A bustling area where mountains and rivers converge (entering traditional villages)

Figure 1: The tea maker is making Anhua Thousand Liang Tea.

Provided by the Propaganda Department of Anhua County Committee

Figures 2 and 3: On the Tang Family Temple Ancient Street, wooden signs convey the atmosphere of an ancient commercial port.

Figure 2 is taken by Qiao An

Figure 3 is taken by our reporter Shen Zhilin

Figure 4: In front of the Tang Family Temple ancient residential building, several villagers are showcasing the tea picking process of Anhua black tea.

Provided by the Propaganda Department of Anhua County Committee

Figure ⑤: Tangjia Temple, a traditional village nestled by mountains and water.

Photo by Li Liangbing

Figure ⑥: The picturesque Tangxi Tea Garden in Anhua County.

Photo by Zhou Deshu

Places where rivers flow often give rise to bustling towns and villages.

The surging Zijiang River, spanning thousands of miles, breaks through the towering Xuefeng Mountains, passes over the county town of Anhua in Hunan Province for more than 20 miles, and joins the Zhuxi and Chaxi rivers before turning two paths back into the deep bay.

On the north bank of the Second Bay, a row of stilted buildings are scattered and stand along the river. The Qingshi Wharf extends to the center of the waterway, climbing up the stairs, passing through a narrow alley over five feet wide, and climbing onto an old street that is only three or four meters wide and only a few miles long, to reach the millennium old commercial port nurtured by this long river - Tangjiaguan, Dongping Town, Anhua County, Yiyang City, Hunan Province.

Since the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Family View has frequently appeared in various historical documents and materials. Even today, walking on the millennium old streets of the Tang Family Temple, one can still witness a large number of ancient commercial and cultural relics. In 2012, Tangjiaguan was included in the first batch of traditional Chinese village lists.

In history, Tangjiaguan in Dongping Town, Anhua County, Yiyang City, Hunan Province played a crucial role in the entire Meishan region. Zeng Hongjun, a local cultural and historical expert in Anhua County, introduced that the Zijiang River runs through the east and west, with official roads connecting the north and south, and water and land transportation intersecting. Tangjiaguan has always been an important town for commercial exchanges and a post station for travelers and merchants. Salt tea trade, tea horse trade, and even various trades such as palm, tung, bamboo, wood, tea, medicine, and iron have turned this land of just over 3 square kilometers into one of the most famous commercial ports in the Zijiang River Basin.

Preserve the intact ancient village

The surging water flows through Tangjiaguan, and due to the influence of the terrain, the flow velocity drops significantly, forming a natural deep-water harbor. After the establishment of Anhua County in the fifth year of the Xining reign of the Northern Song Dynasty, Anhua's tea became tribute tea and border selling tea. As an important distribution center for Anhua tea, Tangjiaguan attracts merchants and merchants. During its heyday, the Tang family saw the integration of land and water, and goods were available throughout the country. Nine major trading docks were explored from the old street towards Zijiang.

"In the 1920s and 1930s, the porters loading and unloading goods on the dock carried pole after pole, with a constant stream of people moving shoulder to shoulder." 78 year old Tang City community resident Wang Dewu told reporters that his family has been engaged in handicrafts or business in Tangjiaguan for four generations, and he often hears the elderly describe the prosperous situation of Tangjiaguan. "There are many boats sailing on the river, and there are thousands of rowers all over the river. Rowing up and down feels like bowing hands. Therefore, there has always been the saying 'a thousand people bowing hands, ten thousand lamps'." Wang Dewu said.

On the shore, there are numerous shops providing clothing, food, housing, transportation, and various services for business travelers. Every night, the lamps and lanterns in each store make the old street feel like daylight. "According to incomplete statistics, in the 1930s, there were 156 shops in the Tang Family Temple that could only be called" top tier "shops," said Zeng Hongjun. Up to now, heading west from the east entrance of Tangjiaguan Old Street, a group of wooden signboards with storefronts of time-honored brands such as Zeng Xiqing Bank, Chen Yongxing Rice Shop, and Dai Renqi Inn have stood in the wind.

"There are at least 7 influential ancient commercial ports within the Anhua area where the Zijiang River flows, and Tangjiaguan is the relatively best preserved one," said Zhang Wantao, Secretary of the Tangshi Community Party Branch in Dongping Town.

After 2008, a hydroelectric power station was built on the Zijiang River, with bridges and roads connected. Some residents planned to demolish wooden houses and build new ones. However, the local government and the public quickly realized the historical and cultural heritage attributes of the old neighborhood. In 2013 and 2016, with the successive inclusion in the list of historical and cultural districts in Hunan Province and the inclusion in the key recommended list for the application of the Wanli Tea Ceremony for World Cultural Heritage, the historical style of Tangjiaguan was further protected.

Nowadays, walking through old streets, stepping on bluestone slabs, with quaint wooden buildings on both sides, lanterns hanging under the eaves, and moss covering the steps, every step can feel the aftertaste of history.

