■ Reading prompts
Do you have to go sightseeing? Not necessarily.
On April 25, Shijiazhuang Shigang Industrial Heritage Park was officially opened. When night falls, accompanied by dynamic music, the "rugged" exterior of the building radiates colorful dreamy light and shadow, and the modern cityscape and historical industrial relics constitute a unique landscape.
The left handicraft industry, the right hand cultural tourism, has the shape of steel and iron bones, and also has colorful beauty. In Hebei, there are still many old factories engraved with traces of the industrial era and the memories of several generations, which have been transformed, or become cultural and creative industry parks, or become Internet celebrity check-in places.
The remains of industry have brought new life to the city.
On April 27, citizens visited Shijiazhuang Shigang Industrial Heritage Park. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Shiyao
Preserve the industrial history and continue the industrial memory of the city
On May 6, the first day of normalized operation of Shigang Industrial Heritage Park.
At 6 p.m., the park was crowded with tourists. Among the many industrial elements suitable for "punching in", the most popular are the two blast furnaces left behind after the relocation of Shigang. Standing tall on the south side of the park, the two steel "behemoths", 65 and 75 meters tall respectively, are the park's most striking landmarks.
The biggest feature of Shigang Industrial Heritage Park is its industrial relics that can be seen everywhere.
On the ground in the middle of the park, there are two reliefs depicting the outlines of stone and steel buildings from different historical periods. Between the trails on the north side of the park, there are also some equipment and parts of the old factory area on display.
"Seeing these reliefs and old objects, the production scene of steel flowers splashing in front of me seems to be right in front of me. They are like a window into history, recording the changes of the times. Jin Yali, deputy chief engineer of the No. 0 blast furnace of the former ironmaking plant of Shigang Company, said.
Founded in 1957, Shigang Company has played an important role in the national steel industry. Nearly 100 invention patents, more than 80 products to fill the national gap, one of the three major specialized special steel bar manufacturers in China...... A piece of data is a testament to the brilliant achievements of Lao Shigang.
In 2020, under the influence of the dual factors of urban development and air pollution control, Shigang will retreat from the city and relocate.
"The industrial heritage has witnessed the development and changes of Shijiazhuang city, and is an important window to display the city's culture, with unique historical value." Cui Zhengxian, deputy manager of Shijiazhuang Cultural Tourism Investment Group Scenery Management Company, said that in the process of design and construction of the park, they retained part of the production workshop, equipment and industrial characteristic elements of Shigang, with the purpose of retaining this industrial history to the greatest extent and continuing the industrial memory of the city.
A chimney that has long since cooled, was once a symbol of pride in the process of industrialization; A rusty iron plate holds the memories of generations of sweat and fire. In Shijiazhuang, the industrial site reconstruction project is not limited to the Shigang Industrial Heritage Park.
Along Heping East Road in Shijiazhuang, it used to be an industrial zone where well-known enterprises such as Huayao, Shimei Machinery, Shigang, Mian 1 and Mian 2 gathered, and it was the starting point and epitome of Shijiazhuang's industrial development. With the acceleration of urbanization and the upgrading of industrial structure, the roar of machines in the factory has gradually disappeared, and the industrial relics that have been rationally transformed can be passed on for a long time.
In November 2021, the Brocade Garden, a characteristic boutique amusement park with the theme of textile culture, was opened. The site of the brocade garden is the former site of the third and fourth cotton mills in Shijiazhuang.
The garden interprets the traditional landscape with modern design techniques, combines the characteristics of the site, and builds landscape nodes such as bronze sculptures of textile historical pictures and spinning shaft sculptures, creating a landscape wall that imitates the architectural style of textile factories, and showing the scenes and memories of artificial textiles to the public through the reproduction of textile culture and textile scenes.
Entering the garden, the old photos on the landscape wall will recreate the old memories in front of you, full of nostalgic atmosphere of old factories and hard-working laborers. "We just want to leave these unforgettable moments in the venue, so that they will shine forever in the long river of time." The designer of the brocade garden introduced it like this.
