In China Taking Yangliuqing, Tianjin As a Case

6th Annual International Conference on Architecture and Civil Engineering (ACE 2018) An Investigation on the Characteristic Recognitions of Cultural Toursim “Characteristic Town” in China Taking Yangliuqing, Tianjin as a Case

Bingqian Cheng Tianjie Zhang(Corresponding author) The School of Architecture The School of Architecture Tianjin University Tianjin University Tianjin, China Tianjin, China

Yingxiang Niu The School of Architecture Tianjin University Tianjin, China

Abstract—China is now experiencing the high tide of characteristic take implementation to make it attractive to tourists. Therefore, town construction under the new urbanization. My paper takes it is urgent to sum up the deficiencies of the previous plannings Yangliuqing, Tianjin’s Characteristic Town nominated in 2016, as and give advice to improve it. a specific case, and investigates the characteristic recognitions by both local residents and common tourists, under the new target of I. THE OVERVIEW OF YANGLIUQING promoting cultural tourism. Owing to over 600-year history and nationwide prestigious Lunar New Year Painting, Yangliuqing Yangliuqing is located between Bingjing and Tianjin (Figure was nominated as a National Historical Cultural Town of China in 1), with an excellent geographical location. The town’s area is early 2000s. A series of preservation plans were issued to conserve 64km2 and it is the largest satellite town in the Bohai Sea and revitalize its historical cultural heritage, both physical and Surrounding Area. There are several main roads from unphysical. The implementation provided bases for today’s Yangliuqing to the downtown of Tianjin [4]. cultural tourism development. Via document studies, participatory questionnaires and in-deep interviews, the research Yangliuqing is the famous history town in northern China. unfolds characteristic recognitions and spatial distributions by Because of the geographical advantages, it was the main both tourists and also local residents using GIS. The paper further transportation hub during the Ming dynasty. And the town identifies the advantages and problems, like unattractiveness of gradually developed into the traffic hinge and culture space, lack of tourists and poor market of local Lunar New Year communication center in northern China. After the founding of paintings, and uncovers the reasons behind. the People's Republic of China, because of the development of the railway transportation and the silting of the river, the town Keywords-China’s Characteristic Town; Yangliuqing; Cultural lost its traffic status. So it began to develop the automobile parts Toursim; Characteristic Recognitions industries. With people’s attention on the historic culture, Yangliuiqng are gradually making full use of its historic and At past, the development in China based on quantitative cultural heritage to develop tourism [5]. increase of land is extensive, which caused many ancient villages and towns suffer from different damage [1]. So the government established the institute to preserve the ancient towns and villages. From 2003 to 2014, 252 towns have been nominated as the Historical Cultural Town and 276 villages have been nominated as the Historical Cultural Village [2]. This institute somehow makes lots of cultural heritage avoid being damaged, but there are still some disappointment construction that causes the historic culture be damaged. In current, with the improvement of the urbanization rate, the government are trying to enhance the quality of the urbanization [3]. So they put forward the institution of the Characteristic Town. And Yangliuqing was nominated as the Tianjin’s Characteristic Town in 2016. With the support of the policy, Yangliuqing will

Supported by the National Science Foundation of China (No.51478299, 51778403), and the Training Plan to Innovation and Enterprise of National University Students (No.201710056036)

6th Annual International Conference on Architecture and Civil Engineering (ACE 2018) Copyright © GSTF 2018 95 GSTF © 2018 ISSN 2301-394X doi: 10.5176/2301-394X_ACE18.125 6th Annual International Conference on Architecture and Civil Engineering (ACE 2018)

