Shaxi, formerly known as Shatou, is also called Tuanxi, Yinxi and Qixi. As The Chronicles of Shatouli recorded, “Shatou refers to the end of the sand. It used to be near the sea. By the Tang and Song Dynasties, villages had already been built here, collectively referred to as the City of Tusong,” and “Shaxi is close to Qiputang River. Since it is a creek, the place is named Yunshaxi.”
Shaxi Town is situated in the southeast of Jiangsu Province, the east of Suzhou and the north-central part of Taicang. With Shanghai on its south, the Yangtze River on its east, the old city area of Suzhou on its west and Yushan on its north, the town covers a total area of 126.7 square kilometres. It has a registered population of 82,000. Shaxi has a history of over 1,300 years. In Taicang, this a-thousand-year-old town is an economically competitive one with booming trade and commerce.
Though being a thousand years old, Shaxi remains a lovely place. It has retained the traditional structure featuring “one river, two streets, three bridges and one island”, which is unique to ancient water towns in the south of the Yangtze River. As a typical water town, Shaxi accommodates numerous clear streams. Qipu River and Hengli River are two major watercourses within the town. The former runs from the east to the west while the latter from the north to the south. Wherever one turns his eyes to, he can see winding rivers flow gently in Shaxi. Those old river-side houses bear the same look as they used to do. Seams between tiles on stilt houses are pleasantly uneven. The paned bay windows of stilt pavilions lend a sense of lightness to the houses they affiliate to. Barges, docks and bridges scatter around the town. Among those bridges, several were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They span over the canals like rainbows, which forms a unique part of water-town view appreciated in poems of the Tang and Song Dynasty and depicted in ink and wash painting of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Along Qipu River perch over 4,000 ancient houses of varied sizes and heights stretching for three miles. The architectural style of these old waterside buildings is the result of combining the local cultures of Ningbo and Shaoxing of Zhejiang Province with Huizhou culture due to the century-long development of commerce and culture of migration. The serenity and delicacy of such a style is an expression of Shaxi’s profound historical and cultural heritage. Visitors flock here to leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind to experience the life in a small town. They also come to appreciate the classic cases of traditional buildings. Inside Gong’s Mansion of Carvings, they can acquire first-hand experience with the perfect combination of our ancestors’ architectural skills and refined artistic taste. In front of the Jingsi Hall, one may be touched by the lingering chant of poetic lines of the Tang Dynasty. The former residence of Wu Xiaobang, a pioneer of modern dance in China, has great appeal to art lovers who may come to pay tribute to the artist.
Shaxi used to house numerous private gardens. According to incomplete statistics, nearly thirty private gardens were built in the area of today’s Shaxi since the time when Hu Yi and Hu Baineng belonging to three generations in the Hus’ family constructed Wuliu Garden (meaning “five willow trees”) at Tusong of Shaxi from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Leyin Garden, with a plaque inscribe by native calligraphy master Zhu Qizhan, was the hermit Qu Xiaozhen’s former residence at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. After a renovation project, Leyin Garden accommodates a gate wall similar to the one of the Humble Administrator’s Garden, a lotus pond resembling the one in the Master of the Net Garden and a long corridor alike to the one in Canglang Pavilion. Inside the garden, one can fully experience the delicacy and subtlety of Suzhou’s classical gardens.
The ancient town boasts in antiquity and primitive simplicity. But it also has the pressing need to stay “young” and “vigorous.” It keeps asking itself questions about how to innovate and develop. How to wisely retain its classic beauty? How to make its cultural heritage and classic water-town life remain appealing to the modern world? Shaxi has worked out a prudent plan to guide its positive action. A large-scale renovation project was launched in the town in October, 2009. This round of renovation involved 36,000 square metres of ancient dwellings, over 2,200 metres of road surface and more than 20 lanes and alleys. Shaxi appeared in the National Cultural Heritage Administration announced by China’s World Cultural Heritage Tentative List on 19 November, 2012. In January 2015, the scenic area of the town was named as a national 4A-level Scenic Site.
As a classic description reads, in Zhouzhuang, “The width of an ancient alley is the same as that of a traditional house. The ancient street is three miles in length. The old bridge has a single arch. All the ancient residences have cantilever beams, carvings, and paned bay windows. Outside their front doors are bridges, and leisurely floating boats.” The renovation project well preserved the original look of Qiputang River, whose embankments and ports remain intact. The clear river zigzags smoothly from the east to the west through the town, over which span the three ancient bridges—the Yixing Bridge, the Anqiao Bridge, and the Xinqiao Bridge. They connect the two old streets, namely Henan Street and Tangbei Street. The paving slabs lend the place an air characteristic of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, along which the renovated storefronts, old shops and residences all have greyish white walls, staying in harmony with their dark grey roofs. The contrast in colour and the varied shapes resemble the syllables and rhythm in a traditional short lyric. The area in the distinctive water-town style may attract tourists to search through small alleys, feel their steps on the mottled stone bridges, appreciate the hall with exquisite carvings in Gong’s Residence. They may stay in a riverside homestay inn and listen to the sound of water flowing from Qipu River deep into the night.
