Less than two kilometers from Disney, Shanghai's most primitive old town, but can not hide from the fate of demolition

Shanghai is a city of deep human history, with the accelerated pace of urbanization, hidden in all corners of Shanghai's old streets have different destinies. Some of these old streets have become tourist attractions, some are being remodeled, and some have completely disappeared. Every city has its own unique, only deep into the heart of the city to find those places, so far there is still a remnant of the city's past, Hengshin ancient town of Shanghai is such an existence.

Two kilometers west of Shanghai Disneyland, there is a fading, increasingly depressed and dilapidated ancient town - Hengshin Ancient Town. Hengshin is named after the pillowed Hengshin Harbor. In the era when transportation was mainly by water, she was an important commodity distribution center for Chuansha and Nanhui. During the Yuan Dynasty, the name was changed to Shinnxi because of the abundance of water and the fact that the stream was often full. The name Hengshin began in the Ming Dynasty. It is said that Hengshin Harbor is shaped like a flagpole, and the Shaking Yarn Harbor at its southern end runs northwestward to the small peak land where it meets the east-west oriented Salt Ship Harbor.

In the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, a market was gradually formed at the confluence of the two rivers, Hengshin Harbor and Yanshun Harbor, and the town, which lived in Hengshin Harbor, was named Hengshin after the river. At that time, there were more than 100 stores in the street, such as oil press, rice milling, cotton cloth, flour, pawnshop, restaurant, money changer, etc. Every day, there were three small fireboats going to and from Hengshin town to Shanghai city, and the cargo ships came in and out frequently, which was called one of the eighteen towns in Pudong, etc. After Hengshin township government was moved to the new site 3 kilometers to the west to form a new township in 1981, the area became the old Hengshin Township, or Hengshin Street, and it gradually fell into decay.

Hengshin Old Town consists of four old streets: Hexi Street, Zhongdajie Street, Miaoqian Street, and Huayuan Street. Among them, the east-west "Garden Street" is the main old street in Hengshin, where the old houses are relatively well preserved and the layout of the old days is maintained. It is a place where the residents concentrated during the late Qing Dynasty and early Civil War, with two-story old buildings on both sides of the street.

There used to be a lot of stores here with a wide range of goods, but now the merchants are no longer visible, and the area has gone straight back from business to residence. Walking on the pavement made of green stone slabs, people are sparse. Those who live here are basically old people or laborers coming to Shanghai. Walking along the old street's stone road, a closed store door and a fallen brick wall seem to be silently holding on to the prosperity of the past.

With the acceleration of urbanization in Pudong, the old town of Hengshin seems to have become a corner forgotten by the world, gradually falling into disrepair and depression. With the rise of the ancient town tours, gradually there will be some young men and women come to the ancient town on their free days. In their eyes, the remaining architectural silhouette of the ancient town and the scenery of the water town fragments, still preserved in the Jiangnan water towns disappearing simplicity and primitive, full of years of quiet rural atmosphere.

In 2013, Shin Qing Village, which consists of farmers in Hengshin Town and the surrounding countryside, was selected as one of the first "Chinese Traditional Villages". The old town of Hengshin thus came into the limelight. However, Hengshin Old Town is actually in a state of stagnation or even abandonment. At present, Hengshin Old Town has a sense of tranquility in the midst of a small number of people and a sense of vicissitudes that have not been carved out. With a large number of the original residents having moved out, only a few foreign tenants remain. Hengshin, like the fate of many other old towns, will not be spared from demolition and remodeling. Now Hengshin is going to become a supporting attraction around Disneyland.

There are very few people living in the town now, and most of them have already moved out, leaving behind these old empty houses that tell the story of the town's history and have become dilapidated with the passage of time. Farewell, a section of Shanghai Pudong New Area Hengshin Ancient Town is disappearing the original appearance and the old generation of people left behind in the heart of the difficult to let go of the memory. Hopefully, after the reconstruction will not repeat the present all those commercial towns, leaving a little bit of the original traces, so that the people who once lived here have a reminiscence.