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Qikou --Ancient Town on the Loess Plateau
Qikou is a small town about a 6 hour bus ride from Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province. For more than two centuries, when
transportation in the area was still undeveloped, the Yellow River constituted the main transportation route for
commodities between Northwest and North China. Qikou served as a vital trading
point marking the eastern terminus for river-bound freight.
During the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 A.D.), Qikou was the commercial center
and commodity transfer harbor, where dozens, sometimes hundreds of boats,
berthed every day. Cereals, oils, salt, furs, medicines and many other products
came to Qikou on water routes from Northwest China, before being transported to
other parts of the country by horse and camel. Meanwhile, silk, tea, cigarettes
and liquor were transported from central China to the northwest (here it would
not be capitalized, because you're not using the proper name of the region). It
is said that more than two thousand dock hands worked in the harbor at that
time, and that thousands of horses and camels carried commodities on the
transportation route that brought prosperity to Qikou merchants.
During its heyday, more than 380 shops did good business in Qikou. The
2.5-kilometer-long "L" shaped main street was divided into three sections. The
front and middle streets by the Qiushui River were crowded with restaurants,
taverns, silk stores and groceries. Larger shops were on the Back Street facing
the Yellow River.
Qikou's prosperity, however, ended with the War of Resistance against the
Japanese that started in 1938, when the Japanese army invaded Qikou and
destroyed the local economy. Most merchants fled, never to return. From the
1930s to the 1950s, the flood-prone Yellow River ravaged Qikou's streets and
shop. Although Qikou Town has now faded from recent memory, it has nevertheless
retained its original outlook.
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