Yinghua Lane, Jiangbei District: A “Renaissance” About the Old Neighbors of the Shancheng Neighborhood

In the past, a group of people built red buildings in Yinghua Lane in Jiangbei District to welcome the arrival of Soviet experts. Today, there are no more experts in the building, but batches of young people with ideas come here, wanting to create a new community full of vitality with their own hands.

They would like to say to every visitor: hello, my neighbor in the mountain city.

Sleepy old residential area

As we all know, there is a literary and artistic place with poetry, wine and stories in Jiangbei, Chongqing, called Beicang Cultural and Creative District. As everyone knows, it also has a neighbor with a “story” – the Youth International Community of Heyou Village hidden in Yinghua Lane, Wulidian Street.

Get out of Liyuchi Station Exit 4A of Metro Line 9, go left along the street, and you will reach the entrance of the Youth International Community of Heyou Village in a short time. Standing here, you can see at a glance the orange and white sign that reads “Youth International Community of Cooperative Village”.
Don’t rush to go inside, take a closer look, you will find the overall distribution map of the cooperative village buildings under the sign.

From the picture, the whole youth international community of the cooperative village looks like an upside-down house, with more than 20 buildings inside along the roadway in the middle. From the bottom to the top on the left side, there are mainly the theater, 2 old buildings with wooden beams, and a relatively spacious cooperation plaza. On the right side, from bottom to top, there are mainly 4 red bricks arranged in the shape of a field. Tile houses and several old brick houses with grey walls and black tiles.
Entering the community along the straight alleyway, you will think of the sentence in Tao Yuanming’s “Peach Blossom Spring”: “Traffic in Qian Mo, chickens and dogs hear each other.” Indeed, the overall layout of the youth international community in Heyou Village really seems to be hidden in the city ” Peach Blossom Spring”.
It was noon at this time, and the community seemed very quiet. After a short walk, you could see four red brick houses on the right side of the lane. The facade of the house is flat and the eaves are new. Obviously, it has been repaired on the basis of retaining the original architectural style, and this is the “Soviet Expert Building” in the cooperative village.
According to Wu Chupeng, the project leader of Yinghua Alley, “This place was called Wulidian Cooperative Fuqiang Area. Until the end of December 2020, the government and the operation team will work together to repair and affix the culture of ‘Yinghua Alley’ to this place. The label has brought this long-sleep old community back to life.”
Today, with the joint efforts of the Jiangbei District Government, Wulidian Street, community stores and the market operation team, this place has become a new community with no high-rise buildings and only distinctive neighborhood relationships. Whether it is a coffee shop of all things, punkwang drama space, space design of today and night, NO.2831 craft brewing convenience store & late-night canteen, etc., or Monster Cafe, Xiaojiancha, GUAGUAJUN coffee, Smooth barbershop, Mo Cono Cat · Cat Trendy and casual shops such as Space, Mr. Roof Jiangbei Roast Meat Company, AHA BURGER. Handmade Burgers, or the renovated Wine House in the corner of the old building all contrast with the old residential buildings here.
The new and the old, the old and the young are fused here, as if symbiotic, colliding with a different kind of mountain city flavor.

A poetic space that belongs to the mountain city alone
In 2021, the Jiangbei District Government and Wulipian Street will jointly operate the team to renovate the old and dilapidated community and make it revive in response to the problems of many security risks, poor infrastructure and weak service functions in the old community in the Fuqiang area of ​​Wulipian cooperation. , come alive, and has a new name – Youth International Community of Cooperative Village.

The Youth International Community of Heyou Village, located in Wulidian Street, is strategically located. It is connected to the Guanyinqiao Business Center to the west and adjacent to the Jiangbeizui Central Business District to the east. Therefore, when the Jiangbei District Government and Wulidian Street are making relevant deployments, they will create a new scene of cultural tourism consumption with the “Yinghua Three Lanes” as the main line, and strive to allow the old factories to enter more new formats and show more new scenery. Undoubtedly, it is with the initiative of the Jiangbei District Government and Wulidian Street that the “Yinghua Alley-Cooperative Village” project can introduce enterprises into the community, improve the quality of life of stores and residents, and show a different community new look.

