When your feet carry you into the Old Street of Hukou, it is like following the flow of time backwards, backwards, backwards... until it freezes.
A covered walkway comes forward to greet you. Portals are, oddly enough, flanked by Roman pillars; but just raise your head and you see the Chinese characters of the names of the shops carved in elegant bas-relief over their doors, while the entrances of private homes are adorned with flowers rich in the fragrance of yesteryear.
Scattered groups of local elders sit along the old street talking about their glory days gone by; much bigger gaggles of young people, wide-eyed, are grabbing willy-nilly at history.
Not far away, auspicious Chinese characters carved as decoration on a wall shimmer in a puddle of shaded water, transformed into the shape of a thousand-year-old water vessel, inviting passersby to reflect on how this street must have appeared when it was bustling with the sights and sounds of another era.
