A New Look for Nanchang Street

Nanchang Street is located in Wuxi City, East China's Jiangsu Province. It's a core scenic 1 spot of the city, featuring the Qing Ming Bridge Historic and Cultural Street District. Now our reporter shows you a different taste of it, combining ancient architecture with modern touches. Wang Jing has more.

 Standing beside the ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Nanchang Street is unique and quiet. Free from heavy traffic and skyscrapers 2, it boasts the typical architectural style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which date back hundreds of years. Two and three storied wooden houses with pink walls and black tiles stand along the zigzagged 3 blue stone street. Here, you can also see the threshold of the house at old times, the groove 4 on the door for locking, as well as the creaking floor when you walk on it. However, it is in these old traditional houses that all kinds of innovative 5 architectural designs are waiting for you.

At the entrance to this street, what first catches your attention is the Somi ice cream shop. Various ice creams await the guests, each with their own flavors.

Next to Somi, another shop decorates its outer wall with green leaves. A big tent umbrella and several chairs are laid in front of the door, tempting 6 passers-by to stop and take a rest. Across the door, you can see a small blackboard, with orderly arranged postcards and mugs. This is the Indus Cheese House.

Westen shop "Bluz" sells simple meals during the day, but transforms into a bar at night. It seems unusual when drinking wine and bathing in the blues 7 of the ancient Chinese buildings. Shop owner Xiao Zhu says the antique beauty of Nanchang Street is what attracted him to open the shop here.

"A combination between Chinese and western culture may give you a surprise if you run a genuine western food shop on a traditional Chinese street."

Walk along Nanchang Street, you may also see bookstores with cartoon characters on their walls, British natural soap as well as branname clothing stores. Even Starbucks is going to open a flagship store here. In a word, Nanchang Street is becoming more and more appealing to young people.

"Compared to the highrises in downtown area, I prefer to walking among the small wooden houses here."

"This street smacks 8 of antiquity 9. You can have a lot of fun here and you find yourself in an entirely 10 new world here."

The senior ones also have fun in this colorful street. Ms Tan and Mr Lu used to live in this street. However, they moved out because of the reconstruction 11 of the street years ago.

"This street reminds us of our childhood. Now we grow old, but we are glad that we can still enjoy this old street."

"We always take our friends here no matter where they come from."

It is said that Nanchang Street used to have many traditional Chinese shops like rice shops, bookstores, barbershops, tea houses and theaters. Now, a lot of modern and western style fresh elements have joined the street. In regards to the mix-up of styles, Ye Guojian, who is in charge of investment operation of "Wuxi Qing Ming Bridge Historic and Cultural Street District" project, says this is just what his team expected.

"We thought about many different programs before, including whether we should make it into a tourist spot, or a resort. But later, we thought that street is the heartland of Wuxi. We hope its residents can enjoy a modern life here. Therefore, we rebuilt it with modern elements, but we keep its old style as well. "

 

Ye says this is just one part of the reconstruction project of Nanchang Street, which began to receive visitors in May. Now they have started the second part, which will focus on "art and culture".

"Though the two parts are on the same street, for the second part, we will pay more attention to its long history and rich culture, as well as its relation with art."

Ye Guojian tells us that cultural heritage items such as jade 12 sculptures and Wuxi embroidery 13 will be brought to the second part of Nanchang Street. At the same time, some old studios that produce crafts such as cane 14 products or tiger ovens may also come to the street. Folklore 15 exhibitions about wedding celebrations will become parts of the streets' scenery. In addition to all of these, a small opera house is going to be built, playing the pioneer opera. To receive backpackers from all over the world, a hostel 16 with 60 rooms will also be available on the street.

For CRI, this is Wang Jing.