Shantou's Xiaogongyuan and Old Fort.

Shantou Xiaogongyuan is a historical witness to Shantou's century-old commercial port. There is a saying that "Xiaogongyuan came first, then Shantou City." Xiaogongyuan is not a park in the strict sense, nor is it small. It is a series of streets radiating from the center of the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Pavilion, cut by arcade buildings with Nanyang characteristics. The style and layout are similar to Zhongshan Road in Xiamen. Xiaogongyuan is suitable for walking and shopping. You can visit the Open Port Culture Exhibition Hall and Shantou Post Office to learn about the history and style of Shantou's opening; you can visit the Zheng Zhengqiu and Cai Chusheng Film Museum and immerse yourself in the narrative atmosphere of light and shadow art; you can walk into the Cunxin Mansion and feel the architectural style of the combination of Chinese and Western styles and colorful decorations; you can enter the Laomagong Theater, drink tea, and watch the Chaozhou Opera Culture Exhibition; you can stop at any time and taste Chaozhou rice rolls and licorice fruit salad. Shantou Shibao Fort, also known as Qilu Fort, was built during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty and was an important forward base for coastal defense in eastern Guangdong at that time. The fort faces the Rongjiang River, surrounded by a moat. In the middle of the base of the city wall is a tunnel running through the entire fort. The tunnel is built with stone blocks in the shape of an arch, and the interior can store shells and food. There are east and west gates in the fort leading to the barracks. The outer wall of the fort is constructed in the shape of a wall, with gun holes, and there is a ventilation and communication tower on the fort platform for transmitting information up and down and ventilating and lighting the bottom floor. There is a crescent-shaped platform on the north side, facing a green square, used to command and watch soldiers practice. The old fort is sparsely populated, in stark contrast to Xiaogongyuan. Standing on the city wall of the fort, touching the Qing Dynasty official cannons with a history of hundreds of years, the distant Rongjiang River is calm and peaceful. Looking back on the past, the ancient beacon smoke is now quiet, which highlights the importance of national defense construction.