Zhou Ru, a citizen of Shijiazhuang who lives nearby, often brings her children here for a walk. She believes that the park is not only interesting, but more importantly, it allows the younger generation to know the industrial history of the city, "through which the stories of grandparents and fathers can be learned, so that children can have a greater sense of belonging." ”
"Industrial heritage is an important part of cultural heritage." Experts believe that these legacies not only reflect the cultural and historical background and social development status at that time, but also carry the spirit and culture of the enterprise, and are the witnesses of the enterprise's dedication to the country and the courage to climb the peak under specific historical conditions. Therefore, the rational protection and utilization of industrial heritage is of great value and significance.
Create a new landmark for cultural tourism and expand a new pattern of tourism
"This is Shijiazhuang!"
At 7:30 p.m. on May 4, in the Shigang Industrial Heritage Park, a dynamic music performance was underway with passionate music and dazzling lights. The audience swayed and shouted to the rhythm, which made people's hearts surge.
On May 4, the 2024 Shijiazhuang "Rock Home Town" original music festival kicked off in Shigang Industrial Heritage Park. Photo by Hebei Daily reporter Wang Sida
On the same day, the Shijiazhuang Rock Home Town original music festival was hotly sung, and tens of thousands of tourists from all over the country gathered here to open the "May Day" holiday mode of "going to a city for a music festival".
"I didn't expect the atmosphere here to be so great, it's worth driving more than 300 kilometers in vain." Zhou Zhe, a rock enthusiast from Beijing, gave Shijiazhuang a thumbs up.
"During the day, I wore a cheongsam to take artistic photos in the park, and at night I felt the charm of rock music with everyone, which was really exciting." The park + music festival model made Shanxi citizen Li Ran fall in love with Shijiazhuang.
In the eyes of many rock lovers from other places, Shigang Industrial Heritage Park has become a new landmark of Shijiazhuang cultural tourism.
"There are many industrial elements in the industrial heritage park, and the fusion of industrial style and rock music is a major feature of this original music festival." Zhang Yawen, deputy general manager of Shijiazhuang Tourism Investment Group Culture and Sports Company, believes that the attempt and exploration of new models such as industry + rock and industry + culture is the key to the fire "out of the circle" of Shigang Industrial Heritage Park.
Expand the new pattern of tourism and create a new landmark of cultural tourism. In the future, Shigang Industrial Heritage Park will regularly hold rock performances, original music festivals, film and television cross-border art exhibitions, youth music gatherings, cultural and creative check-in life markets and other activities, constantly enriching the cultural tourism consumption scene and enhancing the attraction of tourists.
When it comes to the development and utilization of industrial heritage, Tangshan, known as the "cradle of China's modern industry", cannot fail to mention. Relying on its rich industrial heritage, Tangshan regards industrial tourism as an important starting point to promote urban transformation, and hands out a new business card of cultural tourism to the whole country.
Walking into the Qixin Cement Industry Museum in Lubei District, Tangshan City, history and fashion are integrated here: on one side is the cement factory that "repairs the old as the old", displaying industrial relics such as cement kiln systems and generator sets, as well as more than 2,000 volumes of archives between 1889 and 2008; On the other side is the cultural and creative park transformed from an old factory, where restaurants, galleries and studios are full of fashion.
"The museum aims at the protection and sustainable use of industrial heritage, and at the same time provides a unique experiential space for modern urban life, and becomes a comprehensive park integrating industrial tourism, industrial heritage protection, cultural creativity, leisure and fashion." Presentation by the museum staff.
Qixin Cement Plant is the first national cement enterprise in mainland China. In 2008, the Qixin Cement Plant was demolished and retreated, and the Qixin Cement Industry Museum and the 1889 Cultural and Creative Industry Park were restored and constructed, rejuvenating this century-old site.
The changes at the Qixin Cement Plant are not unique in Tangshan.
