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Those interesting old place names of Wenzhou
Source:Wenzhou Evening News | Author:Wenzhoudaily | Publish time:2018-06-01 | 7676 Views: | Share:
Do you know Aideng Bridge had a link with Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty (A.D.1368-A.D.1644), the name of Jiming Hill was followed by emperor Qianlong, the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty (A.D.1636-A.D.1912) visiting the area south of Yangtze River, and the bustling Miaoguosi Market was a shelter where the poor old people lived...

Shuomen ancient street in Lucheng Distrtict       


Do you know Aideng Bridge had a link with Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty (A.D.1368-A.D.1644), the name of Jiming Hill was followed by emperor Qianlong, the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty (A.D.1636-A.D.1912) visiting the area south of Yangtze River, and the bustling Miaoguosi Market was a shelter where the poor old people lived? Walking in these ancient streets and lanes, one can see each of them has their own unique story. Jin Wenping, president of Wenzhou Folklore Society, collects these stories into a book named "The anecdotes of the old streets and lanes in Wenzhou".

Many names of the places have histories

As a famous cultural city, Lucheng has a history of nearly 1,700 years. And many of old memories are recorded in the streets and lanes of the ancient city. Many people wonder the names of ancient streets and lanes are very different from those of "new-born" ones. So, is the previous way of naming different from now?

Jin Wenping said, in the Northern Song Dynasty (A.D.960-A.D.1127), Wenzhou had 36 lanes named by the government. The names of the places, ending with “Lane”, like “Mochi Lane” and “Kangle Lane” have been kept from that time. They got their names after the local historical allusions. Later, because through the great reform of the Qing Dynasty to categorize roads as roads, streets and lanes, many names got changed. The general layout of the downtown Wenzhou has almost kept the layout of that time.

Now it seems many place names have histories, such as "Wuma Street". It was called "Wuma Lane" in the Southern Song Dynasty (A.D.960-A.D.1127), and later renamed "Wuma Street" in the Qing Dynasty (A.D.1636-A.D.1912). Then it was changed to "Hongwei Road" characteristic of the time in the period of Cultural Revolution (A.D.1966-A.D.1976) and eventually returned to "Wuma Street" again.


Wuma Street

When people intend to name something nowadays, they will consider the status quo, and then consider the history.