In the first year of the Jingyou era of the Song Dynasty (1034), Fan Zhongyan, the magistrate of Suzhou, had Qipu River dug, “into which the rivers in the Yangcheng Lake area flow and through which floods gain an outlet to the East China Sea via the Yangtze River.” Thus, the accumulated water in the low-lying areas on the northwest verge of Yangcheng Lake could find a channel to discharge itself. The need for irrigation in the surrounding fields could be satisfied at the same time. Qipu River gave new life to Shaxi and promoted its development. To date, in Leyin Garden there still stands a tombstone, erected in the 4th year of the Baoyou era of the Southern Song Dynasty (1256), bearing an epitaph entitled “Ode to Lord Zhao,” It is a piece of evidence to the affluence and prosperity of the area from Shaxi to Tusong 800 years ago.
In the mid Ming Dynasty, due to the siltation of Loujiang River, Qipu River became the essential passage between Suzhou Prefecture and Chongming County. Governmental agencies, merchants and ordinary people flocked to the town. Shaxi seized the opportunity and quickly developed into a town with strong competitiveness, known as “Shatou, No. 1 Town among 18 Towns in Dongxiang”. During the Republic of China era, the three-mile-long street, beginning from Siqing Bridge in the west of the town to its junction with Yaojing Road in the east, hosted more than 30 shops in varied sizes, such as the sundry goods shop Wanhexiang, the grain shop Sun Deshun, and the Chinese medicine shop Yuanfayong. Crowds of businessmen and the bustling market ushered in the heyday of Shaxi.
Shaxi is the birthplace of Taicang’s industry. Its first industrial enterprise run by nationalist entrepreneurs — Litai Textile Co., Ltd. — was founded in 1905. In 1921, Shaxi took the lead to offer household electricity to its residents. Moreover, Taicang’s first machine manufacturing enterprise was set up in the town. Its first independently-manufactured power-driven ship was produced here as well. Today, Shaxi’s industrial development features a three-layered mode, involving joint ventures, private and state-owned enterprises in the country. August of 2003 witnessed the merger of Yuewang Towan and Guizhuang Town into the town. The whole town thereafter makes full use of the developmental advantages of individual towns. It focuses on the attraction of domestic investments and growth of private industry. Constant guidance is given to enterprises for optimizing their industrial structures according to market demands, so outdated production facilities can be shut down, while emphasis will be given to innovation, ecological and green development, and cultivation of famous and high-quality products.
In 2012, Shaxi was assigned as a pilot town of Jiangsu Province. By 2019, there had been 2,000 enterprises, among which 162 were enterprises above designated scale. There are now three major industrial parks, namely Taicang Biomedical Industrial Park, Taicang New Material Industrial Park and Yuewang Sci-Tech Innovation Industrial Park, which jointly serve as a key industrial platform for Shaxi. The total industrial output value reached 28.27 billion yuan and the gross sales accounted for 30.428 billion yuan. There have been 22 enterprises listed as provincial high-tech enterprises, of which two are named as national high-tech enterprises, four ranked as provincial private enterprises, six awarded the title of “Jiangsu Excellent Private Enterprise,” and 50 recognized as high-tech enterprises in Suzhou.
The long history and developed economy have promoted the growth of education. Shaxi, therefore, has become a place where talents emerge great in number. The earliest school in Shaxi was founded in the Song Dynasty. Out of his admiration of Fan Zhongyan’s generous acts, Yang Linbo, a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the national-level imperial examination), followed his suit and established a free private school on the site of today’s Shaxi High School to educate local children from poor families. From the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, there were over 50 Jinshi in Shaxi alone. In modern times, the town still boasts in a large batch of talented people, including the famous educator Tang Wenzhi, Wu Xiaobang who is the founder of China’s modern dance, the CAE academician Yang Shengli, and the former deputy director of CAS Purple Mountain Observatory Gong Shumo.
These renowned figures lend unique humanistic charm to Shaxi. In Wu Xiaobang Modern Dance Art Exhibition Hall and his former residence, one will surely be touched by the profound patriotism conveyed in the dancer’s expressive gestures and movements. In the Research Institute of Tang-Style Chanting, visitors can learn about those ups and downs in Tang Wenzhi’s life through the musical and exquisite chanting style of poems he invented ... Shaxi has launched four art festivals for cultural and artistic exchange — “Dance in Shaxi”, “Poetry and Paintings in Shaxi”, “Couplets in Shaxi”, “Impression of Shaxi”, attracting not only poets, dancers, calligraphers and painters from all over the country, but also flocks of tourists to experience the humanistic charm of the ancient town.
