On November 3, 2021, under the organization of Dean Ye Miao of CIE, WZU, three master students majored in TCSOL led a number of international students from CIE to have a study tour in the theme of "Knowing Wenzhou" in the Wuma Community of Wenzhou City.
Wuma Blocks is consisted of three complementary streets, including Chan Street, Wuma Street and Gongyuan Road. With a length of 1.4 kilometers, it is the longest pedestrian street in Zhejiang province at present. The three complementary streets have their own styles different from one another: the Wuma Street originates from the travel allusion of Wang Xizhi, prefecture of Yongjia county in year 347; the Chan Street is built to commemorate Yongjia Dashi, a monk in Tang Dynasty; the Gongyuan Road is named for it is near the Sun Yat-sen Park and it embodies the architectural pattern of an ancient city together with the Wuma Street. Wuma Blocks is not only a carrier of Wenzhou's thousand-year-old culture, but also a microcosm of Wenzhou's rapid development of trade and commerce since modern times, and a witness to the blending of Eastern and Western cultures - it contains the past, present and future of Wenzhou city.
The route of this study tour is starting from Gongyuan Road and ending at Wuma Street. As students stepped on the pedestrian street, the first thing came into view is the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Sun Yat-sen Park with a name being the most frequently used in the world is the only park of this kind in southern Zhejiang province, as well as Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Although Sun Yat-sen had never been to Wenzhou, he was very optimistic about Wenzhou's development and once pointed out in his “The General Plan of National Construction” that Wenzhou should be built into a large oriental port.
The entire blocks of Wuma had gathered various relics of Wenzhou's traditional culture, and also preserved numerous architectural elements of modern Chinese and Western cultures.
In the Wuma Blocks, we could see a Chinese gate building of baroque style. It is the gate to Ouhai Hospital, the first western hospital founded by individual in Wenzhou. Ouhai Hospital, being the predecessor of the No.1 hospital attached to Wenzhou Medical University, was founded by Mr. Huang Qun(1883—1945), a celebrity in modern Wenzhou. Suchu campus of Wenzhou University also named after him in his commemoration.
Not far away from the Ouhai Hospital, there stands a building of ancient Wenzhou style, and on its wall there writes a sentence Ms. Zhang Ai’ling, a famous female writer in Republic of China, once said: “When I see the city of Wenzhou from the boat, I think of you being there, a city looks like the shining of precious jewelry.
