The City of Rams – Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street and the Sacred Heart Cathedral
The weather remained calm this morning. I decided to walk over to the Shangxia Jiu Pedestrian Street for a look.
The Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street
The Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street is known to be the “Commercial Corridor of Xiguan.” The pedestrian-only street spans a length of 1,237 meters. Restaurants, clothing and jewelry stores line both sides of the street along the whole way.
This area of Liwan was always heavily commercial in nature, a development that could be traced back to as early as the 6th century. The area had its heyday during the late Qing Dynasty, when many tycoons set foot in the area and built the famous Xiguan mansions. After the Thirteen Factories Enclave was burned down, a lot of the commercial activities moved to this area as well. The modern pedestrian street was opened as a designated commercial hub by the city government in 1925.
As with Enning Road, the Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street is lined with buildings with arcades. The typical use of the buildings is stores on the street level and residential homes above. The “balconies,” meaning the protruding portions of the building, of the residential units above are what give cover to the pedestrians walking on the street below, next to the storefronts. There is a source saying that the buildings in the Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street were mostly built during the Qing Dynasty. However, as far as the arcades go, the buildings were more likely built during the Republican Period, as the arcade style was the most popular then.
By 9:30 am I made it to the pedestrian street from Shamian Island. It must have been super early for serious shoppers, for there were very few activities on the street. Some shops have surely opened, and so I took a leisurely stroll on a section of the pedestrian street, eventually ending at the Shangxiajiu Square.
I appreciated the fact that there were efforts to introduce some artsy elements amidst an otherwise mercantile-spirited atmosphere. There were again many interesting bronze statues on the pedestrian street.
Lin Heung Lou (Lin Heung Tea House)
Because I frequented the touristy areas of Guangzhou, I did come across many Lin Heung Tea Houses in the places that I visited. I do not tend to like sweet treats, so I did not go in for a snack. But its history is very much representative of Old Xiguan.
Lin Heung Tea House had its roots as a confectionery store specializing in wedding pastries. Its lotus paste was the most popular product. As early as the 15th year of the Guangxu Reign (1889), the shop has adopted its current name. At the time it had a different first character in Chinese. In 1910, a scholar suggested adding a “grass” radical to the first Chinese character to denote the restaurant’s specialty in lotus paste. This scholar’s hand-brushed calligraphy of the restaurant’s name has been used in all of the restaurant’s signages and logos ever since.
According to Baidu, Lin Heung Tea House and Tao Tao Ju, both of which are established in the Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street, are the only two Chinese restaurants in Guangzhou that have had one hundred years of operation. This is because all the old-names were forced into public-private ownership models when New China was established in 1949. The rest of them simply did not survive the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.
After a series of onslaughts against the business in the early Communist years, Lin Heung Tea House revived its old name in 1973. Finally, it had a comeback for full operations again only in 1984.
Even in its early years of business, Lin Heung’s lotus paste has been the standard ingredient in mooncakes. The use of lotus paste in mooncakes has become a tradition in Chinese cuisine.
The Sacred Heart Cathedral of Guangzhou
I acquired a Yangcheng Tong because I needed to take a bus to the Sacred Heart Cathedral. The bus dropped me off right at the Cathedral, and I went in for a very peaceful half hour of prayers.
The construction of the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Guangzhou took 25 years from 1863 to 1888. Because the walls and the pillars of the Cathedral were built of granite, in Chinese there is another name, “stone chamber,” that is commonly known for the Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Negotiations for the construction of the Sacred Heart Cathedral proceeded during the third year of the Xianfeng Reign (1853). It was not going to be easy, but the Second Opium War broke out in 1856. The Convention of Peking that followed this war had a provision for the lease, purchase and construction of churches and cathedrals by missionaries. In 1861, due to the ongoing military threat that was posed by the French forces in Guangzhou, the Viceroy of Liangguang agreed to the permanent lease of a large swathe of land by the French missionaries. The area would span 42 acres, and it was later increased by a further 17 acres.
From then on, the area developed itself into a Catholic stronghold in Guangzhou, with the Cathedral as the spiritual home. The missionaries built nurseries, schools and nunneries, amongst others. Important persons in politics and religion attended the Sacred Heart Cathedral’s foundation ceremony.
There were some significant hurdles that halted the construction of the Sacred Heart Cathedral. These hurdles originated both from the government and from the people. At one point, there was an order prohibiting the mining of granite from the Qing Government. French missionary Philippe François Zéphirin Guillemin, who conceived the idea of the Cathedral and oversaw the whole process, dealt directly with the Qing Court on this issue.
At the time, there was also acrimonious local sentiment against anything of foreign origin. The Sacred Heart Cathedral being so conspicuous (and indeed, beautiful) in its architecture was a cause for many Guangzhou people to oppose it. Eventually, Philippe François Zéphirin Guillemin did not live to the day the construction of the Cathedral completed.
The sheer beauty of the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Guangzhou amazed me. It is a petite version of the Notre Dame to me. My prayers inside were peaceful, but only because my mind was. The environment presented very challenging distractions because there were so, so many tourists there. This really is notably different from a visit to any church or cathedral in Europe.
Sources
Baidu on Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street (Chin).
Baidu on the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Guangzhou (Chin).
The Wikipedia on Lin Heung Tea House (Chin).
