In 2011, at Shibati, Yuzhong District, wet steps and an old man passing by

In 2011, at Shibati, bustling crowds (All photos/text by: Cui Li)

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- Ten years ago, I never thought it would be torn down.

At that time, I was just back to Chongqing after finishing my study. Like many artistic young people, I was grieving over spring and mourning for autumn – with long flagging, low brick houses, narrow alley, the old street connecting the upper and lower city areas under the sunset… It was a good place for taking pictures and reciting poems…

After that, the newspaper office was nearby, so I liked strolling there in case of not having an interview or when going back to the newspaper office after interviews. That’s why there are so many photos. When I think of it now, in addition to the happiness of pressing the shutter, it was more out of the recording instinct of a reporter.

With the insight to this old street, I gradually found that the shanty town with wires all over the sky and sewage runoff was not the “old times” in the mind of pseudo-artistic youth like me. For residents in Shibati, the feeling was not a quick fix for survival and daydreaming was not a substitute for making a real dream come true. Among many of them, two or three generations lived in dilapidated buildings with area of ten square meters, or even less. However, Jiefangbei, only a few hundred meters away, was prosperous and modern. With the passing of time, it became a piece of “scabies” of Chongqing.

Nowadays, the noise of Shabati is finally quiet. Carpenters, tailors, baked roll vendors, barbers, cupping practitioners… The past bustling civil sounds and their owners have said goodbye and left.

Shibati will soon be reborn like the phoenix. With the start of the Shibati Traditional Feature Area and comprehensive infrastructure supporting projects, it will become blocks of historical culture displaying features of traditional Chongqing and the provisional capital culture during the anti-Japanese war. The traditional “seven-street and six-alley” layout will be retained. The people and events there will reappear finally, just in another freeze-frame way.

The photos are not for remembering. I know that Shabati will be a world of people and lights before long. (Translated by Huang Juan, Fathom Language Limited)