A road without street trees is like a woman missing a necklace around her neck. It does not affect the function, but it affects the appearance. The source of the charm of Qingdao Badaguan, in addition to the more than 300 old Western-style buildings with different styles and still charming charm, no one can deny the tree-lined roads and flower-filled green spaces, especially in this spring and summer when the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant. season. The name of Rongcheng Road is not borrowed from the passes and Chaoguan in the north, but it also belongs to the Badaguan Historical and Features Protection Area. The French paulownia trees on both sides of the road are nearly a hundred years old. They are tall and lush, blocking out the sky and the sun. The houses are covered with flowers. The courtyard is a single-family building, which shows that the strength and taste of Qingdao's bureaucratic capitalists during the Republic of China were no less than those "successful people" living in the eastern new cities today. The urban planning and design level of architects and municipal authorities at that time was also obviously better than today's. The expert officials are quite a bit taller.

From the 20th year of the Republic of China (1931) to the 26th year of the Republic of China (1937), when Shen Honglie was the mayor of Qingdao, the area east of Rongcheng Road, north to Zhanshan Road, and south to Taiping Bay was The area of ??1,000 acres is planned as "specially designated construction land east of Rongcheng Road". It is required that the building density must be below 50%, green space must be protected, and permeable walls must be used, etc. Taking off your political glasses, if you choose two mayors that are particularly memorable to the citizens of this city, if you vote for Shen Honglie in the first place and Yu Zhengsheng in the second vote, you will most likely not get scolded.

I have a special liking for Rongcheng Road. It originated in the 1990s when the banking industry began to operate in mixed industries. The bank I worked for opened a trust investment company at No. 7 Rongcheng Road. Rent a large villa to work as an office, and engage in new businesses other than traditional bank deposits and loans, such as bonds and stocks, trust funds, and financial leasing. During my lunch break, I like to ride a bicycle to the surrounding areas or take a walk. In the spring, there are green peach blossoms on Shaoguan Road, crabapples and cherry blossoms on Ningwuguan Road. The ginkgo biloba, the five-pointed maple on Jiayuguan Road, the French plane trees on Shanhaiguan Road, Hanguguan Road, Wushengguan Road and Rongcheng Road, the cedar on Zijinguan Road in winter, and the cypress on Linhuaiguan Road are related to these. You can see the flowers and smell the fragrance. Knowing the way through Flower Street, I used my eyes and film to collect enough material to reminisce about my life with pleasure.

While working in Beijing, I met a Qingdao beauty, Mei, by chance at a construction project of a client company. She was good-looking, good at playing the piano, and had a good mood for life. She had similar interests and could talk well. . She later followed her love and went to Los Angeles, and we are still close friends on WeChat. One time we were chatting about Qingdao and Rongcheng Road. During the same period, she actually worked in the villa at No. 1 Rongcheng Road. She also remembered the old lady who set up a stall at the intersection of Wushengguan Road and she often bought her. ice cream baked sweet potato. I specifically stopped at the light yellow courtyard wall at the intersection today and asked about the short old lady with a red face and a white apron who sells ice cream in the summer and bakes sweet potatoes in the winter. An old neighbor in the courtyard said that the poor lonely old lady died more than ten years ago. .

There is also a beauty named Hong who works in the Government Affairs Bureau of the small blue building at No. 2 Rongcheng Road across the road. She looks like she is in her twenties and is a typical Qingdao girl. She is smart, beautiful and has a beautiful voice. She is sweet and has eyes that can speak. She once participated in the first beauty pageant in Qingdao and entered the top few. Her workplace is our landlord, and we are familiar with each other. When there is a power outage or machine failure, I go to her to help type and copy some documents. Young, goal-oriented and diligent, she continued to study English in her spare time, and later went to the United States to study. After graduation, she married a Greek colleague. She worked in a well-known Wall Street bank as a department manager. She told me that she was living in Manhattan Island at the time. On the morning of 9/11, she went to work late for some reason and stood in front of her window and witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Center with her own eyes. A few years ago, she went back to Qingdao to visit relatives and saw that she was several sizes larger than before. Maybe it was because of the high-fat and high-heat Westernized diet. This made me a little sad.

The courtyard of the small building at No. 3 Rongcheng Road is a few steps lower than the road. It is rented and operated by a young couple. It is called "Good Time". The man cooks delicious food and the woman cooks it. The yard was kept exquisitely and cleanly, and for a while I often invited friends to sit there. There is a tall cedar in the yard and a bodhi tree, which is rare in Qingdao, with a large crown. I love that little table under the linden tree. Every time I dine there, I leave many memories of good times. Later, I read the essay "Drinking Under the Tree" by Azhan, a talented woman from Qingdao. She wrote about the food and sex under the tree in this small courtyard. Her writing was brilliant and full of wit, which made me miss Rongcheng Road even more. It's a pity that the small courtyard I saw today had locked iron gates, overgrown weeds, and the linden tree was gone, leaving only the lonely cedar.

People are separated and I am getting old. Rongcheng Road is still there. It is still quiet and beautiful. In this season, it is still green, cool and pleasant, making people reluctant to leave. Half of my attachment and concern for this city come from my relatives who still live here, and the other half comes from the warm and nostalgic emotions that the old city gives me.