An ancient commercial port with cultural integration

A place where mountains and rivers converge and people thrive. From having only one Yanjia Dock and an intersection in the early days, to the flourishing nine major docks side by side and hundreds of shops arranged in rows, Tangjiaguan has gone through a process of gradually gathering commercial and trade populations from various regions. "At its peak, the Tang Family Temple gathered residents with over 60 surnames," Zhang Wantao told reporters.

In the Jishi Ancestral Hall on the west side of the old street, one can more intuitively feel the traces of the integration of diverse cultures. "The wooden columns and square beams of the second house in the ancestral temple are distinctive Hunan features; the fire sealing wall of the wall also integrates the shapes of Jiangxi and even Anhui architecture; but in terms of specific details, they are also influenced by the Meishan culture in Hunan, such as the roof figures on the mountain wall, which only retains the phoenix totem that is widely worshipped in Meishan area." Zeng Hongjun said.

Despite frequent collisions of different commercial cultures, the Tang Family Temple has always maintained an overall balance of order. According to research, in front of the former site of Qining Temple on the east side of Tangjiaguan Old Street, there were dendrobiums, stone rulers, and stone scales. Any transactions that occurred on the old street can be reviewed and calibrated here without leaving the street. In a storage room in Tangshi Community, more than 20 inscriptions of various types from Tangjiaguan since the mid Qing Dynasty have been collected, covering various systems such as tea regulations, commercial regulations, and dock regulations. It can be regarded as a "living fossil" of multicultural integration and commercial exchange regulations.

As recorded in the inscription of the "Regulations on Tea Affairs" in the 17th year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty, "Do not lightly weigh or weigh the tea leaves, and do not burden the tea households with hardship; do not collect the tea leaves as usual, and do not cleverly establish names or colors..." The standardized and relatively strict management system effectively ensures the order of commerce and trade. "To this day, the spirit of understanding propriety and valuing negotiation inherited from commercial culture has had a profound impact on the residents of Tangjiaguan," said Zhang Wantao.

An open and enterprising ancient street area

The open and enterprising commercial culture is imprinted in the bones of the old residents of Tangjiaguan and also influences a group of newcomers to ancient villages.

At the intersection of ancient streets and alleys, a group of tourists from Shenzhen are taking photos and taking photos in front of the "Wen Xiang Ji Tea Shop". Behind the tea shop counter, Li Wen, who came from a nearby town to start a business at Tangjiaguan, used a cast iron pot to boil a pot of water and took a spoonful of some vintage "Tianjian" tea to brew. She was chatting with tea enthusiasts who had come from afar about traditional tea culture.

Li Wen, who used to make tea in Fujian, returned to Anhua last year and rented this old house to become the "Wen shopkeeper" of a tea business. "I have always wanted to find a place that best embodies the Anhua tea culture. Looking around, it is the Tang Family View that best fits the image in my mind," said Li Wen.

Thanks to the ancient building restoration work that began in Anhua County in 2018, more than ten out of 75 Ming and Qing Dynasty ancient houses in Tangjiaguan have been fully repaired. At the same time, the latest plan for the renovation of the Tangjiaguan ancient architectural complex has also been approved by relevant departments in Hunan Province, and the overall style of Tangjiaguan will be improved annually.

Under the government's organization, some villagers have entrusted the repaired houses to the Tangshi community for management. With the support of the housing and construction, cultural and tourism departments in Anhua County, as well as the resident community work team, the community is actively introducing new commercial entities and mobilizing more villagers to use the repaired or preserved houses to develop various business models.

In the new era, the Tang family's new generation of merchants and merchants have already had a different way of doing business. There are more than one new type of "merchant" like Li Wen, and just across from "Wen Xiang Ji Tea Shop", the shop of "Six Girls" is also thriving. Store owner Zhang Luyan has been learning live streaming sales since 2020. In the second half of last year, she was invited by Zeng Hongjun to come to Tangjiaguan and start a live stream of agricultural specialty products.

"In less than a month, thousands of bamboo shoots and rice cakes alone have been sold," Zhang Luyan told reporters, with more than 10 households using this to generate income. Villager Ji Fengju sold thousands of bamboo shoots and rice cakes, earning over 4000 yuan. "Sitting at the doorstep, observing the world and earning money with good craftsmanship, the Tang family's business spirit of observing people cannot be lost," she said with a smile.

At the beginning of 2023, the "Millennium Ancient Town Tangjiaguan First New Year Goods Culture Festival" was held on the old street, further promoting cultural and tourism consumption. With more tourists, many villagers have rediscovered the trade traditions of the ancient commercial port. Farmhouse restaurants and tea houses are gradually reviving on the old streets, with shops such as grocery stores and tofu shops emerging one after another. "Residents hope that the restoration work can be accelerated, allowing more old houses to resume their commercial functions, and reproducing the scene of 'the tea market is thriving, and the population on both sides is thick'," said Zeng Hongjun.