Looking for the history around us-an investigation report on Huangpu history.

Guangzhou is the birthplace of China's Maritime Silk Road. The ancient Huangpu Port, located in the waters around Huangpu Village and Shiji Village in Xinzhen Town, Haizhu District, was the only port of Guangzhou Maritime Silk Road in Qing Dynasty, and still retains a large number of relics and cultural relics. Experts from Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Research Association, Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences and the Municipal Social Science Planning Leading Group, after long-term investigation and on-the-spot investigation, agreed that, in view of the fact that Huangpu ancient port site has suffered and is suffering from various kinds of damage, it is necessary to immediately proceed with protection, rescue and preliminary research, and formulate specific plans for protection and comprehensive utilization as soon as possible and implement them.

First, the value and present situation of the site

17- 19 century is the most glorious period of Guangzhou in the world, and it is still praised by western countries as "the golden age of trade with China". The ancient Huangpu Port played an irreplaceable role in Guangzhou's foreign trade in the Qing Dynasty: from 1685 to 1757, foreign merchant ships traded in China. 1757, the Qing government announced that only foreign trade was allowed in Guangzhou, and the position of the ancient Huangpu port was even more important. From 1749 to 1838, 5390 foreign merchant ships entered Guangzhou, most of which entered Guangzhou from Huangpu Port. Empress of china, the first American ship to China, arrived in Huangpu on August 28th, 1784 and set sail from Huangpu port on February 28th, 1784, which caused a sensation in American society and became "a far-sighted, outstanding and fruitful voyage". The famous Swedish merchant ship "Gothenburg" returned a large number of porcelain from Guangzhou in1745+1October and sank in the Baltic Sea due to a shipwreck. 1After it was salvaged in the summer of June, 989, there were only 9 tons of porcelain fragments, more than 300 tons of tea leaves, and tea fragrance for drinking. It strongly witnessed the prosperity of the Maritime Silk Road at that time and the historical position of Huangpu ancient port.

The mode of trade at that time was unique. Foreign ships and goods are generally not allowed to enter the urban area of Guangzhou, and they must call at Huangpu Port for loading, unloading and trade. Therefore, Huangpu Port undertakes many functions: Jiangyuan Wharf next to the port is docked with many foreign ships; In addition to import and export duties, bank notes, water diversion fees, banking regulations, comprador fees and registered bank fees of foreign merchant ships. Are collected by the "Guangdong Customs Huangpu Registered Port" located on the shore; Foreign ships entering and leaving Huangpu port and foreign businessmen and trade matters from Huangpu to and from Guangzhou are specifically responsible for by the foreign affairs office located here; The comprador museum is responsible for the daily necessities of foreign businessmen in Hong Kong; The security of Huangpu Port is the responsibility of Yongjing Camp located here. Responding to the harmony between the right place and the right time, Huangpu Village once developed into a "town with a thousand people" in the middle of Qing Dynasty. Residents mostly make a living by serving foreign trade, such as comprador, stevedore, blacksmith and boatman. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 40 comprador in the village. During the Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty (1862- 1874), Huangpu Port had to be moved to cheung chau island because of siltation and disrepair, and the name of Huangpu Port was still used.

Today, when we were wandering around the village, we saw that Huangpu Village was deeply impressed by the glory of the past, and the typical buildings of the Qing Dynasty attracted attention in the village. Judging from the layout of the whole village, it is built by water, which is not the style of ordinary ancient villages, but has the typical characteristics of the ancient town of China. Up to now, the village still retains the names of the squares, streets and alleys of the former towns, and the traces of the port city are faintly discernible. After preliminary investigation, the most valuable cultural relics at present mainly include:

Ancient pier ruins and trade street. Huangpu Ancient Wharf was originally named Jiangyuan Wharf, and now there is still a "Waterfront Street" on the shore. In the past, it was close to the dock and the trade was extremely prosperous. There are still old wooden stakes near the pier, and some villagers dug solid pile foundations when building houses. There are a large number of stone tablets and tombstones of foreign seafarers and businessmen scattered nearby, with inscriptions in many languages. The so-called "Fan people" who used to bury foreigners in an area called Simagang on the river bank opposite the pier are extremely precious objects on the Maritime Silk Road. Huangpu Street, basically preserved as it is, is an important trade area in the late Qing Dynasty with some street features. Because the construction of private houses has been destroyed, it still has high restoration and utilization value.

