From the old Blog

Weifang History Blog

It is holiday time and I finally have some time to get to my blog.

Last weekend I did something I have been hoping to do for a long time. I went to the remnants of the old Weifang City wall. There are only two small pieces of the wall remaining. These are in the west of the city so they are the Han Ting section, not the Kui Wen or main city

In the main CBD, there are two old gates but it is not clear to me if they are part of the original wall or built in the recent past. From what I have seen in diagrams, the original gates were within the stone walls and not stand alone wooden structures. But they are very old in themselves. I believe they were built after the removal of the old wall. I am waiting to confirm this information.

According to what I do know from a visit to a local museum is that the city was divided into two sections that are naturally separated by the main river, the Bai Lang He (pronounced HERR which is Chinese for river. Bai Lang means white waves). This is still the case only the river is now artificial, having been dried up by the construction of a large dam to the south of the city. The portion of the river that exists is currently being upgraded, as is much of Weifang, to make it an environmentally friendly area for people to spend some recreation time.

(insert old city model here. 3 photos).

I had seen one part of the old wall from a bus some time ago and only realised that there were two parts when we recently moved to the area nearby.

The remaining piece is an East-West wall and is cut in half by Xiang Yang Lu, a North-South street.

The purpose of the walls was not protection from human invaders but from the river. Apparently, the river used to flood regularly, inundating the town and the peoples’ houses. So the governor at the time decreed the building of the walls to keep the water out. His name was Zheng Ban Qiao and he wasn’t from Weifang but he had deep feelings for the area and the people and there are still some statues of him in his memory.

(insert photo of statue)

There is an old residence in the west of Weifang not far from the Bai Lang River, a very large walled complex that belonged to a well-to-do family in old Weifang. The Governor, Zheng Ban Qiao, used the residence as his offices. This is now a museum. It is where I learned about the walls and took the photos some years ago. It is being preserved while everything around it has been torn down. Behind it is a temple, apparently the oldest temple in the Weifang area. Now unused and in bad condition, it is being restored along with the residence.

(insert Photos of Shi Hu Yuan)

There are two other small rivers that used to flow through Weifang, Zhang Mian He and Yu He.

When I first came to Weifang, Yu He was a putrid black sess pool of rotten water. Now it is a lateral park that stretches from the centre of Weifang to the Peoples’ Square park in the east. All the storm water is now underground in large pipes and a beautiful artificial river with walking trails the full length of it on either side.

Markets

An essential part of life in China is still the street market. Many people still buy only enough food for one or two days and the markets allow this because they are only 5 minutes walk from your house. This is one of the things I am really going to miss when I leave China

In the more rural areas, there is a farmers’ market once every 5 days based on the lunar calender. Each local district will have it on a different day so that all have a chance go to each market if they wish.

The other type is the regular street markets in the towns and cities. Some are during the daylight hours and some will start in the early evening and go to about 10pm. Some venders will simply lay a blanket on the ground if they only have a little to sell. Others can have quite elaborate stalls which are permanent fixtures. Some will just sell off the back of a truck.