When I came to Harbin, the original goal was the famous Central Street, but the tour guide said that if you want to be more local, then go to the old road.

A hundred years ago, Harbin only had two districts, east and west, which was actually very similar to the relationship between Hong Kong Island and Shenzhen. Daoli and Nangang, west of the Eastern Railway, were annexed to Tsarist Russia, and all the people living there were foreigners, and large-scale urban construction by foreigners began to rise. Art Nouveau, Baroque, Classicism, Renaissance, and Eclectic architecture emerged.

On the east side of the China Eastern Railway, the Daowai District, opposite the Daoli District, where foreigners are concentrated, has become the cradle of the rise of national industry and commerce because it has not been included in the sphere of influence of Tsarist Russia. It is the Chinese people who live. After the inflow of foreign capital, immigrants from Shandong and Hebei provinces "went to the east to invest in relatives and friends, invest in partnerships, and set up commercial shops." These people not only had the spirit of enduring hardships and standing hard work, but also were relatively open-minded, which laid the ideological foundation for their later acceptance of Western art.

Turn into Jingyu Street from Jingyang Street, and look at the old houses on both sides along the street, which are full of messes. The facades and inherent colors of the Chinese Baroque style have been dismembered here by many modern materials and large plaques, and many of the buildings along the street are no longer visible, and some of the buildings themselves are even in danger.

This area has become a precinct to be demolished, and residents have been relocated. After the collapse, only a beautiful carved frieze remains for people to reverie. The plaques that have been bulldozed still have traces of rare time-honored brands, which are difficult to identify.

This narrow street has a rather imposing building. But I couldn't find the right angle to take a satisfactory photo. This building was originally an old bank, you look at the unique pattern, this piece does not have this pattern. The bolts inside the thick old iron door seem to be a sign of its former identity. According to the old map, it is likely that this building was once the location of the Baolong Silver Horn.

The small four-story building next to it, which seems inconspicuous now, was the newest four-story department store in Northeast China in 1920, the Da Luo Xin Global Store. The name of the store collects goods from all over the world, and the meaning of innovation is new. The large glass windows with foreign doors are the first to be displayed in Harbin commercial windows.

The gold-lettered plaque was inscribed by Hua Shikui, a great calligrapher of Jinmen. There are haha mirrors and electric models in the room, and there is also a borrowing department and a library in the business hall, and a Russian artist is hired to carefully display it.

The store set up the first elevator and money machine in Harbin, which is particularly eye-catching, at that time there was a saying that "when you arrive in Harbin, you must go to Da Luoxin, and the elevator is sent upstairs, full of Western scenery". There was a constant flow of passengers all day long, and cars, horse-drawn carriages, and rickshaws were discharged far in front of the door.

Now the main body of the building is still well preserved, but the architectural form of the façade on the first floor is different from the past. The original door under the porch and the large window were flattened and replaced with closed roller shutters. No one knows what this dilapidated building used to look like anymore. No one remembers that it was once the pride of Harbin's national business. Nearly a century of rain and wind have blown away, and the prosperity has dissipated without a trace.

The closed roller shutters, the words "dangerous building" and "inspection" on the walls, and the relocation banners all show that this place will be a different place in the near future. At No. 8 North Head Road Street, this two-story building is painted in mint green.

The color of the building in old photographs can be dark or light, and in color postcards issued by the Japanese, it is brick-red. At that time, it had a beautiful-sounding name - Chunwado. The reliefs on this small building are intricate and gorgeous, and all kinds of curly grasses, flowers and fruits really match the name of Chunhetang.

Although there is still a vague atmosphere of the past, after so many changes in the times, the society has changed drastically. Many of the original buildings have also been rebuilt. The original imposing business district looks a bit like a slum. These old buildings, which are a combination of Chinese and Western, have been damaged for nearly a century since they were built, and have been severely damaged by wind and rain, extreme lack of maintenance and supervision.

The so-called decoration and plaques of the existing businesses have obscured and damaged these buildings, resulting in these buildings being unrecognizable. And this phenomenon is prevalent in almost all old commercial buildings. It would be best if these damages could be repaired through rectification and restored to their former glory. I'm afraid that in order to save trouble, I will tear down and rebuild it and end up in a nondescript way, so I can only rely on photos to hang the past.

The rising national businessmen and Chinese craftsmen had a very simple folk aesthetic taste, and they hoped to gain more power and fame with the intricate decoration and luxury of the Baroque. Therefore, the interest and function of traditional decoration are combined with the formal style of Baroque architecture to create this special product of Harbin's integration of Chinese and Western cultures. These buildings not only embody the architectural skills of traditional craftsmen, but also record the rise of Harbin's national commerce.

A dazzling building with a façade full of decorative textures throughout, with a large number of pilasters of different forms. The capitals and bodies of the columns are covered with intricate relief patterns filled with traditional Chinese decorative colors. The main entrance of the building is flanked by a pair of double-leaning columns, with modified Western-style Ionic capitals and Chinese-style drum bases.

Two tall Corinthian columns above the main entrance are decorated with Chinese knots. The arch is covered with finely carved reliefs of curly grass and flower branches. The double-divided rectangular windows on the second floor of the building and the double-divided arch windows on the third floor are decorated with a large number of complicated Chinese and Western floral decorations between the windows and above the windows, forming a continuous sense of rhythm.

Walking on the street now, I see that some buildings express luxury much more simply and directly, and at a glance it is full of the sense of déjà vu of big gold teeth, and the gap with these old buildings is not only the coat of history.

Those who have the ability or the right to build buildings on the streets, if they can take a moment to immerse themselves in the old buildings and feel the scale, proportion, and proportion, maybe the city will have more beauty worth savoring.

Turning around, I found that many buildings are baroque on the outside, but the inside is a traditional Chinese courtyard house, the exterior paint is baroque and unrestrained, but the relief patterns are already Chinese elements such as bats, deer, longevity peaches and grapes, which symbolize fertility and good fortune.

The layout of the front shop and the back factory, the outer façade is a shop for receiving customers, the inside is a warehouse or workshop, and even includes the accommodation of the guys, which is not only a combination of Chinese and Western products, but also a commercial building.

It may be impossible for a foreigner to understand the history behind each building, but the sense of vicissitudes given by the old way can be vividly displayed through a photo.

These poles and wires are a sign of the destruction of the landscape, but in such an environment, there is no sense of disobedience. Looking at the reconstructed old Daowai Cultural Street in the back, Johnson suddenly woke up. The biggest difference between an old house and a new antique building is often this detail.

I didn't expect the brand Hengdali to appear at the end of the Qing Dynasty? The Hengdali store in front of me is still well preserved except for the partial cracking of the three-story wall on the side. The heavy parapet, the cascading cornice corners, and the relief of the eaves between the supporting column heads have been blurred, and only a cluster of orchids in the relief can be seen stretching branches and leaves at the corner.

The columns between the windows on the third floor are carved with fine stripes, spiraling upwards, giving people a sense of rising magnificence. The wrought iron hook used for the cantilevered plaque is still there, mottled with light blue and creamy brushstrokes, and the color is slightly eerie. Nowadays people go to empty buildings.