By Rui Hu, EDITOR
Longtan Ancient Town, with a history of more than 2,200 years, boasts not only unique ancient buildings but also talented people and celebrities.
Longtan ancient town
Long history
Longtan Ancient Town was built initially in Meishu Village, Bohai Township, and was named Meishu Longtan (Meishu Dragon Pool) because of the two dragon eye-shaped pools on its east and west sides. A fire later destroyed the town, and then was rebuilt by the Longtan River (formerly known as the Meishu River).
In the age without railways, highways or airplanes, river shipping was an essential mode of transportation. The town embraced many piers and ships, and prosperous markets along the river. Merchants from all over the country brought in cloth and fine porcelain from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and shipped out tung oil, tea and raw lacquer from the town. “Longtan Ancient Town was well-known in Southeast Chongqing as a land of trade.”
During the War of Resistance, it lied beside the Longtan River and China National Highway 319, making it the transit point for carrying supplies in wartime. Therefore, it gathered major banks, transport companies, and hundreds of cars, wooden boats, hotels, shops, restaurants, teahouses, theaters, cinemas, and so on. In a short time, its population soared to 50,000, which brought together the flavor of the north and the south, making it prosperous unprecedentedly. Thanks to its long history and geographical advantage (near the mountain and by the river), numerous people in business came here, and the developed transportation contributed to the boom in housing construction. Up to now, there are still old flagstone-paved streets, quadrangle courtyards and firewalls more than 200 years ago.
Longtan ancient town
Numerous celebrities
Among these old buildings, Zhao’s Manor is a quadrangle courtyard of the Qing Dynasty, featuring brick-and-wood structure. In 2001, it was included by the State Council in the fifth batch of the national critical cultural relics protection units. There are 32 rooms and a statue of Comrade Zhao Shiyan in this north-south courtyard. The handwriting of “Former Residence of Zhao Shiyan” written by Deng Xiaoping is on the top of the east-facing gate.
In addition, there is another ancient building called the Wang Family Courtyard, covering an area of 4,790 square meters, including a building area of 2,280 square meters. The wood-structure building is divided into two parts, and the west one has the well-preserved architecture of the maiden, the east one owns the peculiar wooden-column-type quadrangle courtyard. It is the representative of the landlord’s mansion in Longtan Ancient Town and the particular case of ancient buildings there, with high historical, cultural and architectural art value.
The Wang Family Courtyard, built by Wang Shengtai, a provincial graduate in the Qing Dynasty, was the former residence of Wang Boshan, a member of Tongmenghui (Chinese United League) and Secretary of the Presidential Palace of Sun Yat-sen, and his daughter, as well as Wang Jianhong, the wife of Qu Qiubai. Besides, Liu Ren was born in Longtan Ancient Town, who was the former Secretary of the Secretariat of the North China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Second Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee.
Moreover, the famous writer Shen Congwen lived in this town in the 1920s, and he had repeatedly described in his works its beautiful natural scenery, long history, and colorful ethnic culture.
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