The ancient ancestral temple. There used to be more than 30 ancestral halls in the village, but now there are 16. The famous temples are Lianggong Temple, Hualong Fenggong Temple, Roche Temple, Hu Temple, Fengci Temple, etc. There are 99 doors. The ancestral temple building has Lingnan characteristics, wide structure and exquisite decoration. All kinds of brick carvings, stone carvings and wood carvings are lifelike, some of which are beyond the reach of Chenjia Temple in the city. From the point of view of single building, it shows a strong legacy of "the prosperity of Kang and Gan". However, some ancestral halls are seriously damaged internally, and the ancestral halls are extremely uncoordinated with some surrounding new houses.

Folk houses. There are dozens of well-preserved traditional houses in the village, most of which are concentrated in ancient streets and lanes paved with bluestone slabs such as Laiyanli, Hengchenli, Zhongzhengli and Shen Ming Street. Such as "Zipingju", "Shequ Garden", Feng Zhaoxian's former residence, Hu Xuanze's former residence and so on. Most of the houses are well-crafted, and sculptures, bi paintings, leaky windows, flower bases, doorways, gray plastic door couplets and so on with Lingnan characteristics can be seen everywhere. If it can be restored and protected in pieces, it will become an important scenic spot for comprehensive development. Some street gatehouses are also well preserved.

Temple. The original Huatuo Temple, Hong Shen Temple, Notre Dame and Tianhou Palace were all related to overseas trade and navigation at that time. At present, only one Beidi Temple (also known as Yuxu Palace) is basically preserved. At present, there are eight inscriptions on the reconstruction of the Beidi Temple, engraved with 1755 and other important words and materials such as "Huangpu tax collectors" in the reconstruction of the Beidi Temple monument. There are also some stone carvings, stone pillars and other cultural relics left in front of the temple.

Needless to say, the value of the ancient port site. Over the years, due to the lack of cultural relics protection concept and the destruction of residential buildings, the ancient port sites have been seriously damaged. During our investigation, some private houses were still building illegally, but no one stopped them. The resulting damage to the overall layout of the website can not be ignored. Fortunately, within about150m around Huangpu Primary School, ancestral halls and houses are relatively concentrated and well preserved, which is convenient for future development.

Second, a good environment for protection and development.

As far as the overall situation of Guangzhou's urban development is concerned, the protection and development of Huangpu Village's ancient port site has reached an urgent time, and it is also facing unprecedented opportunities:

-Protecting the site of the ancient port after development can be one of the important achievements and image projects of Guangzhou's "Ten-year Great Change". After completing the project of "a small change every year and a medium change every three years", it is urgent to choose some major projects that are closely related to Guangzhou's urban development and can reflect the color of "great change". The ancient port site can not only reflect Guangzhou's 2000-year-old port city style, but also has high tourism and cultural value, which can promote the construction of overseas Chinese hometown and best show the vicissitudes of Guangzhou from ancient times to the future. Only with great generosity, boldness and foresight can we advance in an all-round way.

-The need for the development of cultural tourism industry in Guangzhou. Outsiders have lamented Guangzhou's "no tour" and its cultural attractions "more stars and fewer months". In the past, they spent a lot of money to build the "moon" project, but the result was not satisfactory. Among them, riding a horse to find a horse, divorced from the reality of Guangzhou, blindly seeks the big and the foreign. Just imagine, if you try to go to Huangpu ancient port as soon as possible, and properly package it to reflect the urban characteristics and Lingnan customs of Guangzhou Port, it will become a pearl with great historical and cultural characteristics and tourism value. The successful protection and development of Old Town of Lijiang in Yunnan and zhouzhuang town in Kunshan, Jiangsu set a precedent (see appendix).

-Providing reliable "hardware" support for Guangzhou, the birthplace of the Maritime Silk Road and the glorious history of the port that has remained unchanged for more than 3,000 years. According to UNESCO's world cultural heritage standards, Guangzhou can integrate scattered shipyards and lighthouses of the Qin Dynasty-Huaisheng Temple, Xilaichudi, Muslim ancient tombs, Nanhai Temple, Huangpu Village ancient port and so on. And declared them as sites of the Maritime Silk Road. At present, the biggest deficiency is that there are too few related physical objects and original sites. The protection and excavation of Huangpu ancient port can provide rich and direct physical objects, which undoubtedly increases the chips for successful declaration. 200 1 Xidi Village and Hongcun Village, the ancient villages of Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province, were selected as cultural heritage, and their biggest "hardware" was complete and primitive residential buildings, which was instructive to Guangzhou.

