Dongshi Old Street

　　Situated in Dongshi Village, the seat of the Dongshi Township government in Anhua County, there is a one-li-long bluestone-paved street. Before the “Zhexiang” Highway was constructed, this area served as a vital thoroughfare connecting the “Front Township” to the “Rear Township,” as well as from Xinhua to Anhua.

　　It is said that for several hundred years, from the Ming and Qing dynasties until some time after the liberation, this place was bustling with merchants, densely packed with shops, and scattered with workshops. The “bamboo rafts” used to transport goods stretched end to end for nearly a li (with over two hundred in total). The thick wooden counters of merchant establishments like “Deshenglong” and “Ruifuxiang” were glossy and towering, exuding an air of grandeur. The He Family Ancestral Hall stood solemn and majestic, radiating extraordinary splendor.

　　As you stroll along Dongshi Old Street, treading on the clinking bluestone pavement, you seem to hear the echoes of history and are enveloped by an elegant sense of seeking out the quaint and ancient. Peering through the waist-high counters into the shops, you can faintly glimpse the figures of shop owners and clerks of yesteryear through the eyes of the people inside.

　　You can read their helplessness over the decline of the old street. Yet, the craft and workshops for making handmade paper have been preserved and continue along the old street, with business thriving and products selling well across the country. Watching the paper-making artisans repeat their mechanical motions countless times, and listening to the splashing sounds of water as they lift it from the pulp vats, you may feel yourself growing further from modern civilization. Yet your heart grows a little less restless, and a bit more grounded and pure. Ah, the long-missed ancient town of Meishan — Dongshi Old Street.