This issue of Lishui toponymic story｜Tongji Street, a thousand-year-old streetThis issue

The origin of "Tongji Street".

　　Tongji Street has been the seat of Lishui County Yamen for a long time since the Tang Dynasty, is the oldest street in Lishui, and is also the representative label of Lishui's historical development for more than 1,400 years, and is the vivid epitome of the city's changes.

　"Tongji" is from the Epitaph of Bai Fujun written by Bai Juyi, a poet in Tang Dynasty, for his uncle, Bai Jikang, the governor of Lishui. In the article, he praised: "From the captain of Xiabang to the governor of Lishui, all of them were clean and honest. Tongji originally means cheerfulness and openness, and later refers to business integration and transportation. In order to praise and commemorate Bai Jikang's virtue of caring for the people of Lishui, Bai Jikang was later appointed as the city god of Lishui and has been worshiped by the people of Lishui for many generations. According to Lishui County Record, in the fourth year of Huichang of Tang Dynasty (844 AD), the former county office of Lishui was converted into the City God Temple. The street in front of the temple was called "Tongji Street", where the temple fair was held on the first day of April and the first day of October every year.

Lishui's "No. 1 Business District".

　　Since ancient times, Tongji Street has been the center of Lishui's trade and commerce. After the liberation, the temple fair on Tongji Street on the first day of April and the first day of October every year has developed into the exchange of materials between urban and rural areas of Lishui. Whenever the fair is held, the street is crowded with people, which is very lively. Since the 1950s, state-owned, collective and private businesses such as Lishui Department Store, state-run hotels, state-run hostels, Wujiaochemistry stores, supply and marketing cooperatives, and stores under the Sugar, Tobacco and Liquor Company were mostly concentrated in Tongji Street. Later, in order not to affect the city's traffic, the two annual material exchange meetings were suspended.

In the 1980s, Lishui built medium-sized commercial enterprises such as Tongji Street Shopping Mall, Supply and Marketing Mall, and the First Department Store, which operated department stores, needles and textiles, cosmetics, hardware, household electrical appliances, chemicals, sugar, tobacco, liquor, non-staple foods, daily necessities, north and south goods, and catering, etc., forming a commercial street.

　　In 1995, Lishui implemented the renovation project on the south side of Tongji Street, and 20 stores such as North and South Goods Store, State-run Inn and Tongji Hotel were demolished. At the end of that year, the area of new stores on Tongji Street reached 16,000 square meters, becoming the first multi-functional commercial and civilized pedestrian street integrating shopping, leisure and entertainment in the county.

In recent years, Lishui District has revamped and upgraded the main street of Tongji Street and the buildings along the south river around the cultural relics, and helped the gorgeous transformation of the old Tongji Street with new industries, new landmarks and new definitions, resurrected the commercial vitality of the neighborhoods, reproduced the traditional classical style, remodeled the cultural image of the city, and created cultural landmarks with depth and a business card of the city.