The Old Street Style of Hong 'an Ancient Town

From the 3 19 line crossing the town to the old street, stepping on solid and heavy stone steps and climbing up is a process of getting away from the noise and returning to the truth. Hong 'an Old Street is a staircase street with blue bricks and black tiles on both sides and a deep courtyard. There are tall and solid accumulation cones on both sides of the house, which are unique in shape and several meters above the roof, and have strong fire resistance. No matter which house catches fire carelessly, the fire will not continue to extend to both sides, which fully embodies the smart and resourceful self-rescue ability of the ancestors of Hong 'an. The whole old street is about 1000 meters long, and the terrain is urgent, so it has a unique charm. Standing on the high street, looking forward and backward are rows of stacked conical buildings, irregularly arranged on both sides of the street, and the scale of the building community is extraordinary. It is said that there are 24 quadrangular patios in the town, which were seriously damaged during the Republic of China and the Cultural Revolution, but several of them are still well preserved.

It is conceivable that the bustling scene of Honganji Town and merchants gathered in those days was so prosperous! Today, commercial activities in Hong 'an Town are as frequent as ever, including border people from Hunan and Guizhou who come here for trade activities. Locals call it "border grabbing". Whenever there is a market in town, I see the streets crowded and jostled. Shaving one's head to make up the pot, fortune telling and divination ... all walks of life have everything, and business is booming and very lively.

Today, Hong 'an has become a famous tourist attraction. It is not only an ideal place to relive the story of the border town, taste the civilization of the ancient town and experience the border trade, but also a spiritual home with rich natural scenery and profound cultural accumulation. When Shen Congwen returned to Xiangxi from Beijing and revisited the border town, he was once again infected by the simple, kind and tolerant folk customs of the people in the border town. After returning to Beijing, he wrote the immortal classic novel Border Town at 1934, creating another fascinating paradise. Hong 'an ancient town, as the place where the sad love story in the novel Border Town takes place, has been endowed with more profound cultural implications.