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.