New 'ancient town' rises along the Grand Canal (5)

From owner to worker

The sweets shop, called Yi Feng Heng (literally Brotherhood, Harvest and Eternity), had been in operation for more than 100 years before Li's father took over in the 1930s. It made all kinds of snacks, notably sweet rice cakes.

"The canal was prosperous beyond imagination," Li says, "and I heard that thousands of vessels passed every day. Our shop was famous among regular travelers."

Li's father had more than 30 employees when the canal was used to transport coal to the railway.

But when the Battle of Tai'erzhuang loomed, the family fled to safety to other villages. At the time, Li was only 5, but he recalls that as the son of the owner, he could enjoy desserts every day. "Sometimes I can still taste the sweetness," he says, licking his lips.

He digs out an old family album, showing black-and-white pictures.

"My dad was not a big boss, but don't I look just a little bit like a boss?" he asks.

Li never got the chance. Eventually he went to work for a state-owned supply company, retiring 20 years ago.

"It's lucky we went away, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you today. Almost the entire town was evacuated at the time," Li recalls.

His crumbling, bullet-riddled house still stands in the ancient town park, a monument to the devastation of war and proof of the urban warfare.

"Our family came back a few months later after the battle, but the entire town was destroyed," Li says. The canal would never again witness the traffic and prosperity that Li remembers.

But life went on. "We had to survive," he says. The canal was still in use and at times business looked promising.

"But the war made canal transport unstable, so our lives were difficult. "Workers ran away, traders and sailors stopped coming, and people hardly ever needed snacks at a time when it was difficult not to starve," Li says.

When the new canal was built in 1958, Li was already working for a state company. He, his wife and extended family continued to live in the cramped, bullet-scarred old house for many years. They were relocated to their current neighborhood in 2005 before construction of the ancient town began.

Many of his neighbors today are old neighbors from the canal days. The ancient town theme park isn't far away.

Sometimes Li is invited to stand in front of his old home and talk about the past.