[Editor's note] Living in the city, enjoying the lifestyle of the city, chasing trends, and sometimes being nostalgic and relish the things of the past. Cities are changing so fast, and many forces are intertwined, changing every street, every neighborhood.
Yicai launched the column "Walking in the City", where reporters walked on the spot, described the city from the first perspective, collected the voices of urban observers, and experienced historical changes and urban renewal. Use footsteps, conversations, and words to explore the causes and possibilities of urban change.
In response to the topic of Shanghai's urban memory triggered by the hit TV series "Flowers", "Walking City" will also visit some old neighborhoods and well-known landmarks in Shanghai.
The TV series "Flowers" has been on the air recently, and Huanghe Road, as an important location in the play, has also become the focus of heated discussions. Is this food street in the center of Shanghai really as brilliant as it was shown in the play 30 years ago, and what does it look like now?The first financial reporter went to Huanghe Road for the first time.
Thirty years ago, a food street was formed.
The narration in the 10th minute of the tenth episode of the TV series "Flowers" said, "In 1993, Huanghe Road, a 755-meter-long street, opened more than 100 restaurants. Every night, it attracts countless large sums of money to spend here. In this year alone, hundreds of thousands of foreign wines poured into the throats of these Shanghainese. ”
In the memory of Shanghainese, Huanghe Road is one of the most famous food streets in Shanghai. It rose in the early nineties of the last century, south to Nanjing West Road, north to Xinzha Road, located in the north of the People's Square, is an absolute ** location.
The International Hotel on the east side of the south end of Huanghe Road, completed in 1934, was once the "tallest building in the Far East", and the sports building on the east side of the International Hotel is now the Shanghai Sports Museum. On the west side of the south end of Huanghe Road, in addition to the entertainment resorts of literary and artistic youth, Daguang Cinema and Yangtze River Theater, there are also Gongdelin Vegetarian Food, which was reopened in 2012, and Lao Fengxiang Treasures Private Trade Center, which was recently renovated and opened.
When it was completed in 1887, Huanghe Road was originally named Dongtai Road. Another saying is "Dongmoss Road", which is now the landmark hotel Moss Shengyuan (Zhizhen Garden in the TV series) at the intersection of Huanghe Road and Fengyang Road, in which the word "moss" may have something to do with the name of the road. In 1904, Huanghe Road was renamed Park Road, and there is no conclusive evidence as to why it was named, but it echoes the English name of the International Hotel, Park Hotel. In October 1943, the Shanghai authorities at that time took over the concession and renamed the road Huanghe Road, and the name of the road is still used today.
A large number of old brick and timber houses from the thirties of the last century are mixed with tall modernist theaters, apartments, and hotel buildings to form the streetscape of Huanghe Road. On this small road more than 10 meters wide, there are cigarettes, restaurants, and hardware shops, and there have been historical landmarks such as Jiufu Pharmaceutical Factory (built in 1924 and moved out in 1998), Star Theater (built in 1930, closed down in 1961, and changed to Jiaoyun Auditorium in 1984). Now take a trip to the Yellow River Road, and see these scenes.
In the book "Shanghai Famous Street Chronicle" compiled by the Shanghai Municipal Fang Zhi Office, experts selected the top ten famous streets and 12 famous streets in Shanghai, and Huanghe Road belongs to the third grade of "professional characteristic streets" and is known as "the food street in the middle of noisy". Although some restaurants have started businesses on Huanghe Road at the end of the 80s of the last century, the birth of characteristic streets is a joint force of chance and necessity in the spring breeze of reform.
At the beginning of 1992, a cadre who came to Shanghai on a business trip from other places wrote a letter to Huangpu District, mentioning that after visiting Nanjing Road, he could not eat at noon, there were too many people in line, and "there were more monks and less porridge", and asked for more restaurants. The office meeting of the head of Huangpu District agreed in principle to develop the Huanghe Road Food Street plan, and the development was officially launched in January 1993, requiring it to be completed before the Shanghai Huangpu Tourism Festival in October of that year.
According to the Huangpu Yearbook (1994-1998), in just eight months, residents along the street completed the conversion and relocation of houses, the Huangpu District Construction Committee and the Housing Management Bureau simplified the formalities to facilitate the digging of the ground and the increase of floors in the restaurants and restaurants, the Huangpu District Industrial and Commercial Bureau handled the business license as quickly as possible, and the Huangpu District District Office and the Finance and Trade Office completed the renovation of the gas facilities in only one month.
On September 30, 1993, with the completion of the colorful light sign at the street entrance, the Huanghe Road Food Street was officially completed. In 1994, in order to wish good fortune in the coming year, the owners spent millions of yuan on the Spring Festival. "New Huangchao", "Golden Eight Immortals", "Carlton", "Greater Hong Kong" and other restaurants cook Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine and seafood, as well as improved Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Guizhou cuisine, etc., and constantly introduce new dishes, with more than 200 kinds of dishes and dim sum.