The old stock of Kaiping Mining Bureau, the dusty century-old "sheepskin masked ledger", and the rails on China's first quasi-gauge railway...... In the Kailuan Museum, located in the Kailuan National Mining Park, tens of thousands of precious cultural relics are preserved, recording more than 20 "China's first" and "best" in China's modern industrial history.
In July 2023, the steam locomotive on display in the steam locomotive sightseeing park in Kailuan National Mine Park. Photo by Zhao Shan
There are also many unique integrated tourism projects here.
The underground exploration tour is one of the highlights of the experience project. Visitors take the elevator 70 meters underground and enter the ruins of the ancient roadway that criss-cross them. It truly reproduces the evolution process from primitive coal mining, cannon mining, general mining to modern comprehensive mechanized coal mining, walking through the roadway, passing by the miner sculptures who are "busy" on the working face, and taking a look at the donkey sculptures that "participate in coal transportation", as if passing through a hundred years.
Relying on industrial heritage, Kailuan National Mine Park has built scenic spots such as Kailuan Museum, China Railway Source Museum, Underground Exploration Tour, Steam Locomotive Sightseeing Park, etc., forming an industrial museum community of "one park and six museums", and developing a number of characteristic tourism projects such as nostalgia, fashion, exploration, and leisure.
"In November 2022, after Kailuan National Mining Park was awarded the Industrial Culture Special Practice Teaching Base jointly established by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it has become a popular destination for primary and secondary school students to study and study, receiving thousands of primary and secondary school students to visit and study every year." Staff introduction.
In the future, Tangshan will further tap resources, design routes, and promote products, so as to build industrial tourism into a characteristic cultural tourism business card.
It is necessary to protect and utilize, but also to integrate and coexist with the city
"Urban industrial sites are often located in the heart of the city, covering a large area, and if they are not used effectively, it will cause a waste of resources." Experts believe.
Previously, in the process of transformation and utilization of industrial sites in some areas, there have been situations where the use of industrial sites does not match urban planning and the needs of the people, resulting in unsatisfactory transformation effects of industrial sites, or "short-lived" transformation and construction.
"To solve this problem, it is necessary to integrate the protection and utilization of industrial sites into the overall urban planning to make it more scientific, standardized and sustainable." Experts say.
In recent years, Shijiazhuang has incorporated the protection and utilization of industrial heritage into the overall planning of urban renewal, realizing the harmonious coexistence of industrial heritage and the city.
Shijiazhuang Coal Mining Machinery Factory is a well-known factory in Shijiazhuang. In 2015, after the company withdrew from the city and relocated, the old factory area was idle.
In 2021, with the launch of Shijiazhuang City's urban renewal action, the Shimei Urban Renewal Project, as the city's first model project for urban renewal, opened the prelude to the renewal and construction of the old industrial zone in the northeast of the provincial capital.
How to make this old factory area more harmoniously integrated into urban development? In the planning stage, Shijiazhuang conducted in-depth research.
"There are 7 large-scale high-rise residential areas around the Shimei Urban Renewal Project, with a generally high residential plot ratio, no parks within a radius of two kilometers, and a lack of high-quality leisure and fitness places for citizens." The relevant person in charge of the urban renewal group affiliated to Shijiazhuang Urban Development and Investment Group introduced.
Based on this, Shijiazhuang implements the urban renewal project of stone coal machine in accordance with the requirements of "doing 'subtraction' in the second ring and 'multiplication' outside the second ring road" and "returning space to the city, green space to the people, and public supporting services to the society".
The first to start is the infrastructure supporting project to serve the general public - in the total area of 480 acres, the best location of 68 acres of main street plots to build the Shiguang Smart Sports Park.
In the park, tennis, basketball, table tennis and other ball games are readily available, and children's activity areas and elderly activity areas meet the activity needs of people of different ages. The 800-meter runway and 350-meter jogging trail paved with new permeable flexible materials are comfortable on the feet, and many citizens relax here every day to enjoy the good life.
In addition to the Shiguang Smart Sports Park, the Shimei Urban Renewal Project also includes three parts: an industrial heritage protection area, a three-dimensional garden residential area and a style improvement area.
