Guangzhou Street (3) Uprising Road on the Old Central Axis of the City

Photography:/Text: The earth leans on the river.

Inscription: No matter what type of street in the city, it has its own advantages and disadvantages. What urban vagrants like is the sense of drama on the street.

Uprising Road was once called Weixin Road. Just from the two names used before and after it, we can roughly see its significance and weight in urban history. Moreover, it is also located on the traditional central axis of the city, and its importance in urban development is self-evident. Only these angles are full of readability. It's both meaningful and interesting to walk around the street with these.

Uprising Road, built in 19 19, is a very standard new road in modern Guangzhou. From 1886, Tianzi Wharf and a short section of roads nearby were built in Guangzhou, and new roads were gradually built. By 1932, the draft of Guangzhou urban design was formulated, which made unified provisions on street construction and moved towards standardization. Weixin Road is a new street that fully meets the standards at that time. It was named Weixin Road, which was demolished and built because the street passed through the gates of the Qing Dynasty, such as Futai and Diancha, implying reform and change. 1966 was renamed uprising road to commemorate the "Guangzhou uprising" led by 1927 * * * party member. Today, the uprising road is still an important north-south passage in the old city. It starts from the south boundary of Zhongshan Fifth Road People's Park in the north and ends at Haizhu Square in Jiang Yan Middle Road in the south, with a total length of1220m and a width of14–22m. The texture and structure of the street are maintained. The original style is still visible.

The length and spatial scale of the uprising road are just right. At first glance, you may think this street is ordinary and mediocre. From south to north, there seems to be no eye-catching buildings, and it seems that few houses have impressive architectural art. But this does not prevent us from liking it. As far as citizens are concerned, the first reason is familiarity. Not long after the memory began, people knew that there was a reform road in the circle of life, which is now called the uprising road. Passing through here from time to time, the winding streets are covered with banyan trees unique to the south, and tranquility is its characteristic. At that time, Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, Huaqiao Middle School and Guangzhou Normal School were located here alternately. There is also a well-known sunshine igloo near the intersection of Gaudi Street, and the north and south ends of the road are connected with Haizhu Square and Central Park (now People's Park) respectively. For foreign tourists, as long as they know a little about the ins and outs of this street, they may be infected by the quiet atmosphere of this curved street. The smell of old streets here can make you calm down and walk along the street with interest in thinking.

A little understanding shows that Lianxi Academy is one of the earliest academies in Guangzhou's history, which was built in the Song Dynasty and located in the uprising road, then located in the north of Feng Chun Bridge, that is, on the west side of Ma 'an Street. (1) Lianxi Academy in Guangzhou, like Lianxi Academy established in other places at that time, was established in memory of Zhou Dunyi, a scholar in the Song Dynasty. Zhou Dunyi (10 17— 1073) is called Uncle Mao, and his name is Lianxi. This native of Daozhou, Hunan Province, has a deep understanding of Neo-Confucianism. He was sentenced in Guangdong and promoted to some prison posts in Guangzhou. It is said that his Neo-Confucianism is not widely known and his academic status is not high, but he is proficient in government affairs and "has a calm mind." His two disciples, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, later became famous Neo-Confucianists. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhou Dunyi's Neo-Confucianism was highly respected, and Zhu, a master of Neo-Confucianism, spoke highly of him, and annotated his works "Taiji Illustration" and "Yitong". At that time, academies were set up everywhere to commemorate this philosopher. Lianxi Academy in the north of Feng Chun Bridge was also built in this period, but it was destroyed in the Yuan Dynasty.

