稻河古街区是泰州最重要的历史文化街区，也是泰州率先保护复兴的历史文化街区。稻河古街区形成于元末明初，距今已有600多年的历史，为泰州最大的泰式民居建筑群。涵西和五巷分居东西，稻河和草河贯穿南北，江水和淮水相会其间。泰式民居别具风情，历史积淀深厚，文物古迹众多，但房屋年久失修，生活设施匮乏，人居环境亟待改善。

Daohe Ancient Block is the most important historical and cultural block in Taizhou, which the municipal government took the lead in protecting and rejuvenating. Formed in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, the Daohe Ancient Block has a history of over 600 years. It is the largest Tai-style residential complex in Taizhou. To its east and west are respectively Hanxi and Wuxiang, north and south-ward run the Rice River and the Grass River. Near here also meet the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River. The Tai-style residences are uniquely rich in history and culture, and the relics are many. However, due to the lack of maintenance and living facilities, the living environment needs urgent improving.

2009年，泰州市委、市政府立足长远发展，着眼改善民生，作出对稻河古街区进行全面保护复兴的重大战略决策。2012年，被列为江苏省文化创意产业重大项目，项目规划范围16.8公顷。这是泰州中心城市建设和文化名城建设的重点工程，也是实现城建新提升、建设人民满意幸福城市的重要载体，对打造城市特色、丰富城市内涵、提升城市品位具有重要意义。

In 2009, Taizhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have always strived for people's livelihood in the long run, and have made major strategic decisions on the comprehensive protection and rejuvenation of the Daohe River. In 2012, it was listed as a major project of cultural and creative industries in Jiangsu Province with a planned area of 16.8 hectares. This is a key project for constructing Taizhou as a central city and famous cultural city. It is also an important carrier for achieving new urban upgrading and building a city of happiness. It is of great significance for forging a city’s uniqueness, enriching its cultures, and upgrading its taste.

稻河古街区文昌水秀、古今交融。这里曾经依附旧城，管控北关，盐粮转运，舟楫相连，街河并行，桨声桥影，布局形态独特，街巷肌理鲜见，俗谓“进了五条巷，如吃迷魂汤”。街区内有省级文保单位、号称“九十九间半” 的泰州第一豪宅周氏（吴氏）住宅；有清末内阁学士兼礼部侍郎、被奉为文章宗匠的钱桂森故居；有两淮地区最早供奉盐宗管仲的明代建筑管王庙；有从汉唐经两宋直至明清前后两千多年延续不断的古水井群；有上海世博会中国馆总设计师何镜堂先生设计的国家三星级绿色建筑泰州科学发展观展示馆……她们如一颗颗璀璨的珍珠分布于街区，吸引着人们去探古寻幽、寄情感怀。

Daohe Ancient Block prospers with cultures, blending the ancient and the modern. As a part of the old town, it used to control the city’s north pass, where salt and grain were transfered. Here boats flocked, oars splashed, bridges shadowed, and streets crowded along., The block was laid out unique and the fabrication of streets rare, as the old saying goes: “Once into the five alleys, one’s lost in a maze." The district has many famous historic and cultural sites: a provincial-level cultural protection unit, Zhou’s (Wu's) Residence, Taizhou’s most luxurious mansion known as "ninety-nine and a half rooms"; the Qian Guisen Residence, who was cabinet counselor and rites counselor of the Qing Dynasty and was worshiped as a literary master; the Temple of Lord Guan, a Ming Dynasty building, which worshiped Guan Zhong as lord of salt in the Huai River reaches; the ancient well gathering that had continuously functioned from Han and Tang Dynasties until the Ming and Qing Dynasties for well over two thousand years. Here is also where Taizhou’s Scientific Outlook on Development Exposition Hall stands, the three-starred green architect, which was designed by Mr. He Jingtang, Chief Architect of the China Pavilion in the Shanghai World Expo ... ... They are like pearls distributed in neighborhoods, attracting people to explore and experience..

