Heritage preservation in northern china

Laboratory of Environmental system researchM1 Zhai Jian

Outline Heritage preservation

Ping`yao county

Fa`men temple

Current preservation works in China

In 2001, there were 99 cities that had the title of 'Famous Historical and Cultural Cities.' Under the efforts of many scholars, some of the cities had finished the preservation planning and begin to have the education program to raise the public awareness. But problems still exist.

Preservation works are passive.

Preservation works are one-sided.

Original Famen temple

Famen Temple, renowned for storing the Finger Bone relics of the Sakyamuni Buddha, is located in Fufeng County of Shaanxi Province, 120km east of Xian and 96km west of Baoji. With a history of 1,700 years.

The New Famen temple

Ping`yao

Ping yao is a county in central Shanxi province, People's Republic of China. It lies about 715 kilometres from Beijing and 80 kilometres from the provincial capital, Taiyuan.

Ping yao`s History

During the Qing Dynasty, Pingyao was a financial centre of China. Its history dates back 2,700 years. It is still inhabited by 50,000 residents and is renowned for its well-preserved ancient city wall, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ping yao still retains its city layout from the Ming and Qing dynasties, conforming to a typical Ba gua pattern. More than 300 sites in or near the city have ancient ruins. Preserved Ming- and Qing-style residences number close to 4,000. The streets and storefronts still largely retain their historical appearance.

Ping Yao Courtyards is container of Ping Yao’s tangible and intangible heritage. Like any other heritage container, Ping Yao Courtyards has value of many aspects: architectural, historic, aesthetic, scientific, cultural and social value.

Ping Yao Courtyards

Ping Yao Courtyards

Sketch layout of a typical 2-yard courtyard

Typical traditional courtyards in Ping Yao have some common patterns.

As the sketch, a standard courtyard has one to three inner yards. If there are two, they are called front yard and inner yard;When there are three, they are called front yard, middle yard and back yard.

Sketch layout of a typical 3-yard courtyard

Ping Yao Courtyards

Sketch layout of a 3-yard courtyard whose back yard is garden

Conservation Activities Carried out for Ping YaoConservation planning

In 1958, first urban planning of Ping Yao was made by planning committee, but notimplemented.In 1976, Second planning was made by county Construction Bureau and Jinzhongprefecture-level Construction Bureau. It is not a conservation planning.In 1981, Professor Ruan Yisan and his students assisted Ping Yao to make “MasterPlanning of Ping Yao” with SPPI. It was approved in 1985. This planning played arole of “saving ancient city from the blade”In 1989, Ping Yao and SPPI made “Ping Yao Conservation Planning of HistoricFamous City”. It was approved in 1990.In 1999, TJUPDI and SPPI made the modifications to “Master Planning of Ping Yao”.It was approved in 2002.In 2006, GHF and Ping Yao government appointed TJUPDI to make anotherconservation planning. Ping Yao Conservation Planning 2006~2009 by TJUPDI was done in 2009, Jan.

Ping Yao Conservation Planning 2006~2009

It has 2 important innovations: Management planning Building guidance.

In close cooperation with county government, TJUPDI made a special managementplanning to deal with common management problems. The management planninganalyzed the present condition and proposed to set up a unified ancient citydepartment.The building guidance is for controlling detail patterns of modification project inACPY. It can be handed out to residents and easy to understand. It has manysimilarity with TJUPDI’s another planning site: Lijiang.

Management system analysis.

The local government promote the economic by develop tourism.In current Ping yao, we have a reason to believe that the balance is more likely to slope to the tourism side.

Rehabilitation in Ping yao

There are some good rehabilitation examples as restaurant or hotel.Keep the appearance of the heritage and change the interior into a modern style.

Besides economic, another significant factor that affects preservation is education.The promulgation of the history and basic knowledge of historic preservationin the nine-year compulsory education will help the younger generation understand theirbirth place thus raising the public awareness to a higher level. While in higher education,the training of preservationist is absolutely necessary. At the same time, those programsrelated to law, social science, political science, architecture, history and urban planningshould include the concept and introduction to the basic knowledge of historic citypreservation.

Education

Thank you very much