A few days ago, Zhejiang Province announced the first batch of 11 millennium ancient cities revival pilot list. The implementation of the millennium ancient city rejuvenation plan is an important task proposed in the 2020 Zhejiang Provincial Government Work Report. In January this year, the "Plan to Accelerate the Rejuvenation of the 'Millennium Ancient City'" was written into the 14th Five-Year Plan of Zhejiang Province. The so-called "ancient city", that is, the old county town that was once the seat of the royal city or county, the capital of the prefecture, the seat of the county, and the clear and self-contained boundary site, is now the administrative unit of the township (street), and the history is required to be more than a thousand years. According to reports, there are 3 batches of pilot projects for the rejuvenation of the ancient city of the millennium, and a batch is organized every year, and about 10 are selected for each batch. The construction time limit is 3 to 5 years, and during the pilot period, annual verification and evaluation will be carried out. The first batch of pilot projects for the revival of the ancient city of the millennium are: Xindeng Town, Fuyang District, Hangzhou City, Meicheng Town, Jiande City, Hangzhou City, Cicheng Town, Jiangbei District, Ningbo City, Fenglin Town, Yongjia County, Wenzhou City, Qianyuan Town, Deqing County, Huzhou City, Yanguan Town, Haining City, Jiaxing City, Chongfu Town, Tongxiang City, Jiaxing City, Fenghui Town, Shangyu District, Shaoxing City, Zhiying Town, Yongkang City, Jinhua City, Bihu Town, Liandu District, Lishui City, and Gushi Town, Songyang County, Lishui City. Many people may not have heard of these "ancient cities", but they are indeed "famous" in history. For example, the most "elderly" ci town, the earliest called "Sentence Chapter", was built by the Yue King, and has a history of more than 2,500 years. There is also Meicheng Town, Jiande County during the Three Kingdoms period, Meicheng Town is the seat of county governance, and then it has become one of the eleven provinces of Zhejiang, Yanzhou Prefecture, which administers the six counties of Chun'an, Jiande, Tonglu, Fenshui, Shouchang and Sui'an during the Ming Dynasty, and the jurisdiction is equivalent to the southwest of today's Hangzhou City, which is brilliant for a while. In addition to the glorious and splendid history, these thousand-year-old cities also contain great humanistic value. For example, Zhiying Town is the birthplace of the ancient Yingguo civilization in southern China, and there are nearly 100 Ying ancestral halls within the old market town of less than 0.2 square kilometers, known as the Ying ancestral capital; and Fenghui Town is the place where stories such as "Liang Zhuhua Butterfly", "Meng Yu Huan Zhu" and "Fan Li into the Lake" take place. Qianyuan Town, which is located in a corner of northern Zhejiang, has a long history of books, and there have been humanistic miracles such as more than two hundred jinshi, one door three-yuan, one family five Hanlin, and the Yu family. Zhang Zhenxi, a researcher at the Institute of Culture of jiaxing Academy of Social Sciences, has been engaged in cultural relics protection, archaeology, museums, and the development and management of cultural and tourist scenic spots, and has long been concerned about the revival of ancient cities. He believes that the development of cultural tourism is relatively in line with the better model of the revival of ancient cities, but it is necessary to avoid excessive commercialization. In recent years, with the vigorous development of the cultural tourism industry, many ancient towns have successively embarked on the road of "tourism rejuvenation". Problems have also arisen, and many towns have been heavily landscaped, becoming towns that simply serve tourists rather than local residents. "The essence of commercialization is to restore the original appearance of the town, not to create a utopian form of a commercial town." Zhang Zhenxi told reporters that most of the ancient cities on the list belong to towns. The essential attribute of the town is to emphasize the function of public life, such as the ancient city of Yanguan, with large public buildings such as Yamen, Xuegong, Confucius Temple, and Tanah Lot Temple. The town is also a place where the families of the Wang clan and the families of officials and eunuchs live more intensively, and although the house is near the river, it has less of a commercial atmosphere, such as the weir and tile dam section of the ancient city of Yanguan. In traditional towns, culture, residence, commerce and other different functions have corresponding partitions, behind which is the culture and texture of traditional urban development, so unlike the revival of ordinary towns, the revival of towns and villages should be controlled by excessive commercialization. "Pyrotechnics are very important, not only to preserve the lives of indigenous people, but also to conform to the trend of the development of modern cultural tourism industry." Zhang Zhenxi said. Fortunately, there is a new consensus. In recent years, Qianyuan Town has adhered to the three principles of "seeing mountains and rivers, cultural inheritance, and overall planning of people's livelihood" to promote the construction of beautiful towns, with remarkable results. On the basis of doing a good job in the protection of the original cultural relics, a number of cultural venues such as the county Confucianism, the Library of Traditional Chinese Studies, the Museum of Literature and History, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum, and the Antique Street have been built successively, reviving the Confucian and elegant demeanor and the aroma of books in the ancient city. The "revival" work also includes planning, branding and other aspects. For example, in terms of comprehensive planning, it is required to compile high quality, and it is also required to systematically protect and restore the urban texture of the ancient city, historical streets and alleys, dock ports, ancient wells and ancient bridges, ancient temples and towers, ancient roads and ancient trees, and other historical relics, and reproduce the historical style through appropriate means; publicize and promote the traditional culture of the ancient city, celebrity anecdotes, characteristic snacks, etc., and create a distinctive ancient city cultural brand, which is also something that will be done with great efforts in the future.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Kong Lingjun Text Editor: Kong Lingjun Title Image Source: Figure Worm Image Editor: Xu Jiamin
Source: Author: Zhu Lingjun