稻河古街区欢迎您！

Welcome to Daohe Ancient Block

五巷小学

五巷小学创办于清宣统元年（1909），初为叶桐在巷内叶家楼开办的私塾，后几经易名，建国前后校名为“五巷小学”。民国三十七年（1948）由县府主持拓建，地方民众出资相助。校门南向，前后多进，最后为楼屋，上世纪60年代楼屋改为平房，楼东南隅植有银杏一株。前国家主席胡锦涛年幼时家住多儿巷，距五巷小学很近，就在此读小学，至三年级转入大浦小学，1951年在大浦小学初小毕业。五巷小学后在其东北侧拓建新校舍，旧校址改为五巷小学二部，又变为教工宿舍。

Wu Xiang Primary School

Wu Xiang Primary School was founded in 1909, the starting year of Xuantong Reign in the Qing Dynasty, first as a private school run by Ye Tong at the Ye Lane. After several changes of names, it was eventually known to people as “Wu Xiang Primary School” after liberation. In 1948, or thirty-seventh years of the Republic of China, sponsored by the local people, it was expanded by the county government. The school has its gate opened south, with multiple districts, and a tall building standing at the rear. In. the 1960s the tall building was reconstructed into a bungalow, with a ginkgo planted in the southeast corner. President Hu Jintao, former President of China, lived very close to Wu Xiang Primary School, where he studied until the third grade and later transferred to Dapu Primary School and graduated there in 1951. Later, a new school building was constructed to the northeast, so, the old school was changed to The Second Wu Xiang Primary School, and later on staff dormitory.

西坝掣盐

我国古代食盐在运销过程中，为防止走私，需进行抽检斤重与验查盐引。清雍正十一年（1733），朝廷在泰州西坝设立泰坝监掣署，派专员管理盐务，负责对往来盐运核查、称重、盖印、签单及纳税等，稽查通、泰两地偷漏夹带私盐的情况，泰州从此显赫于淮南盐运销的航道上。西坝掣盐过坝，盐船满河，首尾相结，人工抬盐，日夕喧嚣。时有诗人汪琴山《海陵竹枝词》写到：“来往行船唱棹歌，淮南盐舶北门多。不知清化桥头水，近日平添几尺波。”

The Xiba Salt Monitoring Pass

In ancient China, to prevent smuggling, salt in transportation and sales would be carefully sampled and the salt license carried by merchants be verified. In 1733, the eleventh year of Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty, the court set up a salt monitoring office in Xiba, Taizhou, and sent special commissioners to manage the salt business. It was responsible for verifying, weighing, stamping, signing and taxing, etc., and for inspecting the smuggling of illegal salt. Since then Taizhou had became prominent in Huainan salt shipping channel. To be inspected at Xiba (or the West Dam), salt boats filled the river, end to end, and workers lifting salt hustled and bustled day and night. A contemporary poet, Wang Qin Shan, wrote in a poem: "Songs fly from ships passing by, most heard in salt boats at North Gate; water flow under the Qinghua Bridge, how its waves are stirred."

五 巷

元末明初泰州城被战火破坏，城里逐渐萧条，北门外坡子街、彩衣街向北延伸，稻河与草河两侧逐渐兴旺。清初，在今大浦小学对面设置泰坝监掣署，抽查过坝的盐船，稻河从原来西坝口北向西拓展，其间愈加繁荣，位于其北侧的居民越聚越多，五条巷由此形成。巷南北走向，东西并列，从东往西依次为头巷、二巷、三巷、四巷、五巷。巷内居民住宅大门朝东，后门在下一条巷内朝西，内宅房屋均为南向。巷子长度及宽度大致相等，外观完全相似，往往难以区分，常有陌生人进入巷内，转来转去，迷路不得出，因而泰州有“进了五条巷，如吃昏迷汤”的谚语。

Wuxiang, or the Five Alleys

Taizhou city was destroyed by war during the end of Yuan and the beginning of Ming dynasty, gradually becoming sluggish. Later, Pozi Street and Caiyi Street extending north outside the north gate along Daohe and Caohe Rivers gradually flourished. At the beginning of the Qing dynasty, the Xiba Monitoring Office, opposite the present Dapu Primary School, was set up to inspect salt boats passing by. At that time the Daohe River extended from the north to the west, and grew even more prosperous, so more inhabitants gathered to the north, and Wuxiang, or the Five Alleys thus formed. The five alleys run south-north, and paralleled side by side. From east to west are respectively the first, the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth alleys. Residences along the alleys have their gates facing east, and the back doors facing west at the next alley.Houses inside the residence all face south. The lengths and widths of the alleys are roughly the same, looking almost exactly the same, and are often difficult to distinguish. Often, strangers entered the alleys, making confusing turns only to get lost, so Taizhou has the saying that “Once into the five alleys, one’s lost in a maze."

