The old county town of Shouguang includes the "four passes in the city". In fact, in Shouguang, it should be the "five passes" in the city.

Let's start with the city. The scope of the city should be within the four gates of east, west, north and south. However, there is no north gate in Shouguang County, only East Gate, West Gate and South Gate. The east gate is in the current experimental primary school and the west gate is in the current electrical appliance city. The south gate is at the intersection of the northeast corner of the People's Square. Due north should be the north gate, but it is the lobby of the county yamen, that is, the armed forces department today. In front of the county lobby, there is an east-west street. At the east end of this east-west street, there is a gate called Xiaodongmen, which is located at the intersection of Jisheng Hospital. Further east from Xiaodongmen is Xiaodongmen. At the west end of that east-west street, at the intersection of Bohai Road and Wenmiao Street, there is also a gate called Xiaoximen. There is also a street outside Xiaoximen, which is in the north-south direction, and that is Beiguan.

Speaking of which, you should know why Shouguang's county is called "five passes in the city", right?

At that time, among the "five customs", Xiguan was the most prosperous. The location of Xiguan starts from the west gate of the county in the east, that is, the East-West Street in front of the current electrical appliance city, and ends in the west, that is, the intersection of Jinguang Street and Chenming. The prosperity of Xiguan is mainly business-houses along the street on both sides of Xiguan Street, with numerous shops, rice, oil, salt, cotton satin, tea snacks, pickles and sesame sauce, ready-made clothes, clothing, shoes and hats, Chinese and western pharmacies, pubs and restaurants. Many of these shops are front shops and back factories, such as Chinese medicine, ready-made clothes, yellow wine and snacks. There are often doctors sitting in the door of Chinese medicine shops. These doctors are called "Mr. Zuotang". It's free to see a doctor there, but you have to "get medicine" there. Therefore, the business of pharmacy is closely related to the level of "Mr. Zuotang", and powerful Chinese medicine shops have to spend a lot of money to invite famous doctors to sit in the classroom.

At that time, almost all the residents of the "five passes in the city" were farmers. Even businessmen who open shops are basically locals, and they all have land at home. The format of front shop and back factory provides another employment opportunity for many people with less land at home. Even if you don't go to the shop and have nothing to do, you can get a shallow wooden pallet, hang it around your neck, put a few boxes of cigarettes on it, and peddle it around the streets, and you can also mix meals. Women can take some sewing work from garment shops to do at home, and earn more than a dozen coppers every day.

At this point, I think of another related topic, that is, the street name of the county. I remember 1966, there was a wave of street renaming, and all the streets and alleys should be crowned with revolutionary names: "Anti-imperialist Road", "Anti-road Construction", "Dongfeng Street" and "Cultural Revolution Avenue". Now, these names are gone, and there is no trace.

I wonder, can we refer to Beijing's practice in street naming? Beijing can have Wangfujing Street, Qianmenwai Street, Chegongzhuang and Luoguxiang. These names, not only no one feels "rustic", but also make people experience rich historical details and rich cultural connotations. Why can't we have "Ximenwai Street", "Dongxiguan Street" and "Wei Gong (Wei Shu) Street"? Even those new roads are named after villages that are about to disappear. Why not? Shouguang, known as the "Holy City", has a proud historical and cultural accumulation, and those precious historical heritages are worth cherishing.