Dayan Store

Dayan Store

The Dayan Store is a cultural heritage conservation unit of Henan Province.

In the middle section of Beisi Street, west side, in Huaiqing Subdistrict, Qinyang City, there is an old building that was originally the office site of the Qinyang Party School, locally known as the "Dayan Store." Established in the late Qing and early Republican period, it was a government-merchant jointly operated salt transit, wholesale, and sales facility, and has existed for about a hundred years. After the defeat in the Opium Wars, the Qing government, seeking to resolve financial shortfalls, further developed the salt industry and made salt tax a major source of revenue. At that time, a salt merchant surnamed Hou from Linfen, Shanxi, cooperated with the local government in Huaiqing Prefecture to establish the salt store. Since it dealt in sea salt — commonly referred to as "dayan" (literally "big salt") — the facility came to be known as the Dayan Store. Its business model involved transit and wholesale distribution: first, directly supplying salt to government offices, official entities, and military units in Henan and Shanxi; second, wholesaling to larger salt merchants; and third, selling to the public through affiliated retail outlets. It was one of the larger-scale, widely influential government-merchant joint salt transit and wholesale markets in the Huaiqing Prefecture area at the time.

According to records: the original Dayan Store covered an area of more than 10,000 square meters, with over a hundred rooms for offices, duty stations, and storage, surrounded by tall walls. Along the east side facing the street, there were several storefronts of the Dayan Store. After multiple renovations, only a three-story main building, the north warehouse, and the south wing building remain today. The main building faces east and sits westward, spanning three bays in width and two in depth, covering an area of over 90 square meters. Its walls are constructed of blue bricks, with red bricks forming crisscrossing cross patterns vertically and horizontally from top to bottom. There are nine lookout pillars on the roof, topped with precious bead ornaments. The pillars are connected by hollow cross-shaped parapets adorned with carved patterns such as swirling clouds, giving the structure a unique character. Both the arched doorways and windows are built with alternating blue and red bricks, decorated with floral motifs. A stair tower is located in the middle of the roof. The center of the building features a triangular rotating wooden staircase, with wooden flooring dividing the entire structure into three levels. The top floor has beams and planks covered with square tiles. In the 1960s, when the Qinyang County Party School moved in, the surrounding walls were demolished, and connected two-story buildings with gray tile roofs were constructed on the east, south, and north sides — totaling 150 rooms across three floors. These included 46 rooms on the east (upper and lower), and 52 rooms symmetrically on the north and south sides (each upper and lower), serving as offices and classrooms for the Party School.

During the warlord era, the forces of Feng Yuxiang and Sun Dianying successively stationed at the Dayan Store. When Japanese troops invaded Qinyang, local Red Spear Society members set up makeshift cannons on the main building to resist them. Later, the Japanese "Kindaichi Command," "Odaka Command," and the puppet army unit led by Liu Yanfeng also occupied the site. In 1945, after the liberation of Qinyang, it served as the "Old Seventh Brigade Office" of the Eighth Route Army and as an "Eighth Route Army Hospital." Starting from the 1960s, the Qinyang County Party School relocated here and remained until 2013. In 1982, the Qinyang County People’s Government designated the Dayan Store as a county-level cultural heritage conservation unit. In 2006, it was listed as a provincial-level cultural heritage conservation unit by the Henan Provincial People’s Government. In May 2013, as the Qinyang Municipal Party School had relocated to a new site, the Qinyang Municipal Government decided to transfer the management and usage rights of the Dayan Store to the cultural heritage authorities.

Huaiqing Subdistrict: Located in Qinyang City, Jiaozuo, Henan Province. It administers:

410882002001 111 Hezuo Street Community

410882002002 111 Zizhi Street Community

410882002003 111 Swan Lake Community

410882002004 111 Yuxi Garden Community

410882002200 112 Beiguan Village

410882002201 112 Mengzhuang Village

410882002202 22…… More details on Huaiqing Subdistrict++

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Henan Provincial Cultural Heritage Conservation Units