-From the perspective of enhancing the competitiveness of cities. The leaders of Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have repeatedly stressed that the primary task for big cities to win or lose by cultural theory and enhance their competitiveness in the future is to fully develop historical and cultural resources. Judging from the stock of historical and cultural resources, among Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Beijing is unique and unparalleled. Compared with Shanghai, Guangzhou has certain advantages, but it has not been fully developed yet. In the late 1980s, Shanghai began to restore the Ming and Qing buildings in Zhujiajiao Town, a suburb, presenting an ancient picture of a water town in the south of the Yangtze River. Even Zhouzhuang, which is far away from Kunshan, has been included in Shanghai's tourism circle. Guangzhou should give full play to the advantages of historical and cultural resources in urban competitiveness as soon as possible, and the protection and development of Huangpu ancient port can set an example for this goal.

-Respond to the overall strategic demand of "eastward expansion and southward expansion" of Guangzhou city center. The shift of Guangzhou's urban center of gravity will certainly promote the rapid development of Pazhou area, and the protection and development of Huangpu ancient port site will become a "bright spot" in this area in the future, greatly enhancing the overall value of this area. It is also worth noting that Huangpu Village is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese in Guangzhou. According to the statistics of 1990, there are 3029 local villagers, while there are 1446 people living overseas and in Hong Kong and Macao. There is also a saying that the number of people traveling abroad exceeds the population of the village. Overseas Chinese love their hometown and care about the construction of Huangpu Village and Guangzhou. The protection and development of Huangpu ancient port will greatly enhance the sense of honor of overseas Chinese living in the village and strengthen the ties between overseas Chinese and Guangzhou. At the same time, there are many overseas Chinese, Hong Kong and Macao compatriots in the village who enthusiastically support and have strong financial resources. They can also be guided to participate in the protection and development, which can be described as the best of both worlds.

Three. progress

Huangpu ancient port is not far from Guangzhou, but it has been neglected for a long time because of well-known reasons, so it has been damaged to some extent. From 65438 to 0986, Huang Jin, a cadre of Guangzhou Huangqiao Research Association, investigated overseas Chinese and discovered this ancient port site named "Guangzhou" for the first time. During the period of 1987, the Municipal Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and the Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Research Association made an appointment with experts from the History Department of Sun Yat-sen University and Southeast Asian Institute to visit the village for investigation. In order to compile Selected Overseas Chinese Sites in Guangzhou, the situation of Huangpu Ancient Port Site began to be known. 1988, Xu and Luo Rucai published the article Huangpu Village, Huangpu Port and Mr. Huangpu, systematically discussing the historical evolution of Huangpu ancient port. Yu Dingbang, Huang Qichen and others have also published articles about Huangpu ancient port. For more than ten years, these experts, scholars and enthusiasts have been making unremitting investigations and textual research, and gradually unveiled the mystery shrouded in this ancient port.

Since 2000, with Guangzhou's emphasis on historical and cultural industries, the issue of Huangpu ancient port site has gradually attracted the attention of relevant decision-making departments and all walks of life. On March 1 2000, the "Feng Pu (Huangpu Village) Project Research Group" of the Municipal Overseas Chinese Research Association, headed by Stuart Mei Fang, submitted a report to Vice Mayor Shen Bainian through the Municipal Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, suggesting that the municipal government quickly organize relevant departments to demonstrate and study the protection, rescue and development of the Feng Pu site. Shen Bainian, vice mayor, instructed Haizhu District Committee and District Government to do a good job in implementation. On May 26th, 2000, Yu Dingbang, Lin, Luo Rucai, Huang Qichen and Liang Biying of Sun Yat-sen University jointly wrote a letter to the mayor of Lin Shusen, stressing the importance of protecting the site of Huangpu ancient port, believing that it could publicize Guangzhou's strengths and "show its unique advantages". Mayor Lin Shusen immediately instructed "the Municipal Planning Bureau and the Cultural Bureau to talk with these five experts and make some preliminary plans". On July 2 1 2000, Shi Hongping, director of the Municipal Planning Bureau, presided over a meeting in Yongfangtang, Sun Yat-sen University to discuss the protection of the ancient port site.

Just a little bit.