Historic Districts, Growing in Conservation (Cultural China Tour)

Overlooking the Qingmingqiao Historical and Cultural District of Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. 　　Photo by Chen Ximing (People's Vision)

　　In the south of the old town of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, the old houses built in ancient buildings are protected and repaired in accordance with the method of "repairing the old as the old", which not only continues the style and texture, but also retains the atmosphere of the times; in the Qingmingqiao Historical and Cultural District of Wuxi, the cruise ships strung up the canal relics scattered like pearls on both sides of the river, and the key cultural relics and traditional houses are revitalized and utilized in a graded and classified manner to achieve sustainable transformation......

　　Development in the course of protection will make development more substantial, and protection in the course of development will stimulate vitality. Recently, the reporter visited the representative ancient buildings and old blocks in Jiangsu, and deeply felt that the protection, repair, activation and utilization of historical and cultural blocks have allowed residents living in old streets and old houses to live a happy life, and have also become an inexhaustible cultural source for urban development.

　　Fix the old as it used to record history

　　The ancient buildings of No. 18 and 20 Santiaoying in the East Historical and Cultural District of the South Gate of the Old Town of Nanjing are familiar to many Nanjing people - this is the "Jishan Hall".

　　This is a typical multi-entry courtyard building complex in Nanjing's traditional dwellings, with a total of two roads and seven entrances, covering an area of more than 4,500 square meters, in turn for the entrance hall, the sedan hall, the hall, the main house, the middle is connected by a corridor, and the street house is paved with blue stone below.

　　Li Jianbo, director of the Qinhuai Branch of the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources, said that "Laomendong" (Mendong Historical and Cultural District), as the "condensed place" of the first batch of historical and cultural cities in the country, contains rich historical information and has important cultural value. However, due to the war and the use of materials, many buildings are precious and fragile. In 2009, Nanjing carried out the protection and repair of "Laomendong" with the policy of "overall protection, organic renewal, government-led, and prudent use of the market".

　　The first step of the renovation is to preserve the biggest features of the architectural style: blue bricks and gray tiles, horse-head walls, and lattice windows hanging in the cloister. Li Jianbo introduced that from 2012 to 2014, the planning department of Qinhuai District of Nanjing City, together with the School of Architecture of Southeast University, carried out quantitative mapping and horizontal comparison of the color, size and style of 100 well-preserved and representative traditional houses in the south of the old city, such as paving, doors and windows, beams and columns, etc., listed the range of adaptive values, and compiled an atlas of traditional houses in the south of the old city of Nanjing, as a reference guide for "repairing the old as before".

　　"Some of the green bricks used to restore the courtyard wall are preserved by themselves, some are old materials from the same period that are 'tao' from the surrounding areas, and some are new materials fired by old techniques according to historical records. Huang Jie, the person in charge of the renovation project of Mendong Historical and Cultural District, told reporters that just like the master should "leave blank" when restoring cultural relics, the restoration of ancient buildings in the old street is not "antique" or even "fake and real", but through "leaving traces" to preserve the information in its historical process.

　　Li Jianbo introduced that in recent years, Nanjing has protected the "authenticity" of historical and cultural districts from the perspectives of physical space and residents, and realized "seeing people, things, and life".

　　Classification and grading, activation and utilization

　　"Jiangnan Water Alley, Canal Out of Print". The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has flowed for thousands of years and passes through the city in Wuxi. On weekends, tourists flock to the Qingmingqiao Historical and Cultural District to take a boat ride on the ancient canal – a line that strings together historical and cultural relics on both sides of the river.

　　Ruan Xiqing, a scholar of local culture research in Wuxi, introduced that the block with a total area of 47.74 hectares still retains the traditional spatial pattern of "one river and two streets", with a total of 2 national key cultural relics protection units, 3 provincial cultural relics protection units, 3 municipal cultural relics protection units, 6 immovable cultural relics and 60 historical buildings, which are the living witnesses of Jiangnan culture.

　　In 2007, under the guidance of Academician Wu Liangyong, an architectural expert, the block formulated the principle of "overall creation and organic renewal", protected and repaired cultural relics, historical buildings and traditional buildings, and introduced formats that meet the protection requirements and development needs, so as to make the canal streets and alleys alive and popular.