稻 河

稻河位于泰州古城北关外，南与城河隔西坝相望，北通里下河及盐场串场河，为长江水系和淮河水系交汇之处。明永乐二年，东台至泰州的泰东河开通后，淮南盐场的盐船运至泰州就停在河中，由人工将盐包挑抬翻坝进入城河后沿运盐河西行。民国期间，河两岸经营粮食的陆陈行百余家，河中停满从里下河运来稻谷的船只，稻河由此得名。

Daohe, or the Rice River

Daohe River, or the Rice River, is located outside North Pass outside the old Taizhou city, facing the city moat over the West Dam. Northward it meets the Lixia River and the salt field waterway, and is the intersection of, the Yangtze River and Huaihe River. In the second year of Emperor Yongle of Ming Dynasty, after the opening of the Taidong River from Dongtai to Taizhou, salt shipments from Huainan salt fields would stop in the river when arrived Taizhou. Then the salt would be discharged by hand to go over the dam, reloaded in the city moat and transferred along the salt river westbound. During the period of the Republic of China, more than 100 grain merchants did business by the river, where rice ships from Lixia River anchored, hence the name of Daohe River, or the Rice River.

管 王 庙

管王庙是祭祀管仲的庙宇，系泰州市文物保护单位。管仲（？～前645年）名夷吾，字仲，春秋时以其卓越的谋略，辅佐齐桓公成为霸主。管仲创建官盐制度，被称为盐宗之一。据明（万历）《泰州志》记载，在泰州北关有以庙而名管王庙巷。管王庙建筑具有明代早期特征，是我国淮盐地区最早祭祀盐宗的庙宇。2015年落架大修，恢复原貌。

The Temple of Lord Guan

The Temple of Lord Guan is one that worshipped Guan Zhong, and is now Taizhou’s municipal level Cultural Relics Protection Unit. Guan Zhong (?~ 645 BC), also named Yi Wu, with the literary name Zhong, was famous for his excellent strategies in the Spring and Autumn Period, and assisted Qi Huan Gong become overlord. Guan Zhong founded the official salt system, and thus was known as one of the salt masters. It is recorded in The Taizhou Annals in the Wanli Reign of Ming Dynasty that an alley was named Temple Alley,because of it at the north pass. The Temple of Lord Guan displays architectural features of the early Ming Dynasty, and is China's earliest salt master worshipping temple in Huaihe area. In 2015 it was overhauled, and the original appearance was restored.

明代青石井

泰州地区明代水井已不再用火山岩石加工水井井栏，而改成用青石作井栏材料。青石有糯性石质较软，便于加工。此井井栏为明代遗物，井栏口部的一道道石槽，似为打井时绳索磨损所形成，天长日久，越磨越深，其制作与使用时代距今有500年以上。

The Ming Stone Well

The water well from Mind Dynasty in Taizhou didn’t use volcanic rocks to make brandriths, but cyan stones. Cyan stones are soft and easy to process. This well’s brandriths are Ming relics. The stone grooves on them appeared to be shaped by abrasion over a long period of time. It is estimated the well has been made and used for over 500 years now.

清代水井

该水井为清代建造，是昔日街区居民生活所用的家用水井。水质甘甜，淘米、洗菜全用井中之水。为保护水井，在井上安装了六边形井圈，四周砌筑了矮墙，并对井进行过清淘，现井水仍清澈可用。

The Qing Well

The well was built in Qing Dynasty and provided water for nearby households. The water tasted sweet, and were used for washing rice and vegetables. In order to protect the well, a hexagonal well ring was installed, and a low wall was built around it. The well was cleared, and the well water is still clear and usable.