Wanshou Palace rises from ruins to reclaim cultural, commercial status

Photographer Zang Yi has documented Nanchang's old streets since his college days, often scaling rooftops to get the perfect shot.

In September 2013, he captured the Wanshou Palace area — then a crumbling warren of cheap clothing stalls in Jiangxi province's capital city — from an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China workers' dormitory.

When he returned to the same spot in April 2025, the new view stunned him: a 54,000-square-meter cultural complex blending ruins from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) with neon-lit bubble tea shops. He took a picture from the same angle. His side-by-side photos on Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, went viral with over 80,000 views and more than 200 comments.