The origin of place names. Changes of Guanqian Street in Ancient and Modern Times

Guanqian Street is named after the mysterious landscape with a long history in Suzhou. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a magnificent Taoist temple named Tianqing Temple in the center of Suzhou. Since the Yuan Dynasty, Tianqing Temple has been renamed Xuanmiao Temple, and a path in front of Taoist Temple is called Xuanmiao Temple. In the Ming dynasty, peach blossoms were in full bloom in the mysterious temple, so it was also called Duanjin Street in front of the mysterious temple. By the winter of the twenty-first year of Daoguang in the late Qing Dynasty (184 1), local gentlemen in Suzhou donated money to build a street with a width of 3 meters. Later people call it Guanqian Street. Guanqian Street in Suzhou has a strong flavor of the south of the Yangtze River, but with the change of time, it has been built and changed repeatedly for a hundred years.

In the 1920s, the old street was as narrow as a belt.

This century-old bustling Guanqian Street is only a few hundred meters long, but there are many shops, miscellaneous department stores, and all kinds of local flavor are compatible with North and South goods, which shows the richness of this blessed land in Jiangnan. After the completion of Guanqian Street, it is as narrow as an alley, and the shops on both sides are only 3 meters wide. This seems to be a kind of life interest. People in shops facing each other can say hello or talk without leaving the store door on weekdays. The storyteller once described: "In the past, guys on both sides of Guanqian Street could throw paper-wrapped food into the opposite store when shopping;" When it rains, just pick a basket with a bamboo pole and hand it over, and you can have both silver and goods. "Some critics even exaggerate that in the past, the guys in the shops on both sides of Guanqian Street could shake hands across the street center, artistically describing the narrowness of Guanqian Street in the past.

1930s: Narrow streets were widened to show style.

Guanqian Street was transformed for the first time in the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930). Guanqian Street has been widened for the first time, from the original street surface of about 3 meters to more than 8 meters wide. This change of "shotgun for cannon" is due to the increasing prosperity of the commercial market before Guanqian and the improvement of the traffic between the city and the railway station after the opening of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway 1926 Kaipingmen in Guangxu period, which is more conducive to the prosperity of the commercial market before Guanqian.

90' s: The Ancient Rhyme and Today's Style of Pedestrian Street

After liberation, the Suzhou Municipal People's Government expanded and renovated Guanqian Street many times, first with small square stone pavement and then with asphalt pavement. At the same time, after the construction, the width of Guanqian Street is gradually increased to 9- 13 meters, and Platanus acerifolia is planted on both sides, so it is very cool to walk in summer.

1999, Guanqian Street, which experienced a hundred years of ups and downs, realized the second great change in history. Suzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government invested 654.38+0 billion yuan to comprehensively renovate and update the Guanqian area. After more than three years of rolling construction, there are 37 new roads, 63 new buildings, 26 new squares, 23 parking lots, and greening. After the transformation, the Guanqian area has become a commercial, cultural, religious and tourist center with strong local color.