Recently, the whole country has focused on this city: When the epidemic suddenly rages, it responds quickly, the prevention and control order is orderly, and the response is calm. There are still pictures on the Internet ridiculing their “Buddha calm” performance-“Go on snacks, you all It’s almost the hardest hit area!” “Huh? What snack?”
Yes, it is Guangzhou, Known as a city that is naturally optimistic and reliable . Taking this opportunity, I finally have to talk about the old artist’s base camp.
△The beauty of Guangzhou is in no words. /unsplash
Among the four major first-tier cities, Beijing and Shanghai each have a strong culture and Western style. In terms of youth and vitality, Shenzhen is the representative. But if you want to talk about the essence of Lingnan culture and the city that can burst new life in the tradition, Guangzhou is the only city. Up.
Many people do not know that Guangzhou is another miracle in the history of global urban development: Among all the cities in the world, only Guangzhou is a commercial city that has remained unfailing for thousands of years.
Don’t just see Lao Guang’s calmness. After all, the city is just as its name suggests. Eating everything, and well-informed Guangzhou what.
The most pyrotechnic city in the first-tier cities
“What’s fun in Guangzhou?” Every time a friend asks this question when visiting Guangzhou, the old artist will think about it for a long time. In my opinion, Guangzhou is not a typical tourist city, and it may feel like that after seeing a circle of scenic spots.
On the contrary, I feel that there is no route at all, but it takes time to feel it with my heart. Just like Lao Guang often said “sigh morning tea” and “soup”—— “Sigh” and “Boiled” are both decided, and it takes time to make fine products .
It is the city with the most sense of time I have ever seen , Like the focal area of this epidemic Liwan District In my opinion, it is the most Cantonese-style old town.
Liwan was formerly known as “Xiguan” , Because of the “a bay with green water and green lychee red on both sides”, my impression of Xiguan comes from this: the uneven old streets and lanes of bluestone slabs, the Xiguan-style arcade house, and the ancestral temples and historic sites scattered along Enning Road. , The melodious Cantonese opera can be heard on the banks of a river in Liwan Lake Park…
△Liwan is the place with the most ancient Cantonese charm in Guangzhou. /Picture Worm Creative
In Laoguang’s heart, the real aristocratic ladies are in Liwan and Yuexiu, which is what they used to be called “Miss Xiguan, Master Dongshan” .
Liang Jiyong, known as the “Relict of Xiguan”, once wrote the old house in memory in “Lingnan Grass and Trees”: “There are many flower pots high and low, one of which is slightly larger, about the size of a washbasin. In the late Qing Dynasty, In the Shiwan pottery kiln, the mottled white glaze has faint green spots of wax gourd. After wind and rain, it is more like a frosted wax gourd.” A few strokes bring out the old-school and indifferent life charm of Xiguan people.
△The taste of light and shadow in the Xiguan House. /Picture Worm Creative
If Liwan is the old soul of Guangzhou, then Yuexiu is the “root” of Guangzhou. Yuexiu is the center of Guangzhou that has never shifted since its establishment for more than 2,200 years.
There are the most magnificent department stores in South China, Dongshan Pass with red walls and green tiles, Long Causeway built along the river by shops and foreign companies, Beijing Road, which was the birthplace of ancient Guangzhou city and is now a characteristic shopping street, and humanities. The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and Sun Yat-sen Library with strong background… Compared with Liwan, Yuexiu has more prosperous and modern market flavors. .
△From top to bottom: Changdi Damalu/Tu Chong Creative, Shangxiajiu Street/Photographed @九九祥介
In my opinion, Guangzhou is the most pyrotechnic city among the first-tier cities. A large part of these pyrotechnic flavors also come from the old towns of Liwan, Yuexiu, and Haizhu with a sense of time. They carry the memories of the older generation of Guangzhou people, and they can also give off a cutting-edge and modern temperament in the old city——
Litchi Bay was silted up due to industrial pollution, and now it is remodeled. The Xiguan House on the lakeside has been built as a folk museum; Enning Road now has a new historical and cultural name card, Yongqingfang, which mixes Cantonese traditions with trendy fun; Beijing Road combines Tradition and modernity radiate the charm of “Guangfu Commercial Street”…
△The streetscape of Yongqingfang combining trendy and tradition. /Photo @九九祥介
Tianhe District, known as the representative of New Guangzhou, The bustling CBD scene is its most remarkable characteristic .
The Huacheng Square, which was originally just a foundation, has been completed as the tallest east tower in Guangzhou. The 532-meter east tower and the 432-meter west tower completed earlier form a symmetrical Gemini, plus a small waist on the other side of the Pearl River. Guangzhou The tower, three skyscrapers hold up the Guangzhou skyline.
