasty, the ruins of the academies in the Qing Dynasty, and the archway engraved with the plaque "Yuexiu Academy Street". There are also new joint bookstores built on the former site of Sanlian Bookstore, Xinhua Bookstore with decades of history, simple and elegant ancient book bookstores, bookstores with excellent learning and science and technology bookstores. This is the most concentrated area of bookstores in the city. Nearby are the Qin and Han shipyards, the Nanyue Palace in the Western Han Dynasty, the Nanhan Imperial Garden and other sites, as well as many historical sites in many dynasties such as the Ming Buddha Temple and the Ming City God Temple. Such diverse convergence is really a spectacle of the evolution of urban streets.

These commercial, historical and cultural elements on the roads in Beijing have always been hidden in the dense shade and decorated with countless small red lanterns as street features, which are plain and mundane. These elements interact and are ingeniously projected on the buildings and places in the street, so people see the street as a whole composed of buildings and places.

Usually it's crowded here, and pedestrians flow in the dense buildings on both sides of the street. In a sense, it is the density of buildings that makes this street. The more and denser the buildings, the more vertical lines will appear between street buildings. Urban theory holds that the more vertical lines, the more diverse the streets will be. These vertical lines run through from top to bottom, indicating the end of one building and the beginning of the next building, which is interesting in itself and gives the street a sense of scale. ① These vertical lines are particularly dense in the northern section of Beijing Road, so the diversity of this section is particularly sufficient. It is the dense buildings that provide the diverse structural foundation here. These buildings with different functions, which were built in different periods of modern times, have become a flat and interesting street landscape of Beijing Road.

When approaching the north and crossing the intersection with Zhongshan Road, the visual focus is the office building of the provincial finance department that imitates the Renaissance style. Built in 1919, this brick-wood reinforced concrete structure building is the center of gravity at the northern end of Beijing Road. It has a spectacular dome, a Roman-like double-column gate, and a stone arc-shaped step in front of it. The elegant dome has always been a sign of recognition and confirmation of the direction of the citizen block. The whole building is the terminal building of Beijing Road Street View, and the short street makes the end of this sight quite clear. Although the size of the building itself is not too large, the buildings on both sides are not too high, so it has gained the dominant position of the street in perspective. This street view design is quite successful, which is so consistent with the analysis of good street view in urban theory. (2) Now behind the building, there stand the new building of Provincial Finance Department with elegant dome, Guangzhou Building with lake green glass curtain wall on the facade, and many tall and tall super-high buildings such as the 46-story Ruian Guangzhou Center, which is nearly 2 meters high. The strong and harmonious contrast between the old and new buildings constitutes the end landscape as an important street scene, and objectively becomes a huge symbolic background of Beijing Road.

There are other prominent buildings in this section. For example, on the east side of the street near the "front of the Finance Department", there are arcade buildings with imitation classical style-stationery wholesale department building and science and technology bookstore building with beautiful vertical lines and arched windows in imitation of Gothic style; On the west side, there is a arcade building connected into a long corridor, which has traditionally been an important place for city department stores. Behind the long corridor is the ancient Changxing Street, which is named after commemorating a pair of brothers' contribution to city commerce. The old houses in the street, which are old but still practical and energetic, greatly add the secular fireworks atmosphere to the street.

There are also two very important buildings in the northern section of Beijing Road, namely the "Millennium Ancient Road Site" and the "Millennium Gu Lou Site" mentioned earlier. In July, 22, during the renovation of Beijing Road, 11-story pavements from the Tang Dynasty to the Republic of China were excavated, as well as the foundation site of the five-story Gongbei Building from the Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, including a large number of stone strips, wall bricks and drum-holding stones in the Ming Gongbei Building. After the two sites were cleaned and decorated, the toughened glass covers were laid, and they were built into scenic spots showing the long history of Beijing Road for pedestrians to see.

The pleasure of roaming Beijing Road also stems from the pleasant scale of street space to a considerable extent. The northern section of this street was officially opened as a weekend pedestrian street in February 1997, and full-time walking was implemented on New Year's Day in 22. Tourists gather here from all directions. The streets are usually crowded, but there is always room for people to walk around at will. People are close to each other, so you can see clearly every face and its expression coming across the road from this side of the road. If you happen to meet an acquaintance, you will usually see it without missing it. Beijing Road, which is not too wide, is suitable for interpersonal communication and interaction. Such a scale makes every corner of the street accessible and accessible to people. A compact space will not deter people. The biggest feature of urban culture is participation, which requires people to shuttle around in a compact street space to engage in activities. This scale also makes the street have the function of protecting against the sun in summer and the cold wind in winter, which further increases the comfort of the street and people are more willing to hang around here.

Beijing Road Pedestrian Street also has many open spaces, including Mingsheng Square, the junction with Xihu Road, and the northernmost "front of the Finance Department". These are places where you can stop and look around, take a rest or take a photo. During holidays, these places are always laid out as attractive attractions, or the lighting becomes the visual focus. This is a "rest in a narrow street", which can best promote people's friendship and interaction. These residential spaces emphasize the significance of Beijing Road as a street-it is not just a passage, it is designed for residence, it is an "outdoor big room" for people's work, life, entertainment and leisure, and it is the environment and background of daily life.

