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September 24, 2013

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Home » District » Jiading

You don’t miss your water ’til the well runs dry ...

By Chen Zhaoxiong , Xu Wei , Guan Yi , Zhu Jiajia | September 24, 2013, Tuesday | Print Edition

Wells played an important role in the everyday life of Chinese people in ancient times as it was their best source of drinking water.

In the 1980s, there were still a lot of families in Jiading getting their water from wells. Wells of different sizes and shapes are well preserved now in Jiading. Although people no longer need to go there to get their drinking water, they remain as cultural landmarks and a reminder of the area’s history.

A bucketful of memories

Wells can be found almost in every old house in Jiading. There are three in my old house in Loutang Town.

One is 50 meters from the Loutang public well and is around 600 years old. The other two are in the courtyard of our house.

Both my family and our neighbors get water from them.

In my childhood, I had a lot of fun related with the wells. In summer, the wells were used to chill watermelons. The water in the well is much cooler than the water on the ground, and the watermelons will taste more sweet and icy after chilling in the wells.

In the evenings, my grandma and I would sit beside the well while she told me stories and we counted the stars together.

It was also a fun to dip a bucket into the well for water. For safety reasons, I was not allowed to do that until I was nine years old. It took me a lot of time to learn how to fetch water from the well.

I recommend visitors to Loutang have a try. It needs both strength and skill before they can fetch a bucketful and wash their faces in the cool well water.

Largest source sealed but not forgotten

The Charity Well is located on Nanxiang’s Minzhu Street. It is now sealed with stone but people in Nanxiang will never forget its contributions to the local people in the 1920s.

Then, the residents of Nanxiang suffered from wars between two Chinese warlords’ armies and a pestilence was raging in the town. People didn’t dare to drink the water from the river.

To get the clean water for the residents, a charity organization called the China Jisheng Society dug a two-meter-diameter well with pumping equipment, which is listed as the largest well in Jiading’s history.

Old folk can remember Loutang’s largest

Loutang ancient town is known for many water channels that run through it, of which the Hengli and Loutang rivers are the main water courses.

However, the two rivers experience two tides each day since they connect the Yangtze River, and the busy ships on the rivers produce pollution in the rivers. So the residents in Loutang usually dug wells to get their drinking water in the old days.

To meet the needs of the community, a public well was built at the junction of the current Dabei Street and the Xidajie Street in the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Made of black bricks, it was several meters deep and around 70 centimeters in diameter. The 60-centimeter-high well curb protected people and inquisitive children from falling in.

Water in the well was clear and pure. Over the past centuries, it was a major drinking water source in Loutang town.

The well’s water was also used to brew tea at the Pinquanlou Tea House.

Although this public well no longer exists, it is still in the memory of the old people in Loutang Town. 

Monk drops a key to make history

In the October of 1985, several round wells dating from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) were discovered in Qianjin Village of Anting Town.

These wells are of major archaeological value and the well curbs — the protective structures around the top of wells — have been preserved by Jiading Museum.

In Anting River, there used to be an old well at its bottom. Owing to the spring from the deep well coming out continuously, the water from it tasted sweet and pure.

People living in the neighborhood liked to get the water at the pavilion on the bridge across the Anting River.

Time has passed and the pavilion is no more there and the well is no longer used.

However, the bridge still exists, and the name of the bridge has survived over the years and is unchanged — Jingting Bridge, meaning the pavilion over the well bridge.

Another old well is located on the road between Loutang Town and Jiading Town. It was dug in the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) for passers-by to get the water for refreshment. The well curb has been moved into the Huilongtan Park.

At Nanxiang Town there is a Liang Dynasty (502-557 AD) Well boasting a history of around 1,500 years, while the Key-dropping Well at Anting Town tells us an interesting story.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Grand Hall of Puti Temple collapsed, a monk named Haiyue was determined to rebuild it.

He had an iron chain weighing 50 kilos made, put it around his neck and locked it. Then he dropped the key into the well and declared that he would never unlock the chain until the Grand Hall was rebuilt. So the well was named “Key-dropping Well.”

 

Jiading


 

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