The industrial heritage protection area, which will be officially opened to the public in October 2023, is the "Shimeiji" urban micro-resort center. On the basis of retaining the original industrial heritage, "Shimeiji" has transformed 6 old factories into 6 functional venues - if you want to understand the history of the city, you can go to the industrial culture exhibition hall to touch the industrial development of Shijiazhuang; If you want to exercise to decompress, you can go to the largest indoor comprehensive gymnasium in the province, basketball, tennis, badminton, table tennis as you choose; If you want to be quiet, you can go to the public library and choose a favorite book to read.
It is worth mentioning that in the planning process of the project, the proportion of residential development is controlled within 40%, and the residential area strictly implements the planning requirements of the linkage between architectural style and plot ratio to create a high-quality community with a plot ratio of 2.0.
In addition to the stone coal machinery industrial site, the Shijiazhuang Huayao Ruins Park project and the construction of the cotton 1 and 2 industrial relics area projects are also in full swing.
The Huayao Ruins Park project will deeply integrate industrial heritage, cultural tourism and industrial incubation, and endow the old Huayao factory with new vitality and vitality through the "integration" and "collision" of history and culture. The Cotton 1 and 2 Industrial Heritage Areas will be implanted with semi-open roaming textile museums, boutique businesses, cultural and creative offices, fashion shows, cultural and entertainment sports and other functional formats to create a vibrant block with historical memory. (Hebei Daily reporter Wang Sida)
■ Reporter's observation
Giving the value of the industrial heritage era
With the increasing diversification of tourism consumption demand, industrial tourism has received more and more attention.
Hebei has a huge number of industrial resources, rich types and wide distribution, and all kinds of industrial museums, industrial heritage parks and industrial tourism with the themes of steel, food, wine and other themes have developed rapidly, especially in some areas rich in industrial heritage in the province, which have gradually become hot spots for industrial tourism.
However, industrial tourism in Hebei Province is still in the initial stage of development, and there are generally problems such as single products and undistinctive characteristics, and the market scale is relatively small. In addition, industrial tourism projects have the characteristics of high initial investment, difficult factory transformation, relatively low direct economic benefits, and long return cycle, resulting in the low enthusiasm of some enterprises to develop industrial tourism.
How to promote the high-quality development of industrial tourism? Experts believe that the relevant departments need to give more support to industrial tourism projects in terms of policies and funds, and further expand the industrial tourism format to provide tourists with a richer experience.
At present, many industrial tourism projects tend to highlight their own corporate culture, but it is difficult to attract the same factory visits. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the thinking of "experience economy", stand in the perspective of tourists' needs, innovate and enrich the form of tours, and enhance interest, participation and interaction.
In this regard, the Shigang Industrial Heritage Park has done a good job. Since its opening, the park has organized a number of rock music performances, attracting many rock lovers inside and outside the province.
The Tsingtao Beer Museum in Shandong is also worth learning from. In the process of developing industrial tourism, the museum protects industrial heritage, inherits industrial civilization and makes "cultural relics come alive" through interactive innovation, service mode innovation, product form innovation, and business planning innovation.
Industrial tourism here has long been not limited to simple visits, but also "appreciable, appreciative, eaten, and playable". For example, the live-action time-travel drama tour "The Awakened Winemaker" integrates the script killing and escape room that young people love, integrating museum visits with real-life exploration; Interactive experience projects such as wine from the sky, beer tunnels, 4D cinemas, and secret places of light and shadow allow visitors to be immersed. Today, Qingdao Beer Museum has developed from a single-cultural exhibition hall to a multi-format cultural tourism brand, and has become an important urban fashion landmark.
In addition, industrial tourism should enhance the attraction of tourists, but also according to different types of industrial resources, excavate and develop unique industrial landscapes and industrial cultures, adapt measures to local conditions, highlight characteristics, combine cultural creativity, popular science research, product display, leisure shopping and other functions, optimize the organization of tour lines, innovate experience scenes, and give industrial heritage the value of the era. (Text/Hebei Daily reporter Wang Sida)
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