△The bustling street scene of Guangzhou CBD. /Picture Worm Creative
Don’t watch the skyscrapers go straight through the sky, The surrounding low-rise bungalows seem to expose the unique vigor of Guangzhou .
Among the four major first-tier cities, Guangzhou is rare to see the harmonious coexistence of the bustling CBD and urban villages.
“Spider webs,” “a thin line of sky,” and “dirty, chaotic, poor” seem to be the most intuitive impressions of the urban villages in Guangzhou. They have witnessed the transformation of the urbanization wave, blurred the boundary between the city and the countryside, and derived more Guangzhou’s purest civilian temperament .
△From top to bottom: There are a large number of migrants living in the urban village of Guangzhou/Picture worm creativity, handshake building and a line of sky/unsplash
According to relevant statistics, The floating population of most urban villages in Guangzhou is 5-10 times that of local residents Take Tangxia Village in Tianhe District as an example. The local villagers have a population of only more than 20,000, but nearly 300,000 migrant workers have “crowded in”. It is precisely because there are villages in the city that can be rented at least a few hundred a month, Guangpiao people who come to work hard have enough big city life.
If you go to the most common urban villages in Guangzhou, such as Yangji, Shipai, Tancun, and Liede, you will find that behind the towering high-rise buildings, there are twists and turns, narrow lanes and streets like a maze.
There are signs of “beautiful house for rent” everywhere, food stalls, hair salons, convenience stores and vegetable markets all over the street, as well as many ancestral temples and ancestral halls with local characteristics. An inexplicable sense of intimacy is found in the icy urban business district.
△Guangzhou City Village is also the home of the original villagers. /Picture Worm Creative
Where does the taste of Guangzhou come from?
When people talk about Guangzhou, the most commonly used definition is “market taste”. Some people may think that “market” has a derogatory meaning, but old artists think this is a pragmatic and tolerant culture. Its cultural structure is absorbed from the bottom up.
And this kind of market taste is predestined in the roots, after all Who cast the soul of Guangzhou, It is the history of the “Millennium Business Capital”. If you trace the origin, you will find that Guangzhou’s “soul of business capital” can be seen as early as the source of the Pearl River.
△The tolerance of the Pearl River gave birth to the character of Guangzhou./Picture Worm Creative
Each of China’s three major rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, has one entrance to the sea. Only the Pearl River has eight exits. This is different from the majesty of the Yangtze River’s “East of the Great River” and the magnificence of the Yellow River’s “Water from the Yellow River”. There are no rules for the “Eight Gates to Seize the Sea” of the Pearl River. Wherever you can go out to sea, you will flow there. It is not easy to block, and it is not easy to silt up the water.
This probably gives Guangzhou, which is located in the hinterland of the Pearl River Delta, a kind of Tolerant and open Temperament, always have China’s “South Gate” Known as.
As early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, Guangdong Xuwen Port was the departure port of the “Maritime Silk Road”, and Guangzhou City was formerly known as “Panyu County”. It was already a distribution center for goods from the Central Plains, Jingchu, Fujian, Zhejiang, Qianshu and the South China Sea. There are related records in “Hanshu·Geography” “China’s merchants get rich and rich, Panyu, one of the cities is also” With sails like forests and gatherings of merchants, Guangzhou can be regarded as one of the first real coastal metropolises in history.
It seems that when it comes to making money, the people of Guangzhou can be traced back to two thousand years ago. At that time, the people of the Central Plains were still busy farming, and the people of Guangzhou often walked by the water, knowing that the world beyond the sea had “crabs” that they had never seen before.
Guangzhou’s commercial traditions allow people here to not stick to rules and regulations, and to support themselves by doing whatever they want. More free and easy-going by nature .
The traditional shackles of focusing on agriculture and restraining business have made Guangzhou far away from the core area. However, due to the relatively loose sea ban policy, when the Qing Dynasty closed the country and closed the country, only Guangzhou was left in the country. “Guangdong Customs” One-Port Commerce , The Thirteen Bank monopolized China’s foreign trade for 85 years.
The first group of Western businessmen who came to China for trade was the group of 13 tradesmen. The 13 trades became a key place for Sino-Western exchanges, and the world viewed China as a window.
△The glorious night view of “Guangdong Customs” along Jiangxi Road. /Picture Worm Creative
The impact of business on Guangzhou can be said to be profound. Since trade in the commercial city of Guangzhou is ubiquitous, after the sea ban, the supply of goods in the inland was cut off, and the source of foreign trade in Guangzhou could only rely on its own production. It vigorously developed local industries and promoted the surrounding cities such as Foshan, and the rise of industry and commerce.
