Shu Mountain Ancient South Street is located in Dingshuzhen, Yixing City, facing the Li River to the south and backed by Shu Mountain to the north. The street stretches for a kilometer and is only three to four meters wide. The buildings along the street are all two-story structures made of brick and wood. The naturally balanced street view continues to tell the damp stories of the old street like the fine rain in Jiangnan.
Women sitting by the door picking vegetables, old men playing chess topless with palm fans, strong men holding purple sand teapots, puppies wagging their tails at the street corners, and people playing mahjong in the dim light… These scenes make the typical ancient streets of the Ming and Qing dynasties in Jiangnan flow with the poetic charm of the ceramic capital along the Li River that runs through the ancient town. As one of the first batch of ancient architectural protection units in Jiangsu Province and a cultural relics protection unit in Yixing City, Shu Mountain Old Street Alley is said to have been a bustling ‘Purple Sand Street’ in the old days. More than half of the residents here are engaged in the production and management of purple sand. They use their own houses, with the back rooms as production workshops and the front rooms facing the street as shops for business. The entire old street boasts over thirty purple sand pottery shops, indicating the prosperity of the purple sand industry at that time. In addition to pottery shops, the old street also has teahouses, cloth shops, hardware stores, and small grocery stores, all centered around families. They live a peaceful and self-sufficient life without cheating the young or the old. Next to the old street, the Li River is filled with large and small wooden boats, including fishermen, farmers transporting vegetables, and more importantly, transportation boats for ceramic products. Through this river, the ceramics from South Street are transported to all directions. The opening hours and specific business status are subject to the actual opening conditions on the day.Shu Mountain Ancient South Street
Shu Mountain Ancient South Street is located in Dingshuzhen, Yixing City, facing the Li River to the[...]
