Lao Wuji Old Street

Lao Wuji Old Street

Lao Wuji Old Street is located in Lao Wuji Village, Zhonglu Town, Lichuan City, about 30 kilometers from the urban area. The old street lies in a valley, where the Yu River flows through. Yaojia River crosses the old street and joins the Yu River. The terrain is higher in the northeast and lower in the southwest, with undulating hills. Fenggaoshan is the highest point and serves as the watershed between the Qingjiang River and the Yu River.

In the past, the terrain was described as: two rivers, three forks, four saddles, and eighteen valleys, surrounded by mountains. There are five large mountains nearby, known as the “Five Dragons Holding the Sacred.” Lion Fort stands behind Lao Wuji Old Street, resembling a lion perched majestically. Qinglong Mouth winds down from Qixing Rock until it reaches Lao Wuji Old Street, where it stops, its head held high, encircling the area along with Lion Fort. To the west of the old street are Zhaigong and Zhaimu — one mountain with sharper rocks is called Zhaigong (male fortress), and the other with squarer rocks is called Zhaimu (female fortress). Legend has it that they are the incarnations of a young man and woman who pursued eternal love.

Lao Wuji began to form as a street neighborhood during the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong era. That year, a great fire reduced the upper street to ashes, but people still preferred to do business here, so they rebuilt their houses. Later, the houses were burned down again, and the owners rebuilt them. After repeated fires and reconstructions, the place came to be known as Lao Wuji (Old House Foundation). A couplet about this story goes: “Lao Wuji, house foundation old, foundation old but the house not old,” and to this day, no fitting second line has been found.

During the Guangxu era, local villagers paved the fish-back-shaped street surface with hemp stones. The wide flagstones were carefully cut into slopes, making the middle of the street higher than the sides, which facilitated drainage. After years of foot traffic, the stones have been polished very smooth.

The old street has been listed in the third batch of China’s Traditional Ethnic Villages Protection Program; in 2014, it served as the main filming location for the movie *Love in the 1980s*.

The old street is about 200 meters long and 3 meters wide, running from north to south. The traditional village is situated on both sides of the old street, with buildings made entirely of wood, most constructed during the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period. There are currently 66 surviving wooden structures, covering an area of over 3,800 square meters, with a total floor space of 8,140 square meters. The houses are typical traditional wooden stilted buildings and courtyard homes, with deep eaves, so that when standing on the street, only a sliver of sky can be seen. The old street is completely separated from the new street. Compared to the new street, the old street sits slightly lower, and its graceful skyline is formed by the slope of the roofs and the undulation in height. Most of the first or second floors of the buildings on both sides are dilapidated, with various sizes and styles of wooden window frames and door frames leaning or fallen, leaving only the green tiles on the roofs intact. “In the past, the Tusi kings only allowed the local people to use fir bark or thatch for roofing, saying ‘you may buy horses, but you are not allowed to tile your roofs.’ It wasn’t until the Qing Dynasty’s 13th year of Yongzheng’s reign, during the ‘abolition of native chieftainships and establishment of prefectures,’ that tiled roofs became common. The inhabited old houses were recently given a unified roof tile renovation.”

The main local surnames include Zhang, Wang, Huang, Tan, Xie, Li, Jiang, Yi, Shan, and Ma. The population is predominantly ethnic minorities, mainly Tujia, with some Miao and Han people. During the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong era, the native families of Ma, Huang, and Qin established neighborhoods here.