This influence also includes the urban structure of Guangzhou. In ancient times, Guangzhou was composed of a shallow sea, mid-sea hills, terraces and many islands. The earliest record of the year when Guangzhou was founded is in “Panyu” in the Qin and Han Dynasties At that time, only the South Vietnamese lived in the highlands between Baiyun Mountain and the Pearl River.
The development of Guangzhou city is based on the contest between water and city. With the influence of commerce, the urban structure becomes looser and freer.
Nowadays, Guangzhou City is no longer a traditional “(Bai) Yunshan Pearl (River) Water” city”. It has already broken through the boundary of Yunshui, from west to east, from north to south, and has become a city with “Green hills, famous cities, fertile fields, blue seas” Natural pattern.
△ Zhujiang New Town can be called Guangzhou’s urban legend/unsplash
Guangzhou people once called the south of the Pearl River “Henan” and the north of the Pearl River as “Hebei”. There is an old saying that “I would rather have a bed in Hebei than a house in Henan.” The old Xiguan mansion in Hebei is in sharp contrast with the dilapidated villages in Henan.
Today’s vicissitudes of life in Henan and Hebei, or many in Guangzhou “bridge” . The bridge is not just a building connecting the two sides of the strait, It is like the skeleton of Guangzhou City, with unique lines and rhythmic beauty .
△ Today’s “Henan” Haizhu has a completely new look/unsplash
Looking at a city, perhaps the “bridge” can be an excellent viewing angle for you. The sky, earth, water, and bridges overlap each other, forming the veins of Guangzhou City, with vicissitudes of life hidden in it.
In 1933, the first bridge across the Pearl River in Guangzhou City—— Haizhu Bridge It was completed and opened to traffic, connecting the residential areas and industrial areas of “Hebei” and “Henan”. Later, Haiyin Bridge, Guangzhou Bridge, Liede Bridge, Pazhou Bridge built East Lake and Xiaogang, Wuyang Village and Kecun, Liede and Pazhou, the Luoxi Bridge connects to the suburbs, and the Nansha Bridge makes the blood of the Greater Bay Area city group more smooth…
△Haizhu Bridge. /Picture Worm Creative
According to incomplete statistics, nearly 20 “Pearl River Bridges” have been built in Guangzhou. , In other words, if you take a night cruise on the Pearl River, you can watch a Pearl River Bridge every less than 10 minutes.
The city’s taste in Guangzhou probably originated from Its business instinct , This instinct extends the free context of the urban structure. After the reform and opening up, Guangzhou, like a fish in water, regained its grace and grace, and there were many “eating crabs” for the first time——
China’s first free trade and free bargaining Hexian warehouse opened in Fangcun, Guangzhou. The first batch of five-star hotels rose from the ground. The first batch of self-employed clothing market Gaodi Street led the glorious market. Tianhe Road, a business district with sales exceeding one trillion yuan, has risen…Made in GuangZhou’s daily chemicals, hardware, clothing, toys, etc. have attracted adventurers from all directions.
△ A scene of Shangxiajiu clothing wholesale market, now Shangxiajiu is in urgent need of iterative update. /Photo @九九祥介
The so-called “dare to be the first in the world”, In Guangzhou, it became nothing more than their “dare to drink soup” Now that you dare to try the first soup, what else has you never seen in the world?
There are a thousand reasons to be in Guangzhou
Guangzhou is the happiest city in the first-tier cities.Although this sentence sounds a bit subjective, Guangzhou has been on the list for three consecutive years in the “List of the Happiest Cities in China in 2020” last year. Among the Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the only first-tier city on the list .
In fact, the sense of happiness is blunt, but the sense of life occupies a large part-living here steadily and eating smoothly. “Groundness” is Guangzhou’s trump card , Even if you can find poetry and distant literary feelings in other first-tier cities, But after all, the meticulousness in front of you can move people’s hearts even more .
△The breath of life is the source of happiness in Guangzhou. /unsplash
In the 1960s, the name “Food in Guangzhou” has spread throughout the country. Compared with other cities, Guangzhou people are notoriously more affordable. Wearing clothes is superficial, what you eat in your stomach is your own .
So many outsiders will ridicule Guangzhou’s “whatever”, and there are also Cantonese “Seeking it” The statement, that is, as long as it is not a real problem in principle, there will generally not be too much pursuit of appearance.
