Editor's note
Is there a Zhonghua Road in your city? This road crosses mountains and seas, illuminates the past and present, carries stories, and watches over homesickness. It is not only a geographical coordinate, but also engraved with national and national memories, becoming a common spiritual imprint and cultural bond for compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
On the eve of the anniversary of Taiwan's liberation in 2026, Xinhua Daily and Junction News launched the "Tracing China - Generation Z's Journey to China" integrated media campaign. Journalists and young students work hand in hand to "check out" the China Road in ten cities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, explore the memories of family and country on the China Road, and decode the vicissitudes of the city; "open" history and the present with the eyes of youth, search for the same origin and indivisible blood genes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, build a consensus among the youth of Generation Z, and protect and build the common home of the Chinese nation.
"My journey to practice medicine can be said to have started on Zhonghua Road in Nanjing. My home and my father's medical laboratory are only 1.3 kilometers away from Zhonghua Road in Taipei. What a coincidence?" On September 18, standing in front of the Qinhuai District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Nanjing, where he was an intern, Huang Bowen, a young Taiwanese and a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, described the fate of father and son and Zhonghua Road.
On the eve of the anniversary of Taiwan's liberation in 2026, the first stop of the media-integrated action "Looking for China - Generation Z Checks the Chinese Road" came to Nanjing. Through a road and a city, we will find those touching stories about the same origin and blood connection between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Millennium axis, counting "China" on the road to China
Zhonghua Road starts from Neiqiao in the north and ends at Zhonghua Gate in the south. This road, located in the south of the old city of Nanjing and with a total length of less than 2 kilometers, has been the central axis of the city since the Southern Tang Dynasty. For more than a thousand years, this thoroughfare has undergone vicissitudes of evolution. New and old landmarks along the route, such as Zhonghua Gate, Zhonghua Middle School, Confucius Temple Scenic Area, Sanshan Street, and Water City, have been continuously embedded, "beads forming a chain."
"Many cities across the country have Zhonghua Road, and this Zhonghua Road in Nanjing is a rare urban axis in the country that has been in use for thousands of years." Xue Bing, a 78-year-old literary and historical scholar known as "Xue Jinling", introduced it to Zhong Zixi, a student at the School of Journalism and Communication of Nanjing University who came to check in. According to the "Jing Ding Jian Kang Zhi" of the Southern Song Dynasty, the ten most important neighborhoods in Nanjing are distributed on Zhonghua Road. The intersection of Zhonghua Road, Jiankang Road and Shengzhou Road, the east-west trunk road, is Sanshan Street - before the rise of Xinjiekou business district, this was the irreplaceable "center of the universe" in Nanjing. In 1932, the road was straightened and formed based on many streets. It was named Zhonghua Road because it faces the Zhonghua Gate, which is known as "the best urn city in the world".
"In December 1937, the Japanese invaders carried out the brutal Nanjing Massacre, which started when the China Gate was breached." Stroking the city wall with bullet marks still left, looking at the picturesque autumn scenery of Zhongshan Mountain and the rows of high-rise buildings, Xue Bing was filled with emotion: For Nanjing people, the China Gate is not only a city gate, but also a spiritual symbol that witnesses the interdependence between the city, the people and the country.
Today, the Qinhuai River sparkles outside the China Gate, and the Nanjing Chenguang 1865 Cultural and Creative Industrial Park still carries the past of the Jinling Arsenal: In 1948, some employees of the factory moved to Taiwan, forming the "Nanjing Village" in Kaohsiung. The villagers still speak Nanjing dialect, cherish the Nanjing flavor, and remember the city of Nanjing. In Nanjing No. 1 Middle School adjacent to Zhonghua Road, there emerged Tao Jiawei, a water conservancy expert who was well-known on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. He devoted his life to the mainland and established the "Tao Jiawei Award" at his alma mater. He eventually returned to his roots and was buried at the foot of the Zutang Mountain in Nanjing.
"Mr." on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, a "relay" spanning a century
At Xishan Bridge in Nanjing, a 20-minute drive from the China Gate, the "Monument to Mr. Nanjing" stands solemnly in the autumn sun. In 1919, a plague broke out in Beigan Township, Matsu. A doctor named Jiang from Meishan, Nanjing went to treat the disease and quelled the epidemic with his skillful hands and benevolence. "Mr. Nanjing" has become an important link connecting the friendship between the two sides.
In 2006, Huang Bowen, an 18-year-old boy from Taiwan, took a plane and crossed the shallow strait to Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to study internal medicine.
