A bedroom has one window and a door that opens into the corridor, while a large central room contains ancestral tablets and photos on a table. The restroom and kitchen are by the river and the corridor leads to a back door from which the goods were carried into the house from the nearby wharf.

"Although the house is old, it is very comfortable to live in," he says. "The drainage system built in the Song Dynasty still functions well and there are six stone gates and a stone, single-span arch in the street, separating the bazaar into sections and reducing the risk of fire spreading throughout the bazaar."

Most houses on the south of the street were wineries, sugar refineries, straw hat and mat workshops, drugstores, flour mills, blacksmiths, carpenter workshops, cloth dyeing factories and butcher shops. On the north side were rich families' residences, restaurants, clinics, guild halls, ancestral temples and brothels.

"My grandfather always said honesty was the most important quality for a successful business. Businessmen in the bazaar had ethics. That's why many families could prosper for hundreds of years," Zhou says.

This largesse largely came to an end after the road connecting Daxu and Guilin was built in the late 1940s.

Huang Zhaocai, an 82-year-old straw mat weaver in Daxu, says: "I started weaving straw mats at the age of 14 and my fellow villagers did the same. But the good old days are long gone now. I have no idea who can make such mats after I pass away."

Zeng Qiaowang, a 70-year-old who has written a book on Daxu culture, says: "Daxu has its own customs, culture and history. After the elderly die we will lose our culture and history forever."

Zeng says he is trying his best to collect all relevant information from the old people in Daxu to pass down the local culture.

"At least young people should know about their ancestors. But they don't seem to care about it."

Today there are stalls selling fake antiques and old objects, while a large shopping mall is also being constructed.

Gazing on the bustling street and the run-down wharves, Zhou Changfu sighs in despair: "My sons and grandsons, like many of their peers, live in Guilin city. I am afraid the ancient bazaar will finally disappear in terms of culture, even if the old buildings and street are preserved."

   

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