A New Internet-Famous Site


Anchang ancient town has many characteristics reflected by watery regions including small bridges and flowing water, architecture from Ming and Qing Dynasty, native folklore, and leisurely temperament. Imagine that now you spend a long time here, with the sauce flavor floating in the air and a bowl of yellow wine in the hand, listen to the story of the ancient town "Tianguandi".


Walk straight from the entrance of Anchang ancient town, and the rebuilt Tianguandi Workshop can be seen before long. The ground paved with bluestone slabs shows a sense of age, the simple wooden structure and the scattered frames complement each other, and the three characters "Tianguandi" under the simple but elegant red lanterns are particularly eye-catching. Since it was the former residence of the scholar called Shen, an official of Ministry of Personnel in the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty that is also called "Tianguan", it is called "Tianguandi".


Entering from the south entrance of the workshop, the first view is the blessing hall. The red blessing strips with black words are covered with red wooden frames, which record blessings for families, happy visions, and tireless exhortations. In this site tourists pour out their feeling form the bottom of their heart, reflecting the colorful world. Through the blessing hall there is a sugar water shop. It would be better to have a cold drink before visiting Tianguandi in the hot summer.


Going further inside, Duohe Planting Garden and Sauce Workshop seat on each side. It is understood that Duohe Planting Garden is transformed from the original rice factory whose history can be traced back to the end of the Qing Dynasty. From the first to the fourth floors are restored into ancient factories such as Suifengtai Rice Mill and Anchang State-owned Rice Mill, showing the entire history of Anchang rice production and processing. Besides, the showroom also sets up rice tasting and interaction activities, which become the core display of the rice culture in the entire park.


The Sauce Workshop is mainly used to display the sauce culture in Anchang. It is such deep historical accumulation in Shaoxing Area for its history of sauce culture for thousands of years that Anchang's sauce products can be famous all over the world, especially the sausage. Inside the showroom there is a counter deeply introducing Anchang's sauce making craft and traditional sauces while the outside is the production area of Tianguandi official sauce garden.


Take advantage of the water from the nearby Jian Lake to make Shaoxing wine famous around the world. Straight through the Sauce Workshop, the Wine-Base Workshop is coming. "The Wine-Base Workshop takes the Shaoxing brewing culture as the theme to show the production process of Shaoxing yellow wine and related wine-based products." the staff of the workshop said. On each side of the display there are "Taibai Heritage" and "Blend of Various flavors", showing a variety of finished Shaoxing wine and wine-based products. Other "Tianguandi" workshops, whether they are interactive workshops, national trends, or urban study rooms, are also unique.


They display the characteristics of the ancient water town newly through shadow, artificial intelligence, AR, VR and other scientific means, creating peculiar culture spaces. The cylindrical rice storage silo is restored to its original type. The central core building is stripped off the original wall for the external frame left while its inner core is made of modern steel structure and glass curtain wall, showing the combination of tradition and modernity. Now "Tianguandi" has become a new Internet-famous site in Anchang ancient town.


From Keqiao Daily July 17, 2020.