Pedestrian street is the most attractive part of Beijing Road. But the complete Beijing Road also includes its southern section. It is an equally rich, but prosperous and relatively quiet section. Entering this section from Xihu Road, south to the Pearl River, the intersecting streets are Huifu Road, Wenming Road/Da 'nan Road, Wanfu Road/Taikang Road, Baqier Road and Yanjiang Middle Road in turn, with Tianzi Wharf as the terminal building at the southernmost end. The area where this section is located is one of the most traditional and original old cities, and it has the characteristics of "offshore". You can see the most typical and Guangzhou-flavored street life along the road.

There are many early ordinary houses along the street, as well as many simple shops and other buildings. Occasionally, you can catch a glimpse of the dense overlapping of houses in the streets. There are some unique sections, historical sites or places of great significance hidden in this unremarkable old street and old house full of fireworks.

For example, Huifu East Road, where it meets, is the place where food consumption features. In addition to authentic Cantonese cuisine, there are also cuisines from all over the country and around the world, and most of the facades are warm and elegant. In an alley near Huifu Road, there is the former residence of Liang Peilan, a Lingnan poet in the Qing Dynasty, and the "Xianhu Street" archway at the entrance of the alley, which makes people daydream about the past changes of land and water in this street.

further south is the once famous Gaudi Street in China. This is a long lane that starts from Beijing Road in the east and connects with the uprising road in the west. Most people know it because it was the first self-employed professional street in China in the early days of reform and opening up, and once carried the life dreams of countless entrepreneurs from all corners of the country. But this long lane with a beautiful name is first and foremost a street with a long history. In the Song Dynasty, it was already a gathering place for many wealthy houses. The buildings on both sides of the streets were high and deep, and the buildings were elegant and elegant. The recorded large families included the Ming censor of Nanhai and the Zhou Xin family of Zhejiang provincial judges. Li Kongxiu, a poet and painter from Nanhai and a disciple of Chen Xianzhang; Zhang Yanyuan's family, descendant of Zhang Jiuling, Prime Minister of Tang Dynasty; Lin Junchuan's family, who is a family doctor and enjoys reading poetry ... The "promised land" in the street, and the "first family in Guangzhou" in modern times-Xu Shi's family and the ruins of the ancestral hall complex in Xu Shi.

Tianzi Wharf, the terminal building of Beijing Road near the Pearl River, was originally built during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng of Qing Dynasty, with a history of at least 27 years, bearing many city memories. At that time, the governors, governors or imperial envoys of Guangdong and Guangxi came to Guangzhou from this dock, and then went to the governor's office of Guangdong and Guangxi in Huaningli (now Yuehua Road) along Beijing Road. In March 1839, Lin Zexu, an imperial envoy, came to Guangzhou to ban smoking, and it was from this that he landed in the city. Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary pioneer, has left footprints in Tianzi Wharf many times, including boarding the warship Baobi from here in 1921 and going north to Hunan to command the Northern Expedition. Tianzi Wharf is a plain but significant street view and building on Beijing Road. In the southern section of Beijing Road, there are many places with important image characteristics like this, as the urban theorist Lynch said. (3)

Being on Beijing Road is a rich experience. It is not just a "passage" with simple functions, it is a place with unique significance in urban life, and a public living space with excellent characteristics and quality. Its wonderful structure of history and reality has made us feel the character and temperament of an excellent street.

However, people still have reasons to demand that this street be improved. Beijing Road does have a lot of room for improvement. First of all, the height of the buildings on both sides of this street often changes abruptly, which makes the boundary of the street unclear, especially in the northern section of the pedestrian street, where a department store with dozens of floors stands out from the buildings with 3 to 5 floors, the rhythm of the building height is suddenly broken, and the boundary of the street becomes blurred and difficult to distinguish. In contrast to these sudden towering buildings, the height of many buildings here is a little insufficient, and even the height of some sections is smaller than the width of the street, so the street lacks the pleasant "strong sense of verticality" like the famous Giubernari Street in Rome, Italy. It is generally believed that when the height-width ratio of a street is about 2: 3, the street will get a sense of closure that reflects its integrity, and the best street must form a completely closed space. This sense of closure of Beijing Road is not strong, so the spatial definition becomes relatively weak.

Secondly, there are not many exquisite regional buildings or buildings with high artistic content on the roads in Beijing. From the perspective of architectural art, except as mentioned above, the facades of buildings along the street here are mostly ordinary or even mediocre. The details of many buildings, including eaves, doors and windows, colonnades and lighting, are a little rough. The provincial finance office building at the northern end of the street, which imitates the European Renaissance architectural style, is unique here. Even so, as the leading building of the whole street, its artistic penetration and the volume of the building itself are not enough. As for the Tianzi Wharf building at the southern end, it is only an extremely ordinary recent work, with neither art nor history. Along the whole Beijing Road, there is a lack of exquisite architectural art that can be enjoyed and can be used as a landmark. When the street is not closed enough because of the unreasonable aspect ratio, and the buildings on both sides are unremarkable, it is difficult for people to feel highly comfortable and happy about the street.

What's more, the arcade building on the west side of Beijing Road from Gaodi Street to Taikang Road has been abandoned for a long time. This arcade corridor with exquisite facade and appropriate volume should not be demolished but activated. A truly activated old street is far better than many huge new commercial buildings. Here, together with its inner streets, such as Mupaitou, Jellyfish Bay and Subo Lane, what a beautiful and elegant old street! There are many beautiful traditional buildings and small western-style buildings scattered here, and you can see the most original and true life in Guangzhou. In today's city, there must be fewer and fewer blocks that can see such a rich picture of street life.

(written by Liuhua Lake in 21)

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※ Notes