　　"Since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the kiln industry on both sides of the canal has developed, and there are more than 100 brick kilns in its heyday, supplying city wall bricks for the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Ming City Wall in Nanjing. In 2013, the kiln site was rated as a national key cultural relics protection unit. Zhou Minlei, deputy general manager of Wuxi Liangxi Cultural Tourism Development Group Co., Ltd., introduced.

　　In 2008, the neighborhood selected three of the most well-preserved ancient kilns to build a museum, which comprehensively displays the ancient kiln culture and the production process of bricks and tiles, attracting many tourists to visit every year.

　　In the Qingmingqiao Historical and Cultural District, a hierarchical and classified activation and utilization is adopted: the key cultural relics protection units are mainly cultural inheritance and display, and the traditional houses are rationally utilized, so that the "preservation and use" can achieve a virtuous circle.

　　The old residence of Qian Shaoqing in the block integrates the traditional Jiangnan architectural conception and modern design concept, maintains the original appearance of the building, and at the same time, makes full use of the internal space, uses artistic means such as light and shadow changes, and creates an elegant and poetic atmosphere, which not only promotes the activation and utilization of cultural relics and ancient buildings, but also helps the sustainability of the renewal and transformation of the historic district.

　　Improving people's livelihood and making life convenient

　　With a history of 2,500 years, the Pingjiang Historical and Cultural District of Suzhou not only continues the double chessboard pattern of "parallel water and land", but also preserves many precious relics. It is a "living" heritage, and with 11,000 inhabitants, it is the most sparkling part of the ancient city.

　　"More than 10 years ago, we were still using buckets to get water from wells, bathing in bathtubs, and cooking on coal stoves. Gao Jiguo, a 68-year-old resident of Niujia Lane, and his family of three have been crammed into a 28-square-meter old house for a long time.

　　"The preservation of historic streets and alleys and the improvement of residents' lives are two sides of the same coin. The lives of the residents are also part of the cultural heritage, and it is not uncommon to see tourists walking into the alleys to chat with the elderly and take pictures. Wang Yongfa, director of the Planning and Protection Division of the Ancient City Protection Committee of Gusu District, Suzhou City, believes that under the premise of protection first, residents in historic districts should also enjoy the convenience of modern life.

　　Gao Jiguo has experienced the renewal process of "a plaque, a bucket, a well, and a line"—— In 2002, Suzhou City launched the Pingjiang Road Landscape Protection and Environmental Improvement Project, and his house was renovated and renovated into a space of more than 40 square meters; In 2012, Gusu District launched the urban residents' household toilet renovation project, and the newly built toilet was only 2 square meters, but the dry and wet separation was achieved; in 2015, the treatment of ancient wells and old wells began, and the water quality of the river became clearer; in 2018, the Niujiaxiang community implemented the overhead line renovation and ground entry project, and the "aerial spider web" with hidden dangers disappeared......

　　Nowadays, there are separate water meters, electricity meters, convenient tap water, modern kitchen utensils, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and other household appliances in Gaoji country.

　　In recent years, the neighborhood has built a "quarter-hour living circle": the community has built a new service center for the elderly, which can not only measure blood pressure and blood sugar, but also deliver meals to the door; after the upgrade of the Shuangta Market across the road, there is a one-stop place to buy groceries and make minor repairs; and the new Yanlord Cangjie Street complex opened last year provides more than 200 preferential parking spaces for the surrounding residents.

　　Gao Jiguo's granddaughter Xixi, who is in the first year of junior high school this year, goes to her grandfather's house to do her homework every day after school, and she also found a new space for after-school activities in the neighborhood - Pingjiang Cultural Center, No. 38 Daru Lane, where there are intangible cultural heritage experience activities such as Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings, as well as the "Hongru Study" that is borrowed and returned with Suzhou Library. Less than 5 minutes away from home, it is the Pingtan Museum and the Opera Museum that she and her classmates often visit, and the Zhuangyuan Museum is also the place where the school holds a 10th birthday gift for students......

　　"In today's historic district, our family has found happiness. Gao Jiguo said with a smile.

People's Daily (2024-04-24 Edition 07)