The Style And The The Current Features of The Protection Time of Name Function The Class Constru Architectu ction re The Historic and The Shi's National key Yangliuqing Stylistic Qing Famaily Historic and Palce building in dynasty Compound Cultural Site Museum Tianjin Historic and The Dong's The gallery of Stylistic Tianjin Historic Qing Famaily the folkore building in and Cultural Site dynasty Compound Tianjin Tianjin Historic Historic and The An's and Cultural Site; Practice Stylistic Qing Famaily Xiqing District teaching base building in dynasty Compound Historical and Tianjin Cultural Site the Lunar Historic and An Clan New Year Stylistic Tianjin Historic Qing Academy Painting building in and Cultural Site dynasty Figure 1 The location of Yangliuqing(Sounce: Drawn by the author) Museum Tianjin The Zhou's Selling the Qing Famaily —— —— local Diet dynasty II. THE CHARACTERISTIC HERITAGE IN YANGLIUQING Compound The With a long history and rich historic heritage, Yangliuqing Peiping- contemp Tianjin opry was nominated as one of the fourth batch of China’s Historical Museum Tianjin Historic Campaign —— residenti Cultural Town in 2008. The intangible culture has great historic, and Cultural Site Memorial al literary, artistic and scientific characteristic. Especially the Museum building Yangliuqing Lunar New Year Paintings, is one of the four most s famous "Chinese New Year Paintings"[6], and it has 300 years Xiqing District PuLiang Qing Religious site —— Historic and history and there are 50 workshops in the town with 700 pagoda dynasty employees that devote into this handicraft. Moreover, the Cultural Site Tianjin Kye Yangliuiqng Paper Cutting and the Kite are great artistic and Wenchang Temporarily Ming —— Historic and Pavilion out of service dynasty characteristic [7]. Cultural Site In addition to the rich intangible cultural heritage, there are also variety of tangible cultural heritage in Yangliuiqng, Moreover, Yangliuqing has a large number of agricultural including the antiques which are listed at the table below (Tab.1). production bases and technical agricultural production parks (Tab.2), which provides the foundation to the sightseeing TABLE I. PART OF THE ANTIQUES agricultural tourism.

TABLE II. THE AGRICULTURAL TOURISM PARKS Ziya Scenic Yangliuqing Yangliuqing Daliutan leisure spot expo park Park orchard farm Scale 36 ha. 47 ha. 667 ha. 33 ha. Special Characteristic Characteristic Ornamental Folklore tourism agricultural agricultural plant experience project tourism tourism

III. THE PRESERVATION PLANNINGS OF YANGLIUQING

TABLE III. THE RELEVANT PRESERVATION PLANNINGS

Class Year The plannings Key content The Preservation Planning of The abundant and characteristic Tianjin 2013 Tianjin Historic culure of Yanliuqing should be Cultural Town preserved. and Village The To build the thousand-year Comprehensive town, it should synthetically Xiqing 2008 Planning of develop the tangible culture and Xiqing Urban- intangible culture. Rual The Building Yangliuqing town as a Comprehensive 1996 historic and cultural town, and Planning of rich the tourism facilities. Yangliuqing II Modified To protect the ecology Comprehensive Yangliu 2003 environment, and make the Planning of qing town suitable to live in. Yangliuqing II The Preservation Planning of To build Yangliuqing town as 2012 Yangliuqing an important folk culture center Historic Cultural in Tianjin. Town

The preservation plannings make important effects on the historic and cultural heritages, especially The Preservation Figure 2 The division of the preservation scopes (Source: Ma Xianyong. Planning of Tianjin Historic Cultural Town and Village, which Research on the Historical Famous Towns Protection and Development is an important supplement of The Urban Planning of Xiqing Strategy under the Background of Tourism Development [D]. Tianjin University, 2014.) District. According to the preservation planning, based on the canal culture, the compounds culture, the Lunar Paper Cutting IV. THE EVALUATION OF THE PRESERVATION ON PHYSICAL and the other folklore, Yangliuqing will be the gathering center SPACES of the folklore and culture in Tianjin and the tourism service base in Xiqing. A. The preservation of architectures The core preservation area (Figure 3) is about 14.5ha, The preservation area is 109.9ha, it including the "core which including many types of compounds which are the best preservation area" and "construction control zone" (Figure 2). survival local-style dwellings in Tianjin, especially the Shi’ The planning emphasizes that the implementation should not Family Compound (Figure 4). The planning has a strict control only to protect the heritage’ historic authenticity, features and to preserve this compound, and it is used as the Yangliuqing the continuity of life, but also keep culture’s connotation. Museum now. The other compounds are used as the gallery or the studying center, making the historic buildings dynamic.

Figure 3 The division of the preservation scopes (Source: The Preservation Planning of Yangliuqing Historic Cultural Town)

Figure 4 The Shi’s Family Compound (Source: The internet)

In The Preservation Planning of Yangliuqing Historic Cultural Town, it emphasis that the style of the buildings and structures in the core area should be coordinated with the Figure 5 the "Families along the Royal River "and "The Yangliuqing traditional style of the compounds. Through the field Street"(Source: the internet) investigation, the author finds that the architectures in the area around the Shi’s Family Compound are the Ming-Qing dynasties style, which are coordinated with the compounds. And the architectures are used as art galleries, museums or the Lunar Paper Cutting workshops which enhance the historic atmosphere. However, due to the high rent and the less tourists, most of the shop spaces are unoccupied. And the peddlers are mainly selling the low-end antiques along the street. The planned snack street is also still vacant, with no merchants. The new built architectures of the "Families along the Royal River "and "The Yangliuqing Street" (Figure 5)in the west of the corn preservation area are similar to the Ming-Qing dynasties business buildings, which enhance the quaint atmosphere. However, there is a lack of planning in the business mode. Many of the shops sell hardware and electrical materials (Figure 6), which is extremely uncoordinated with the historic and cultural atmosphere around. And the lack of management and chaotic traffic reduce the quality of the scenic spot.