An old house with new clothes must add some “materials” to it in order to make it truly radiant. The shopkeepers who settled in the youth international community of the cooperative village are the fresh blood poured into the old house. Cunkou Lao Li, the manager of Hiding, started this craft beer shop with the hope of finding childhood memories in this “secret base”; Feng Feng, the manager of Laze park, came to Yinghua Lane for the first time. I couldn’t move my feet, so a dining aesthetic space was born here; Master Hu, the manager of Xianqi Noodles, wanted to pass on a message to the “Delicious Dogs” here after walking around the streets for many years. A different taste; a room where all things govern people’s dreams, with boutique coffee as the main line, so that people can feel pleasure and relaxation in this space… 

In addition, the Youth International Community of the Cooperative Village has gathered such like-minded people, who have filled the space with their own ideas, making this place have a sense of interest of “the depth of the sea is like the depth of the sea”.
For example, ShanLai, located in Building 1, focuses on drinking and drinking culture, hoping to make cocktails to make it shine; the manager of Mosohy furniture buyer’s shop is holding the idea that those who are destined can find in their “small warehouse” The original intention to meet your own life needs and aesthetic needs; the Punk Wang Theatre Space in Building 7 is a comprehensive specialty store that provides drinks, snacks, script killings, and interactive dramas. It has always been committed to creating excellent immersive entertainment for customers. Atmosphere; the king oil tea in Building 8 insists on high-quality raw materials, and people who want to come here can find the classic taste of Chongqing here; the Wine House bistro under the big tree creates a dreamy small courtyard, allowing people to come here. The old community and the new business are more integrated…
These shopkeepers who have settled in the community have made the old place where the grandfather lived, after several changes, gradually reveal a new appearance.

In addition to the efforts of the government and store owners, the revitalization of this area is also inextricably linked with the Youth International Community Operation Team of Cooperative Village and its founder Dynasty.

In 2020, Dynasty organized a team to renovate the old community, abandoned the traditional model of “demolition and construction”, and maximized the preservation of the original architectural style. Combined with the current trend of the times, it introduced talk shows, salons, night markets, and concerts. , reading clubs and other activities to add features to this new community, so as to wake up the long-sleep old streets and alleys.

It is especially worth mentioning that the operation team of Dynasty and more than 40 other participants jointly built the theater. Surrounded by buildings in the community, the theater looks like a boxy white box from a distance. Follow the trails all over the crawlers to the entrance, look inside, and find that there is a wide space built with logs, which is clean and tidy. Dynasty has his own opinion on the creation of the theater: “The theater is actually the idea of ​​a city, and at present it is mainly to meet the spiritual needs of the surrounding residents. In the future, we will create a new type of co-construction, co-creation and sharing here. The community cultural exchange space links the neighbors in the surrounding communities to jointly create a living aesthetic space.”

Therefore, whether it is the residents who settle down here or the tourists who come here, they can touch the soul of the Youth International Community of Heyou Village and smell the green plants and bricks in Yinghua Alley. the “new” flavor. Walking in the community, the hunched old women greeted the young people in modern clothes cordially; the lazy raccoon cats on the roadside rolled on the ground; the shopkeepers who talked very much stood in the shade of the trees. Chatting about home…
The pictures from these childhood memories emerge one by one here, which is also the unique charm of the Youth International Community of Cooperative Village.

Let “Yinghua” fly into ordinary people

Then, what role will the brand-new cooperative village’s “Yinghua Three Lanes” project in Jiangbei District play in the field of cultural tourism in Chongqing?
According to the relevant information of Jiangbei Culture and Tourism, the cooperation village, Yinghua Poetry Collection and Jiuqu Guanlan jointly form the 1.2-kilometer Yinghua Lane, which is a key construction project in the core area of ​​“two rivers and four banks” in Chongqing. This project is one of the upgrading projects of “Yinghua Three Alleys” of “Yinghuadu, Yinghuaxiang and Yinghua Lane”. On the basis of taste, it integrates trends, cultural creativity, leisure and life, so that residents and tourists can feel the fireworks of the mountain city and comfort people’s souls tired from urban life.
Today, it is under the construction of a new “people-oriented” neighborhood relationship of the Youth International Community of Heyou Village that makes the night market with swaying lights, interesting performances, crowded concerts, and soul-cultivating reading clubs here. Take root and bring Yinghua Lane back to life.
The “out of the circle” of the cooperative village also marks that Jiangbei District’s cultural tourism has reached a new level, and it also highlights the charm and characteristics of the city, and promotes the harmonious coexistence of cultural heritage and urban modernization. Inheritance, urban memory.”
In the future, Hexiu Village in Jiangbei District will continue to respond to the government’s call for the “Yinghua Three Lanes” project, strive to explore its own cultural resources in a deeper level, show its unique charm in the process of modernizing the city, and make it an “urban village”. The area can not only bring a relaxed and pleasant urban space to citizens and tourists, but also allow visitors to experience the mountain scenery of Chongqing and the rich flavor of Bayu culture.

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