History of the Ancient Street

Ancient Flagstone Street. According to historical records, the street was covered by 108 flagstones. This one is the most well-preserved flagstone. The street is 1,500 meters long, which is the longest ancient street in the northern Jiangsu area. The flagstones of the 400-year-old street were all ballast stones used by salt merchants which were collected from all over the country. Hexia Ancient Town has also been rated as the Town of Successful Candidates in the Highest Imperial Examinations. Just in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were 67 successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations, 123 successful candidates in the imperial examinations at the provincial level, 12 members of the Imperial Academy and more than ten persons whose biographies appear in the History of Ming and the History of Qing. The Liu family had six successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations in 5 successive generations; and two brothers from the Li family and a father and his son from the Zhang family all succeeded in the highest imperial examinations. Therefore, Hexia has been regarded as the Top Town of Successful Candidates in the Highest Imperial Examinations in China. It is generally known that the originator of the prose of the Han dynasty Mei Cheng and his son Mei Gao, the author of the Journey to the West Wu Cheng'en, the heroine Liang Hongyu in the Southern Song dynasty, the anti-pirate Number One Scholar Shen Kun in the Ming dynasty, the great medical scientist Wu Jutong in the Qing dynasty and the teacher and prime minister of the emperor Daoguang were all natives of Hexia.