Post-war Vitality

Tai’erzhuang has strategic significance in China’s battle history. To safeguard the waterway transport system, the Ming Dynasty established an inspection office in Tai’erzhuang in 1606. In 1647 a troop was dispatched there to guard the town and ensure the safety of merchants. They made it a strategic center – the south gate of Shandong Province and north gate of Xuzhou (Jiangsu Province) – as well as a natural defense for the capital city, Beijing.

In the spring of 1938, the astonishing Battle of Tai’erzhuang, later hailed as China’s first major victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945), broke out and left the town in ruins with bullet-ridden, blood-stained walls. The steel helmets of fallen Japanese invaders and one-inch-thick fragments of hand grenades floated on the bloodied water of the canal. At present, 53 WWII sites, still bearing the scars of the war, and abundant cherished photos taken by war correspondents are preserved in Tai’erzhuang. While it is now over 70 years since the battle, the memory of war still seems fresh. The old town walls, riddled with bullet holes – 375 of them over one square meter at one point – serve as a constant reminder.

Li Tsung-jen, the Fifth War Zone commander of the Kuomintang, recorded in his memoir that Tai’erzhuang was chosen as the site of the decisive battle against the Japanese army, largely because 6,600 buildings in the town were strong enough to serve as shelters for Chinese soldiers.

The old town of Tai’erzhuang was rebuilt in 2008. For this mission, the restoration team looked through more than 30 local chronicles, over 300 historical materials relating to the canal and 2,000-plus battle-related documents, with more than 380 old pictures of Tai’erzhuang and videos. They visited 27 elderly witnesses of the wartime period, and invited 130 experts to determine the town’s various architectural styles. Archaeological excavations were also conducted at ruins of canal locks, piers and the Mt Tai Temple, first built in the 16th century.

Rejuvenation of Intangible Cultural Heritage

The rejuvenation project has breathed new life into the ancient town. In 2012, an intangible cultural heritage park was built in Tai’erzhuang. Currently, there are more than 150 national intangible cultural heritage items in the park, such as Liuqin Opera, Yunhe Dagu (a folk story-telling and singing art with drum accompaniment along the Grand Canal) and Shadow Play, drawing in tourists from far and wide.

A boat-shaped street surrounded by water, evoking a ship on the ocean, is a distinctive part of the ancient town. According to records, tens of thousands of barges passed through the Tai’erzhuang canal annually at its peak. All the wooden gates of buildings along the boat-shaped street are carved with boat patterns, 468 in all, blessing the passing fleets. Halfway down the street stands a stage for opera performance called Houle Pavilion, which features in a famous verse by the revered poet Fan Zhongyan (989-1052).

Folk artists were performing Liuqin Opera when the journalist visited. Liuqin Opera, storytelling in the local dialect with a drum accompaniment, got its name from a musical instrument shaped like the leaf of a willow (liu in Chinese). This form of opera originated in southern Shandong and was later popularized in neighboring northern Jiangsu Province along the Grand Canal.