Stretching for 7.8 kilometers, the central axis of Beijing, which has accumulated over 7 centuries of history in the Yuan, Ming, Qing and modern times, is the cultural backbone of Beijing's thousand-year-old ancient capital, and the integrator of China's excellent traditional culture, which was included in the "Preparatory List of China's World Cultural Heritage" as early as 2012.
In order to help Beijing's central axis to apply for heritage, on the evening of December 29, in Beijing Zhengyangmen Arrow Building, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics and Tencent jointly launched the "Digital Axis, Lighting Up Civilization - Beijing Central Axis Application 'Digital Axis' Launching Ceremony", announcing that the "Cloud Central Axis" Mini Program was officially launched, and more than 500,000 users participated in the creative interaction of "Beijing Central Axis, Applying for Heritage with Me" within 5 hours, becoming the helper of the Beijing Central Axis Application.
The central axis of Beijing starts from the Bell and Drum Tower in the north, passes through Wanning Bridge, Jingshan, Forbidden City, and Yongdingmen in the south, running through the north and south of the old city of Beijing, with a total length of about 7.8 kilometers, which was founded in 1267 of the Yuan Dynasty and was formed and perfected in the Ming and Qing dynasties and modern times. The central axis of Beijing, which has a history of more than 700 years, is the largest and most complete urban axis in China. "The central axis of Beijing is a masterpiece of China's ideal capital city order," said Lu Zhou, a professor at Tsinghua University and director of the National Heritage Center, who witnessed the formation of the Chinese nation's diversified and integrated pattern, as well as the major events that changed the direction of China's historical development and affected the world pattern. To this day, the central axis of Beijing still has a huge influence in urban development.
Lü Zhou believes that the central axis of Beijing meets three major criteria in the world cultural heritage standards: one is that it carries a unique, or at least unique testimony, proving that a cultural tradition or civilization that is still alive or has disappeared; second, it is a combination of architecture, architecture or technology of a certain type, and a famous example of landscape that reflects one or some important stages of human history; and the third is directly or concretely associated with events or living traditions, concepts or beliefs, art and literary works of significant universal significance. According to UNESCO's World Heritage Declaration Rules, you can apply if you meet one of the criteria.
"We must vigorously promote the application for heritage on the central axis and create a benchmark for the protection of national cultural heritage, so as to guide the protection of the overall pattern of Beijing's old city, and highlight the gentle, open, magnificent and orderly spatial order." It is necessary to pay attention to both history and culture and modern life, so that the old city of Beijing can be rejuvenated. Chen Mingjie, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, said that he hopes to use the digital trend to promote the protection, inheritance and utilization of Beijing's central axis, and tell the historical story and modern story of Beijing's central axis.
According to reports, the "Digital Axis" project will focus on the protection, inheritance and innovative development of the central axis of Beijing, using new technologies and creative forms of cultural content such as big data, cloud computing, game technology, artificial intelligence, blockchain, knowledge graph, etc., to dig deep into the historical and cultural connotation of the central axis of Beijing and promote the digital protection and inheritance of cultural heritage. Chen Juhong, vice president of Tencent and head of Tencent's Sustainable Social Value Division, said that she hopes that the "Digital Axis" project can achieve three goals: one is the transformation of world cultural heritage from universal value to social knowledge; the other is to make the history and culture of the central axis better reach the public and spread to all parts of the world; and the third is to achieve the sustainable development of the cultural heritage of the central axis.
At the launching ceremony, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage and Tencent jointly released the first digital image IP of the Beijing Central Axis Application - Beijing Swift. This digital image is a selection of 19 heritage point elements, combined with the Chinese intangible cultural heritage Beijing kite shape, specially invited the famous illustrator Wu Mao to recreate in the artistic language. Wu Gang, a national first-class actor, served as the "Supporter of Beijing's Central Axis Bid", starring in the Beijing Swift promotional film with his voice. Based on the digital Beijing Swift, the first batch of commemorative digital collections of the Beijing Central Axis Application for Heritage was also derived, which used the blockchain technology provided by Tencent Zhixin Chain. The first 9,999 digital collections were so popular that they were picked up by users within an hour of going online.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Zu Weiwei
Editor/Bow Lifang