At present, on the former site of the Academy in Ma 'an Street, there are many residential buildings with continuous blue brick feet and sloping tile roofs, and there are a large number of multi-storey modern residential buildings built in the past 20 or 30 years. Of course, the Feng Chun Bridge has been reduced to ashes. According to records, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Lianxi Academy was rebuilt in the former site of Fengzhenguan and the former site of Grain Department in Yaozhou West (now the west side of the northern section of Education North Road). In addition to this, together with Yushan Academy and Fanshan Academy, Lianxi Academy, which is the earliest academy in Guangzhou history, there is also a famous Qian Qing Academy located on the uprising road. Qian Qing Academy, built in Daoguang period, was originally the seat of Liang's ancestral hall and the former residence of Liang Qichao, a great scholar. In the 1940s, a group of high-spirited graduates from National Southwest Associated University rented this place to establish Changfeng Middle School, the predecessor of Guangzhou No.6 Middle School. After changes, the former site of Qian Qing Academy has now become a quiet campus of Huaqiao Middle School. Walking in the street, I suddenly think of these things, which makes people deeply feel the mystery of urban space-time change.

Another reason why we like uprising road is that we can see the beauty of city streets in those "vulgar" and most ordinary buildings, at least I think it is beautiful. There are many high-rise buildings along the way, such as Baihui Square, Jianye Building and He Run Building, but they are not the main buildings of the Uprising Road. Under the shadow of banyan trees with different shapes on both sides of the street, those old houses with three or four floors have simple and exquisite structural lines. Although some blue brick buildings are covered with commercial signs or other sundries, we can still find the exquisite art of their buildings. I also noticed that the dark walls and dark windows under the canopy have a static mystery, suggesting that this is a harbor of life, where you can live peacefully. The landscape formed by these old houses and the old banyan trees outside the window building is very similar to the prototype of human habitation, as the architectural art historian Grante hildebrand said when analyzing this pattern.

However, in my opinion, the most pleasant thing about the uprising road is its winding streets. This kind of bending enriches the street view and has the feeling of walking in it. This is the unique charm of city streets, which makes people fondle it. Cliff Mumforting, a British urban theorist, said: "It is a great pleasure to appreciate the eclecticism of tortuous streets, or with a lasting excitement, I hope that the unfolding of every corner or the unpredictable left and right turns in alleys will bring picturesque scenes." ②? When I read the materials, I found that when Weixin Road, an important section of the city's central axis, was built, the municipal authorities made a big circle and avoided Qian Qing Academy, which led to the zigzag shape of the street. I can't help secretly admiring. As early as more than 90 years ago, the urban builders in Guangzhou knew how to respect meaningful buildings and make street designs that conform to human characteristics, and they did not hesitate to adjust and bend the central axis of the city. When talking about the care of medieval urban planning experts for winding streets, Mount Ford said: "The natural trace left by a pedestrian is a slightly curved curve (unless he intends to overcome this natural tendency) ... Once this pedestrian leaves a curve, its beauty becomes a feature of medieval architecture, and it is also manifested in buildings in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, such as the perfect" Oxford Street ". One of the important reasons why we think that the ordinary uprising road always has some inexplicable beauty and always brings us some unspeakable pleasure is that its design and scale conform to people's natural tendency.

It's convenient to get to this street. The whole section with a total length of 1.2km * * includes Zhongshan 5th Road, Xihu Road, Huifu Road, Danan Road and Dade Road. The entrances and exits of seven main streets, such as Daxin Road, Taikang Road and Yide Road, are less than180m on average. Plus Gaudi Street, Weixin Street, Ma 'an Street and other wide cross lanes, there are many entrances and exits. The entrance and exit are also clearly distinguishable. The street vein and texture of this scale should be said to be extremely attractive to people.

Another basic advantage of the uprising road is the overall coordination of street buildings. Most of the buildings along the street are 2 to 5 floors, with little height fluctuation. The types of buildings are not consistent, but they can coordinate with each other in style. The colors and materials of building facades may be different, and even some are quite different, but they are not abrupt. A good street does not have to be supported by magnificent buildings. There is no such building on the uprising road. Very dull, but it is coherent and aesthetic. In particular, the trees arranged along the road have strengthened this sense of overall coordination.