"What is known by looking at it is called God." This sentence in the Chinese medical classic "Difficult Classics" is regarded as a guideline by Huang Baiwen. He said that many years ago, his grandmother suffered a stroke and was paralyzed. She sought medical advice everywhere to no avail. After receiving acupuncture treatment from a Chinese medicine practitioner, she was able to walk soon. It was this recovery experience that was regarded as a miracle by his family that made Huang Bowen, who was born in a family of Western medicine, become associated with Chinese medicine and determined to study Chinese medicine.
In the hometown of "Mr. Nanjing", Huang Bowen met great medical mentors who influenced his life - the late Shi Suofang, chief physician of Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and professor of Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Yu Bin, a respiratory specialist. During his internship in his junior year, he went to the Qinhuai District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and studied under the famous doctor Tao Kun, and later became the intangible inheritor of "Jinling Tao Kun's moxibustion therapy".
"As long as they stand there, they are a bright light." From good doctors, Huang Baiwen learned not only the supreme medical ethics, but also the essence of traditional Chinese medicine of "harmony between man and nature" and individualized syndrome differentiation and treatment.
Today, Huang Bowen's acupuncture and massage clinic has a return visit rate of almost 100%. People come here to treat illnesses, regulate their body and mind, and learn about traditional Chinese medicine culture. She Meixi, a young teacher at Hohai University, was "fanned" by this "Mr. Taiwan": "Dr. Huang's diagnosis is extremely detailed, and he also popularizes a lot of science knowledge. Traditional Chinese medicine is really the key to the treasure house of Chinese civilization."
drip irrigation of love, the cultural "umbilical cord" weaves the deep love between the two sides
After Huang Bowen went to Nanjing to study, his father Huang Minhui started to connect with Nanjing in another way.
"Looking back at the time when I was working part-time and studying hard, I just wanted to provide some help to students from poor families and give back to Nanjing, where the condominium is located," said Huang Minhui, a medical examiner. In the past 20 years, Huang Minhui has provided 19 medical students with tuition and accommodation fees for at least 5 years of undergraduate study through the establishment of the "Qingzong Bursary".
Huang Bowen said with a smile that he mistakenly thought that there was a shortage of supplies in the mainland, so he came to Ning carrying firewood, rice, oil and salt to report. The overweight luggage fee alone cost NT$4,500. Now he has become the first Chinese medicine practitioner in his family, and he has started a family, started a business, and taken root in Nanjing, his "second hometown." My father often comes to Nanjing during the fall semester to handle student assistance matters. Together, father and son have witnessed the rapid development of this city.
Since 1996, a total of 1,292 young Taiwanese people like Huang Bowen have graduated from Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. In Nanjing's Chinese Medical Hall, Shengsheng Hall, Mingze Hall, BenQ Hospital and other medical institutions, "Mr. Taiwan" is active.
"The Chinese medicine culture on both sides of the Taiwan Strait has the same roots and ancestors." Wu Haoxin, a professor at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, said that as early as the Ming Dynasty, Chinese medical classics represented by the "Huangdi Neijing", "Difficult Classic", "Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases", and "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" were spread to Taiwan. In addition to classic prescriptions, natural therapies such as massage, acupuncture, and scraping that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait love to experience are also guided by the meridian theory of traditional medical classics. "It can be said that the Chinese medicine culture, as the quintessence of China, closely links the mainland and Taiwan."
Not only that, common culture and memory have built more "heart bridges" for both sides of the Taiwan Strait. "Cross-Strait Youth Culture Month" has been held for six times so far. The unique charm of China's excellent traditional culture has allowed young people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait to gain recognition and friendship through exchanges; "Jiangsu·Nanjing Taiwan Week" presents a "cultural feast", where compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait enjoy intangible cultural heritage and folk customs and join hands together Searching for roots and veins, carving "concentric circles" deep in the blood; the campus youth version of "The Peony Pavilion", led by Southeast University and with Bai Xianyong as the artistic director, was performed in Taiwan in January this year. The 600-year-old Kunqu opera "fan" Taiqing, the long water grinding tune lingers in the heart...
In a few days, the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional festival of the Chinese nation, will usher in, and the festive atmosphere on China Road is particularly strong. Considering that there were too many patients, Huang Bowen decided to "ask for leave" from his parents and stay in Nanjing for the holidays.
"Look, this is the WeChat avatar I have been using for a long time: a bright moon hanging high above the river waves." Huang Bowen said, "My relatives across the Taiwan Strait and I are like this painting - the bright moon rises on the sea, and we share this moment in the world."
