Qiaoxi History Jiequ

The row of weathered, gray-brick houses along the Grand Canal bank belongs to Qiaoxi. These structures served as homes and workshops for laborers and merchants when the canal functioned as the primary artery for grain transport into Hangzhou. In the nineteen twenties, a local merchant named Wang opened a small soy sauce workshop here, fermenting beans in large earthen jars just feet from the water. The smell of his brewing vats often signaled to boatmen that they had reached the city.