Liuchi Alley is a historical cultural site in Tongcheng, a city in Anqing, in east China's Anhui Province. The history of the narrow alley dates back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when Zhang Ying, a senior official, and his neighbors, the Wu family, decided to move the walls of their houses back about one meter, to create a nearly two-meter-wide alley between their houses. Why? To resolve their property-boundary dispute. The story stands as a model of harmonious and courteous neighborly relations in China.
Zhang Yun is secretary of the general Party (Communist Party of China) branch of Liuchi Alley Community. He is also director of the community's residents' committee. The moral virtues connected to Liuchi Alley, especially courtesy and modesty, have been inherited and promoted by Zhang's family for generations. In May, Zhang's family was one of the 10 families named "Most Beautiful Families" by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the All-China Women's Federation.
In October 2024, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, visited Liuchi Alley during his inspection tour in Anhui Province. Xi noted that Liuchi Alley exemplifies the ancestral wisdom of dispute resolution and should serve as an educational site for carrying forward traditional Chinese culture, and full play should be given to China's traditional virtue of courtesy and modesty, so as to create a harmonious social environment where people can live and work in peace and happiness.
Zhang, 58, is a provincial-level, representative inheritor of the story about Liuchi Alley. Zhang, who was born and raised in the community, was taught the traditional virtue of courtesy and modesty from childhood. For more than two decades, Zhang has worked for the community. He has adhered to the virtues while educating his family members, and he and his family have done their part to promote courtesy and modesty whenever they have served the other residents. It has been how they have given back to society.
Making Courtesy, Modesty a Family Tradition
"He normally talks quite fast. But, meanwhile, he is mild and reliable. If we have different opinions, he will listen to me first, and then, he will tell me his thoughts," says Zhang's wife, Fan Fengli, who is four years younger than Zhang. The couple has been married for 33 years. Fan says the virtue of courtesy and modesty is the key to maintaining harmony in the family.
When Zhang Yun was a little boy, his father, Zhang Zhongxiang, taught him the wisdom of courtesy and modesty in dispute resolution, through a seemingly simple deed. At that time, several branches of an acacia tree growing in the courtyard of Zhang's house extended to the top of the thatch roof of a neighbor's house. The neighbor cut the branches without asking the Zhangs. Zhang Zhongxiang did not get mad. Instead, he took water and a towel to his neighbor, and he asked the neighbor to have a rest. In this way, a potential conflict was quietly resolved. Zhang Yun has always remembered his father's words: "Sometimes, giving in to others, reasonably, can help us solve troubles."
In Zhang Yun's opinion, courtesy and modesty are helpful in maintaining harmony between a husband and wife, keeping the unity of a family, and advancing one's career. Harmony within tens of thousands of families will help enhance the harmony of society, and it will help ensure the prosperity of the country.
Both Fan and Zhang Yun are community workers. Fan takes good care of the elderly members of their family and their son. As such, she believed her husband would be able to better concentrate on his work. Since Liuchi Alley is a hot tourist spot, Fan often encounters tourists who arrive at her home to ask for directions, or to seek other help. She answers their questions, patiently. She wants her home to be a place where community services can be provided, timely, to visitors.
When their son, Zhang Cunyuan, was young, Fan and Zhang Yun told him to pass on their family tradition, study diligently, and maintain a positive attitude toward life. "We have told our son the story about Liuchi Alley since he was a boy. When he quarreled with his schoolmates, we asked him to consider things from the perspectives of others, so he would have a more inclusive mind," Zhang Yun says.
"Every member of our family is hardworking. We adhere to the virtue of courtesy and modesty. We discuss with each other peacefully when we have different opinions toward certain things. We try to avoid quarreling," Fan explains. "Our family tradition is reflected in our everyday life. We act on it, and we inherit our good traditions from generation to generation," Zhang Yun adds.
Positive Influence in Community
Zhang believes courtesy and modesty have a profound influence among the residents of his community. Around Liuchi Alley, which extends about 100 meters, the residents maintain warm and friendly relations with each other. They all do their best to create a harmonious community atmosphere.
If a dispute arises that requires Zhang Yun to intercede, he will ask the participants to visit Liuchi Alley. As an example, he mentions a dispute from two years ago: "A wall standing as a property boundary for three households was damaged. Who should be responsible for repairing the wall? I invited representatives of the three households to Liuchi Alley. I said our ancestors here negotiated with each other so they could resolve their dispute peacefully. How about we learn from the good tradition?" Eventually, the three households agreed to share the cost of repairing the wall, Zhang Yun notes.
In recent years, Zhang Yun has helped organize a team of volunteer docents, and a series of public-welfare lectures, to promote the history of Liuchi Alley. The community has been decorated with pictures and paintings of poems, which depict the story about Liuchi Alley.
Given the increasing popularity of "China Travel," Liuchi Alley not only attracts tourists from across China, but also international tourists, who share how impressed they are by the renowned, two-meter-wide alley. Zhang Yun and his family are happy to see the visitors, from home and abroad, gain an understanding of the history of Liuchi Alley. They especially appreciate it when international tourists say they admire the fine traditional Chinese culture of promoting courtesy, modesty and harmony in the neighborhood.
"A narrow alley extends 100 meters between the walls of two residences. Morality and virtues urge us to adhere to courtesy and modesty." The above lines have been excerpted from a song, "Liuchi Alley," which reminds residents to inherit good traditions from the past, and to build a harmonious and beautiful community for the future.
Photos from Li Jingjing, Interviewees and VCG
(Women of China English Monthly July 2026)
Editor: Wang Shasha
