Poster design: Pan Hongyu

Xinhua News Agency, Chongqing, June 12 (Reporter Zhang Qin, Li Xiaoting) Have you ever seen such an old street with people on the cliff in the air?

As dusk falls, lanterns hanging along the streets of Chongqing's Shancheng Alley light up the banks of the Yangtze River. This street with the same name as Chongqing's other name "Mountain City" - Mountain City Lane is located in Chongqing Yuzhong Peninsula, facing the Yangtze River and built near the mountain. It has been a famous clocking place since the Ming and Qing dynasties.

　　 Video production: Wang Quanchao

Where is Shancheng Lane special? It's easy to walk along this old street. Whether it's the shock caused by the terrain of more than 70 meters up and down, or the doubt of not knowing where the next road is, or the surprise of accidentally hearing the historical and cultural stories of the mountain city... The feeling of the mountain city lane will never be the same.

But it is such an old street that has concentrated Chongqing's history, culture and landscape characteristics. Due to the passage of time, there have been problems such as aging pipe networks, insufficient public service facilities, and unauthorized construction.

In 2018, Shancheng Lane, as a traditional scenic area focused on Yuzhong District, started the "journey of rebirth". The Shancheng Alley, which will be renewed in 2021, will become a "city card" showing Chongqing's unique mountain city charm and traditional Bayu style.

　　 The lanes of the mountain city, which retain the traditional style of the mountain city, attract tourists. Photographed by Wang Quanchao, reporter of Xinhua News Agency

"I grew up here almost 70 years ago, and Shanchengxiang has become more and more dynamic." Zhou Yingbi, a resident of Shanchengxiang, said that after retirement, she sells ice powder, Chongqing noodles and other snacks at her home, and likes to "play dragon's gate" with tourists.

In the new life of the residents, the traditional style and features of the mountain city and the imprints of history and culture are preserved everywhere. Tang Baijun, director of the Key Project Construction Affairs Center of the Yuzhong District Commission of Housing and Urban Rural Development, said that the shancheng alleys adopt micro renewal and micro transformation techniques, respect the overall style and the spatial texture of streets, ensure the building safety, and transform the depressed residential neighborhoods into cultural and tourism blocks full of vitality and urban memory.

Murals that reflect the life scenes of the old Chongqing people, air raid shelters transformed into art spaces, and Bashang tea houses with unique caves... In the Shancheng Alley, you can taste Chongqing and feel nostalgia.

It is an old street, but also fashionable. Participate in an immersive drama in the old building Benevolence Hall adhering to the principle of repairing the old as the old; See an art exhibition in the library in the former site of Jinma Primary School; Buy a cup of pepper coffee at the cultural and creative fair... Shancheng Lane has become a good place for young people after being integrated into diversified business forms.

　　 Tourists choose goods in cultural and creative shops in mountain towns and alleys. Photographed by Wang Quanchao, reporter of Xinhua News Agency

"In the process of transformation, Shancheng Alley has deeply excavated the local cultural heritage and created a unique cultural brand of Shancheng Alley." Yang Jie said that by holding activities, it not only attracts tourists to come to clock in and experience, but also makes Shancheng Alley an important living place for residents in surrounding communities.

You don't need a map in Shancheng Lane. You just need to roam around at will. It's like an adventure. You can meet surprises at any time. Today, Shancheng Lane has become a popular scenic spot in Chongqing, with an average daily flow of more than 20000 people. Many old streets and alleys with unique characteristics like mountain city alleys have become the "capillaries" of urban cultural inheritance and are growing in the mountain city.

Material support: Chongqing Yuzhong District Rong Media Center