A street with trees on both sides is always pleasant. Although the uprising road may not be completely blocked by trees, some trees are still a little too small and the crown is not dense enough, but trees do contribute a lot to this street. Trees have been planted on almost the whole section of the uprising road, which makes pedestrians get the coolness of shade, and the green makes people calm, which benefits the quiet feeling of the street to some extent. Rows of trees also act as a safety barrier for pedestrians, at least increasing their psychological sense of security. Trees certainly have aesthetic significance. The dense crowns of those tall banyan trees cover the buildings on both sides of the street, and the sun shines on the facade of the building through the gaps between the branches and leaves, forming a mottled and changeable light and shadow effect. These trees are also like colonnades built along the street, which more or less strengthen the boundary of the street and make up for the uneven visual deficiency of some sections of buildings.

However, walking on the uprising road, you will still obviously feel the lack of this street, and this feeling is sometimes quite strong. For an important street located in the central city and on the central axis, the uprising road is obviously too cold, even a little run-down and depressed. Measured by the index of people flow, under normal circumstances during the day, the number of people passing through here per minute and per meter width will mostly be less than 3 to 4, and it feels relatively empty. Especially after dark, it is far from Beijing Road, only a few hundred meters to the east. Streets lack the diversity they deserve.

This situation may be caused by many reasons. Among them, the single function of street use seems to be an important reason. Most of the shops here are engaged in flag printing and dyeing, medals, trophies and other commodities, which are usually not so important to the daily life of citizens. This is a question of how to coordinate street characteristics with other needs. But perhaps the more important reason is that the height and density of street buildings are insufficient, which leads to unclear street boundaries and weak sense of enclosure, and also makes streets fail to promote the diversity of street life with rich changes in buildings. Some urban theories believe that when the height-width ratio of a street is between 1:4 and 1: 0. 4, people's feelings about the street are the most appropriate, even the strongest. They think that an excellent street should have many buildings, not few. The more buildings, the greater the contribution to the street. If the uprising road is to be excellent, it seems that it needs to be strengthened in these aspects.

Some people may think that this diversity and the changes it causes will change the leisurely feeling of the uprising road, and the uprising road does not need diversity. Obviously, diversity and the feeling of leisure are opposite, but promoting diversity makes streets more interesting and energetic, and keeps them quiet and leisurely. The two are not mutually exclusive, but can be integrated in the same street. Just like Saint Michel Avenue in the Latin quarter on the left bank of the Seine River in Paris, you can enjoy leisure shopping and mellow coffee under the shade of trees and the neon lights flashing between branches and leaves. There is a famous Shakespeare bookstore not far from here. Just like the ancient street of Bologna in north-central Italy, it is not only a quiet and leisure place for walking, but also a rich and varied place for shopping and gathering. Of course, some streets in Guangzhou should be quiet, but quiet should not belong to the Uprising Road on the central axis of the city-Uprising Road should be an elegant, leisurely and varied street.

(Written on Liuhua Lake)

Comment ※

(1) See [Qing] Chen Xianyou's proofreading of Yangcheng Ancient Banknotes compiled by Qiu Juchuan. Guangdong people's publishing house 1 99365438+February1p.193–195.

(2) see [English] Cliff Mufting's Streets and Squares (second edition) translated by Zhang Yonggang Lu Weidong. China Building Industry Press, June 2004, version 1, page 157.

③ See [America] lewis mumford's History of Urban Development-Origin, Evolution and Prospect. China Building Industry Press, February 2005, p. 323, version 1.

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■ This article is quoted from Guangzhou Expectation Street written by the author and photographed by Yang Heping. This reissue, slightly modified, added a subtitle.

■ Photographer Yang Heping has been engaged in newspaper photography and editing for a long time. He has won the photojournalism award of China Radio and Television Society and other awards. Graduated from university majoring in photography, member of the Royal Photographic Society. I like the philosophy of American photographer paul strand: direct photography, that is, "truthfully describing" and "accurately refining" static scenery, and "objectively showing" the inner world of secular figures. Like "street photography", like shooting small places, little people, like telling stories with images. I stated that London: turn a blind eye, San Remo: lose elegance, the heart of Provence, Vienna: there is an ordinary story about coffee called melancholy.

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