The pavilion at the centre of Small Park historical area in Shantou, Guangdong province, is a memorial to the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen. Photos provided to China Daily.

A century ago nostalgia brought successful overseas Chinese business owners back to their hometown of Shantou, Guangdong province, where they invested in its thriving downtown area.

The neatly planned old town they helped create, with row upon row of exquisite qilou (arcade buildings), is known today as the Small Park historical area and bears witness to the city’s past.

After the city, also known as Swatow, became a treaty port for foreign trade in 1860, Small Park was a commercial centre known for its modern lifestyle. After New China was founded in 1949 the city thrived, and from 1978 commerce began to revive as a result of reform and opening-up.

With the passage of time, the old town’s prosperity faded as Shantou extended eastward, but many of those who grew up there and have cherished memories of the area do not want to leave it behind.

Instead, they strive to keep its memory alive — some through words, others through pictures — to ensure that its former glory is told to both the city’s young and to a growing number of visitors.

“The creation of the Small Park area is a reflection of the city’s historical development,” said Zhang Yaohui, deputy director of the culture, radio, television, tourism and sports bureau of Jinping district, where the qilou neighbourhood is located.

Because of Shantou’s natural harbour, it became one of the cities forced to grant foreign powers access to trade under the unequal Treaties of Tianjin, signed following imperial China’s defeat in the Second Opium War (1856-60).

As a result, foreign diplomats, merchants, sailors and missionaries, overseas Chinese and business owners from other parts of China flooded into the commercial port.

As a trading centre it was connected to Southeast Asia, as well as to coastal cities including Shanghai, Tianjin and Qingdao, Shandong province. Overland trade from the port reached other parts of present-day Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces.

Customs records suggest that between 1864 and 1911 alone, nearly 3 million people from the Chaoshan region — the Guangdong cities of Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang — sailed south from Shantou to earn a living in Southeast Asia.

Tianhou Temple in Shantou old town, dedicated to the sea goddess Mazu, and neighbouring Guandi Temple, celebrating the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) general Guan Yu, renowned for his courage and faith, were their last stops before setting sail. There they would pray for safety and fortune and take a handful of incense ash with them. When they returned, the temples were the first, welcoming glimpses of home, Zhang said.

Yingge dance performances brighten up Spring Festival in February.

The intricate decor of both temples, built in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and rebuilt in the early 1990s, indicates the place they occupy in peoples’ hearts.

The roofs are decorated with qianci, brightly coloured porcelain shards assembled into the shape of auspicious figures such as the dragon and the phoenix, martial figures from local Teochew Opera and flowers. The figures carry iron weapons in their hands, which also serve as lightning rods, Zhang said.

Apart from stone carvings on the facades, there are wood carvings covered in lacquer and gold leaf on the beams. Many depict scenes from Teochew Opera, such as stories adapted from the classical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which helped make General Guan a household name.

In the past, on festival days and when successful overseas Chinese returned, Teochew Opera performances were held in the open space between the two temples to express gratitude to the deities, Zhang said.

A night view of the Small Park neighbourhood.

The area was used as a marketplace the rest of the year. The old town originated there and gradually expanded. Finally, after the local government began an integrated urban planning and road construction programme in the 1920s, a business district with a small circular park at its core and roads radiating outward was built. It remains intact.

This was a period when many overseas Chinese returned to invest in business and real estate. For example, across from the park is Nansheng Department Store, which originally belonged to Li Bohuan, a Hakka businessman who made his fortune in Indonesia, and his business partners.

The grand seven-storey building was completed in 1932 and included a department store, local and Western restaurants, and a hotel. It was lit with electric lamps every night, had flowers on each floor, and was home to the city’s first lift, which remained in use for 60 years.

In the two years after it was completed Li worked with neighbouring business owners to fund and build a pavilion in the small park in memory of the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), which has since become a symbol of the old town area.

Numerous qilou were built at the time, using imported materials such as cement and iron bars. Today a stroll through the historical neighbourhood with arcade buildings lining its streets reminds visitors of an era marked by the pursuit of wealth and utility, aesthetics and creativity, as well as the mix of modern and traditional. — China Daily