The Yellow River Road formed the practice of all-night business, which greatly enriched the nightlife of Shanghai at that time, attracting overseas Chinese and foreigners in Shanghai, and it was not uncommon for celebrities to come to eat. In 1996, more than 1 million guests from all over the country and dozens of overseas countries and regions visited the Yellow River Road. In 1997, 8.5 million yuan was paid in taxes on the Yellow River Road. By 1997, there were nearly 50 restaurants in the Huanghe Road Food Street, including 29 collective enterprises, 16 individual enterprises and 2 private enterprises. In 1998, the total operating area of the restaurant group on Huanghe Road reached 20,000 square meters, an increase of 17 times compared with 1993, and the variety of dishes also reached about 1,000.
More than ten years of glory is looking forward to a resurgence.
As there are constantly citizens who "miss" the Yellow River Road after watching the TV series "Flowers", there are suddenly more people on the Yellow River Road in the past few days. The first financial reporter went to Huanghe Road on the third day of the TV series and met three ** interviews on the street. When many people walk through the intersection of Fengyang Road and Huanghe Road, they will stop for a while and pick up their mobile phones to take pictures of the old shop Moss Shengyuan in the northeast corner of the intersection. An old man walked slowly with the ingredients he had just bought, muttering, "I only came here after watching TV......”
A young reporter from a city ** in the city, who was standing at the intersection and preparing to interview citizens, told Yicai that she had studied at Cao Guangbiao Primary School and Gezhi Middle School on the east side of Huanghe Road since she was a child, and had lived with her family in the area of Huanghe Road for a long time. But as a "post-00s", she has not experienced the heyday of the Yellow River Road Food Street, and in her eyes, the Yellow River Road is just an ordinary street with more restaurants.
Another reporter, Xiao Dong, was born in 1998, and he still has some impressions of being taken by his family to Huanghe Road for dinner when he was a child. "Talking about the Yellow River Road is all history, compared to the current state can not be said much. ”
With the progress of Shanghai's urban renewal since the 90s of the last century, Shanghainese living in the city center have been moving to improve their living environment, and the Yellow River Road has become farther and farther away from people's daily life, and has gradually become a fragrant memory legend. On the road, in addition to the nostalgic middle-aged and elderly people, the first financial reporter saw young people queuing up at Internet celebrity stores such as Jiajia soup dumplings.
At the intersection of Dingxing Road, there are more than a dozen people queuing up at a "old Shanghai scallion pancake" stall. Ten meters away, at the entrance of an express delivery business department on Dingxing Road, the conveyor belt was whistling to transport the express mail on the van. In the TV series, "Mr. Bao" good brother "Tao Tao" opened Guling Road, where the seafood shop was opened, is now very quiet, and there is no smell of fresh food. The Yellow River Road is now more of a citywalk destination for tourists, making it a stopover in Shanghai. The neon lights are flashing, the cups are changing, and everything is going on.
Regarding the prosperity and decline of the Yellow River Road, the special note "Three Food Streets in Shanghai: Zhapu Road, Huanghe Road, and Yunnan South Road" in the Shanghai Chronicles, Service Industry Divisions, Commercial and Residential Service Volumes (1978-2010) published in December 2021 made some analysis. According to the article, the Yellow River Road arose in the early 80s of the last century in the tide of opening up and revitalization, and declined from the impact of the Asian financial crisis in 1997. At the turn of the century, the business pressure on Huanghe Road increased dramatically, and there were phenomena such as soliciting customers on the street and vicious discounts, and the "Huanghe Road Food Street Industry Association" spontaneously established by various restaurants had no good solution.
In 2003, the SARS epidemic hit Huanghe Road again, and the number of shops was reduced to 20 or 30, and the market was barely supported by snack bars, and some restaurants changed owners or changed into snack bars, foreign trade shops, and hotels many times. Many owners divide the shop and rent it to a number of small shops, resulting in complex property rights, messy business formats, and a worse and worse business environment. This paper summarizes the prosperity and decline of the Yellow River Road into four characteristics: the special dishes are no longer distinct, the hardware facilities are old, and the functions are too simple.
First, the rent and labor costs are rising.
"Fireworks" is the background color of the Yellow River Road, and it is necessary to find a new positioning to maintain the food street. The Outline of the Layout Plan for Commercial Outlets in Shanghai (2009-2020) positions Huanghe Road as a part of the city-level commercial center of Nanjing East Road, and proposes to build a characteristic food street on Huanghe Road under the premise of paying attention to the protection of urban history and culture, the shaping of commercial operation characteristics and the design of block form and style. The urban renewal of the surrounding Xinchang Road, Baihe Road, Qingdao Road, Wenzhou Road, etc. is also constantly advancing, and some new residential areas have been formed and are still being built. Spanning the vicissitudes of life, taking into account historical memory and practical needs, Huanghe Road has become a functional branch road for tourism and leisure in the city center, and the life services provided for residents are gradually improving.
From April to September 2006, Huangpu District set up a comprehensive management team for the cityscape of Huanghe Road to carry out long-term management of the cityscape and environment of Huanghe Road, renovate the street and its corresponding extensions, remove 30 illegal billboards, package 94 home air conditioners, and renovate the facades of restaurants and shops along the street.
In 2009, the International Hotel named the store at No. 28 Huanghe Road as "Fansheng Cake House", specializing in selling Chinese and Western pastries such as butterfly cakes, and expanded its business area from the original 20 square meters to nearly 100 square meters in 2011. Now, when I see the 100-meter-long queue of tourists buying butterfly cakes at the entrance of the International Hotel, I know that the Yellow River Road has arrived.