What is Shantang Street like?

Quote a passage from Millennium Changmen in Suzhou Culture Series: "Shantang Street is customarily said to be Qili Shantang, so people mistakenly think that the street from crossing the monk bridge outside Changmen to the Zhengshanmen Gate in Huqiu is seven miles long, but it is not the case. An accurate calculation of Shantang Street is less than seven Li, and its correct statement should be' Qili Shantang'. I don't know when seven carved civet cats' heads appeared in this street, hence the name' Seven Civet Mountain Pond', which was later misrepresented as' Qili Mountain Pond'. As for why there are seven civet cat heads standing on this street, it has not been verified yet. According to legend, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help worrying about Suzhou, which was Zhang Shicheng's stronghold, and sent Liu Bowen to visit Suzhou. Liu Bowen turned around in Suzhou East and West, and once he turned to Shantang Street, he found that the Shantang River runs across the Bai Causeway, which looks like Wolong. He was worried that there would be a real dragon emperor here, and he would compete with Zhu Yuanzhang, so he cast spells, set up seven civet cats on Shantang Street, and named them respectively. Shantang Bridge is Meiren Beaver, Tonggui Beaver, Star Beaver, Caiyun Beaver and Castle Peak. Legend has it that the Seven Beavers have the power of a giant lock of 1, kilograms, which can firmly and permanently lock the dragon body, and Zhu Ming Jiangshan can be spread to all generations ... In the 196s, the author saw that there was only one beaver head left on Shantang Street, in front of a small cigarette and paper grocery store opposite Tongqiao ... ". Coincidentally, it is also said in the newly-published Record of Mountain Pond Hooking and Sinking: "The original seven stone beavers carved with bluestone on the street of Mountain Pond fell on seven bridges, with different shapes and simple styles, so people are also called' Seven Beavers Mountain Pond'. ..... He (Liu Bowen) came up with a method to build seven bridges on the Shantang River, which is like seven locks ... And seven raccoons were placed in the bridge to guard the seven locks, which broke the' feng shui' ". ?

The two books cited above tell people three things: First, there are seven stone beavers; Second, each one is placed on the bridge embankment of seven river-crossing bridges; Third, it should be renamed as "Seven Beaches Mountain Pond". As we know, the seven bridges across the Shantang River are Shantang Bridge, tonggui bridge Bridge, Xingqiao Bridge, Caiyun Bridge, Puji Bridge, Wangshan Bridge and Xishanmiao Bridge in turn. "The Record of Mountain Pond Hooking and Sinking" says that these seven bridges were built by Liu Bowen to lock the Mountain Pond River, but it doesn't make sense.

I took a group of photos introducing Shantang Street and published them in a sub-column of "I love taking photos" in our Suzhou "Wu Forum" column. My screen name is "Gate 1". You can go and have a look.