When I came to Harbin, my original goal was to be the famous Central Street, but the tour guide said that if I want to be more local, I would go to Laodaowai.

A hundred years ago, Harbin had only two districts, east and west, which was actually very similar to the relationship between Hong Kong Island and Shenzhen. Daoli and Nangang, west of the Central and Eastern Railway, were affiliated to Tsarist Russia, and were all living in foreigners. Large-scale urban construction led by foreigners began to emerge. Art Nouveau movement, Baroque, Classicism, Renaissance and eclecticism and other art styles appeared one after another.

On the east side of the Middle East Railway, the Daowai District opposite the Daoli District where foreigners are concentrated has not been included in the sphere of influence of Tsarist Russia, becoming the cradle of the rise of national industry and commerce. The people lived by the Chinese people. After the inflow of foreign capital, immigrants from Shandong and Hebei provinces "traveled to Guandong to invest in relatives and friends, invest in partnership, and set up commercial shops. These people not only have the spirit of hard work, but also have a relatively open mind, which laid the ideological foundation for their later acceptance of Western art.

Turning from Jingyang Street into Jingyu Street, look at the old houses on both sides along the street, which are full of chaos. The facades and inherent colors of the Chinese Baroque style buildings have been dismembered by many modern materials and large plaques here. Many buildings along the street can no longer see the main colors, and some buildings themselves are in danger.

This area has become a area to be demolished, and residents have moved one after another. After the collapse, the house only has a beautiful carved decoration for people to imagine. There are still traces of time-honored brands on the plaque that have been shoveled, which is difficult to identify.

There is a very imposing building in this narrow street. But I couldn't find a suitable angle to take a satisfactory photo. This building was originally an old bank, but you can't see the unique pattern, this area does not have this pattern. The door bolts inside the thick old iron door seem to be marking its former identity. According to the old map, this building is likely to have been the location of the Baolong Silver.

The four-story building next to it, which now seems inconspicuous, was the latest four-story department store in Northeast China, Daluo Xin Global Cargo Store. The store name is to collect global goods, which means innovation. Large glass windows on the foreign side have opened the first precedent for displaying commercial windows in Habu.

The golden plaque was written by Hua Shikui, a great calligrapher in Tianjin. There are haha ​​mirrors and electric models in the room. There are also objects borrowing departments and libraries in the business hall. Russian artists were specially hired to carefully display them. Wang Luobin, who later became the king of western singers, was also recommended to Daluo Xin to plan window displays.

The store has a first-of-its-kind elevator and money delivery machine in Harbin, which is particularly eye-catching. At that time, there was a saying that "when you arrive in Harbin, you must go to Daluoxin. The elevator will be sent upstairs and you will see the Western scenery." The passenger flow is constantly going on all day long, and cars, carriages and rickshaws are shipped far in front of the door.

The main body of this building is still well preserved, but the architectural form of the first floor facade is different from the past. It turns out that the door and large window under the porch have been flattened and converted into closed roller shutter doors. No one knows the past scenery of this dilapidated building. No one remembers that it was once the pride of Harbin national business. For nearly a century, the rain and wind blow, and the prosperity disappears like a dream.

The closed rolling gate, the words "dangerous building" on the wall, "test" and other words, and the relocation banners all show that this place will look different in the near future. No. 8 Beitou Road Street, this two-story building painted in mint green is very eye-catching.

In the old photos, the building has dark and light colors. In the colorful postcards issued by the Japanese, it was brick-red. At that time, it had a very beautiful name - Chunhetang. The reliefs on this small building are complex and gorgeous, and the various curly grass, flowers and fruits and the name Chunhetang are really matched.

Although it still has the same atmosphere as the past, after so many changes in the times, the society has undergone drastic changes. Many of the original buildings have also been rebuilt. The originally grand commercial areas seem a bit like slums. These old buildings that combine Chinese and Western have been nearly a century since their completion. They have been invaded by wind and rain, and have extremely lacked maintenance and supervision, and are seriously damaged.

The so-called decoration and plaques of existing merchants block and destroy these buildings, resulting in the unrecognizable appearance of these buildings. Moreover, this phenomenon is common in almost all commercial buildings in Laodao. If these damages can be repaired through rectification, it is of course best to recreate their former glory. I am afraid that in order to save trouble, the demolition and reconstruction will be inappropriate, and I can only pay tribute to the past with photos.

The rising national businessmen and Chinese architectural craftsmen have extremely simple folk aesthetic tastes. They hope to gain more rights and fame with the complex Baroque decoration and luxury style. Therefore, they combined the interest and function of traditional decoration with the formal style of Baroque architecture to create this special product that integrates Chinese and Western cultures in Harbin. These buildings not only embody the architectural skills of traditional craftsmen, but also record the rise of Harbin's national commerce.

The dazzling building has a facade full of decorative textures and uses a large number of pilasters of different forms. The column heads and columns are covered with complex and exquisite relief patterns full of traditional Chinese decorative colors. On both sides of the main entrance of the building are a pair of double-reclining columns, with improved Western Ioni stigmas and Chinese drum-mounted column foundations.

The two tall Corinthian columns above the main entrance are decorated with patterns with Chinese knots. The arches are covered with exquisitely carved curly grass branches reliefs. The double-part rectangular windows on the second floor of the building and the double-part arch windows on the third floor are decorated with a large number of complex Chinese and Western flower decorations, forming a continuous sense of rhythm.

Now when walking on the street, I see some buildings expressing luxury more simply and directly, and they are filled with the feeling of big gold teeth at a glance. The gap with these old buildings is more than the outer cloak of history.

If those who have the ability or right to build buildings on the streets can spend some time immersing in old buildings and experience the scales, proportions, and proportions, perhaps the city will have more beauty worth savoring.

After walking around, I found that many buildings have Baroque style appearances, but the interior is a traditional Chinese courtyard house; the exterior paint is Baroque passionate and unrestrained, while the relief patterns are Chinese elements such as bats, deer, longevity peaches, and grapes that symbolize many children and blessings.

The layout of the front store and the back factory, the outer store is a shop for dealing in the business, the inner one is a warehouse or factory, and even the accommodation of the shop. It is both a specialty of combining Chinese and Western products and commercial buildings.

Maybe for a foreigner, he really can't understand the history behind every building, but the vicissitudes that the old Taoist outsiders give can be vividly revealed on paper through photos.

These telephone poles and wires are signs of destruction of the landscape, but in such an environment, it makes people feel that there is no incongruity. After looking at the rebuilt Laodaowai Cultural Street, Johnson suddenly realized that the biggest difference between old houses and newly built antique buildings is often this detail.

Unexpectedly, the brand Hengdali brand appeared in the late Qing Dynasty. In front of me, the Hengdali store was well preserved except that the three-layer wall on the side had partially cracked. The thick daughter wall, the stacked corner lines of the eaves and the eaves between the pillars were blurred. Only a clump of orchids with reliefs could be seen at the corners to stretch branches and leaves.
Chapter completed!