Guangzhou people dress very “casually”, The most famous label is “flip flops”. The renters who collect the rent of a few suites are just those retired aunts and uncles who look like cleaning. They have a few properties under their ordinary appearance. There are also those bosses who open small restaurants and food stalls, who don’t want to be idle. Doing a little catering business can kill high-paid white-collar workers, but they seem to be very low-key.
The invisible tycoons in Guangzhou are more like hermit masters in the martial arts arena. They seem to be lazy and effortless, and they are all powerful factions who have been in the arena early.
△Just set up a stall on the side of the street, it is a pan full of fried noodles / photo@九九祥介
may Only in “eating”, they are more serious than anyone else.
The ritual of “sighing morning tea” is not casual: sit down and order tea, and some will bring their own tea to the teahouse to make; order two pieces of tea; blanch the bowl before eating, and when someone else is pouring tea for you, tap with two fingers The table top is a sign of courtesy; if you want to add tea, place the lid of the pot diagonally, and your own waiter understands this tacit understanding.
△ Guangzhou people sigh that morning tea is not sloppy
Listening to their Cantonese colloquialism, you will find that the way they explain the philosophy of life is nothing but the truth of “eating”—— “Food” Two words are enough to summarize the way of life of Laoguang people .
Working hard to make money is just to eat well, so there is “The hard work comes from eating” ； “Salted fish and cabbage are so delicious” It’s just the Guangzhou people’s mentality of contentment; if they have the courage to act, they will say “Eat salted fish to make you thirsty” ； “I have to drink tea freely” Lao Guang’s most frequently used words to greet relatives and friends are the same as “see you next time”, but with more human touch from the neighborhood.
Nowadays, although the Michelin Food Guide is leading a wave of food review frenzy, anyone who knows understands that Laoguang people don’t care how many stars a restaurant has. Pragmatic, they have already had their own “Ping Liangzheng” food map ——An old teahouse on West Huifu Road, a long-established Tangshui shop on Wenming Road, Apo Niu miscellaneous stalls at the end of Fangcun Alley, a small wantan noodle shop on Tongfu Road that has no sign…
△Snack bars hidden in the streets and alleys may also be treasures. /unsplash
I used to search for food in Guangzhou for a long time because of work. I found that the experience of traveling through the streets and alleys can also improve my sense of road and direction. When I went around and finally found a favorite gourmet shop, I felt as happy as finding a treasure.
Now that I have lived here for 8 years, I have heard many reasons for staying in Guangzhou from many people around me. Some of them even sound trivial:
Some people are attracted because the rice rolls in Guangzhou and claypot rice with crispy rice are delicious; some are left behind because they like to show more activities; some are happy because of the fish balls and cart noodles in convenience stores; some hear The Cantonese subway in front of the “next stop in the park” was attracted by the sound; also because You can buy flowers as soon as you get out of the subway station And what remains…
△The store downstairs and the tender moments glimpsed everywhere on the street may be the reason to stay in Guangzhou. /Photo @九九祥介
There is also a funny joke on the Internet, saying Guangzhou is a city that can make people “beautiful” , Because everyone is called “beautiful girl” and “beautiful boy” in this city.
It sounds a bit exaggerated, but it is also warm and intimacy.There may be many reasons to stay in Guangzhou, but in fact The core is just two words-life .
It is by no means an exquisite city, there are no heavy historical relics, and no sophisticated western food coffee shops. Some are just The lively and hot human touch, and the prosperous and undistorted fireworks .
△This gives the civilians enough tolerance and temperature. /Photo @九九祥介
Whether you are a native of this city or not, it seems that you can find the sense of life and balance you want here.
The haze in Guangzhou has not yet cleared, but I believe that the open-minded and optimistic Guangzhou will surely be able to see the moon and the moon .
△Let’s cheer for Guangzhou/ Photo @九九祥介
Reference materials:
1.Research on the Geography of Historical Cities in Guangzhou AreaReview Zhang Yahong
- The city is the urban character of Guangzhou Pan An
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Bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges, bridges Guangzhou Life Discovery Home
4.Guangzhou, the pulse of China’s authentic scenery
5.Why can Guangzhou always “get rich first”?Authentic scenery
6.Why are there so many urban villages in Guangzhou?Earth Knowledge Bureau
7.This kind of Guangzhou, I don’t know the National Geographic Chinese website.
8.Why is Guangzhou the only one-thousand-year-old commercial city in the world Nanfang Daily
This article is the original content of the NetEase News•NetEase New Humanities Wave Project Signed Account[Nine Lines]. Unauthorized reprinting is prohibited without account authorization.
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