A Breathing Time-capsule
2 min readIn the eyes of many, Zhuhai is all about youthful charm-beautiful scenery combined with the vigor of modernity. And yet, coastline vistas and impressive infrastructure represent only one of the many wonderful aspects of the area and, traveling to the west, the city gives way to secrets seemingly lost in time, encountering intriguing names like”knie-sharper Gate”and”Tiger’s’ Run Passage” riginally part of the territory of Zhongshan and Xinhui areas, Doumen officially joined the jurisdictional domain of Zhuhai as late as 1983 as a county and became one of the city’s core districts in 2001.
Long ago, the current location of Doumen was within bay area cut into halves by the rugged Huangyang Mountain range and constantly reshaped by the surrounding rivers, flowing to the South China Sea and forming the Pearl River Delta. With its pivotal location in terms of water transportation the thousand-year prosperity of Doumen is perfect illustration of the way in which the confluence of rivers can result in a land of cornucopia.
Called Doumen”Xu”(in Chinese”xu”墟 meaning”ruins” but also, as in this case, “market”or “bazaar”), the old town area that sits at the southern tip of the Pearl River Delta served as the “west conduit”of Zhuhai throughout its history. The archaic name alone is a good indicator of the historical remoteness of this intriguing artifact of a town, left behind in time as the rest of the area developed and modernized.
The centerpiece of Doumen Xu is a business street that thrived throughout the mid-19th century into the early years of the 20th century, thanks to the bustling trade and cultural interaction between local businesspeople, and dealers and missionaries from Macao, Europe, North America and other areas John C. Young (1912-1987) Doumen is the home of the Zhaozhen Museum, named after U.S. Army Colonel, John C. Young (Rong Zhaozhen), whose father was born near here. Chinese American born in San Jose, California, John C. Young was a key figure in the development of San Francisco’s Chinatown, and a decorated American World War II army veteran of the China-Myanmar-India theater. He was celebrated as one of the 20 individuals from San Francisco history’who was heroic in stature and contributed significantly to the building of the San Francisco we know today.