Figure 7 The landscape node and the tour route(Source: The Comprehensive Planning of Xiqing Urban-Rual(2005-2020))

B. The open spaces The Preservation Planning of Yangliuqing Historic Cultural Town has a systematically plan on the public space in the core area:  Controlling the open spaces strictly. The open spaces are those have significant effect on the town and are characteristic spaces. It mainly includes the four kilometers landscape line along the river and the canal folk culture tourism area and other open spaces.  Improving the quality of the open spaces that play important roles in Yangliuqing.  If necessary, it could adjust the land usage to leave enough open space. Figure 6 The chaotic street (Source: Photoed by the author)  The open spaces that need to be strictly controlled are The area in the west of the core area has not yet been generally not allowed to change the landscape features, developed, most of them are the local common dwellings with and forms. And they are not allowed to change the courtyards. The Peiping-Tianjin Campaign Memorial Museum original environmental facilities at will. locates in this area. Because of lacking of the sign, it is difficult to find this museum. What's more, the environment surrounding The purpose of building the public space is to provide the museum is chaotic and unclean, which is highly residents and tourists the rest space, while the current uncoordinated with the museum. construction situation is not optimistic. There are fewer space for visitors to stay. The landscape and facilities along the canal The construction control zone is about 95.4 hectares. The are not comfortable because of the lack of shadow and recreation buildings to the east of the Shi’s Family Compound are similar space. And the satisfaction of the tourists and local residents for to the Ming-Qing dynasties business buildings. The buildings in the transformation is low. the west are the common dwellings and have not yet carried out the urban development and construction. And there is no C. The street spaces construction activity in the Yuanbao Island in the south of the In the preservation planning text, it is proposed to control construction control zone. the style of the historic streets, so as to make the architecture on both sides of the street could show the northern traditional In the two area, there are lots of historic architectures with residential buildings, and maintain the integrity of the historical high historic value, and the planning is about to combine these scale and interface. historic sites as a major tourist line (Figure 7). But according to the investigation, the author finds that it is not obvious. On the The structure of the streets surrounding the Shi’s Family one hand, these sites are less attractive, some even is abandoned Compound keeps the original style, and the Ruyi Street is widen and could hardly make impression on the visitors; on the other appropriately to make the space abundant. Tourists would like hand, links between these sites are very weak. And lacking of to stay in the alleys, such as the Qiaojiageda Alley and the Caojia signs makes it more difficult to find them. Alley, which are the attractive space to take photos. However, the public space in the construction control area is not pleasant. The parking lot to the east of the Shi’s Family Compound is so huge (Figure 8), which is uncoordinated with the street texture in the core area, and the environmental quality is unattractive. The residential area on the west side are the common residential house, the street interface as well as the open space are unattractive, either.

Figure 8 The inconsistent texture around the compounds(Source: Drawn by the author) D. The preservation of the intangible culture It mentioned in the planning text that the government will establish the intangible cultural heritage archives and databases to preserve the intangible cultural heritage. And the text puts forward proposals to strengthen propaganda, display and so on, Figure 9 The landscape value identity of the whole groups (Source: Drawn while it did not give specific planning measures, and the by the author) workshops on the township are cheerless. There are no specific As a historic and cultural town, the goal of lists of sites to display the Lunar New Year paintings, so its popularity Yangliuqing's preservation plannings are mainly to inherit the is far less than before. historical culture. Therefore, the author specially analyzes the historic and cultural characteristic of the interviewees. V. THE INVESTIGATION WITH PPGIS According to the results of the questionnaire survey, 70% of the To obtain more objective evaluation results, by making the people believe that the street, alleys have the historic and cultural questionnaire and PPGIS [8] to survey the characteristic characteristic. 75 percent of people believe that Yang liuqing cognitive. PPGIS means public participation geographic New Year painting has historic and cultural characteristic. This information system. We took back 207 valid questionnaires, and result almost achieve the goal of the planning; Only 46 percent the male surveyed accounted for 54%, while the female is 46%; believe that the Peiping-Tianjin Campaign Memorial Museum And the age of the person is mainly from 15 to 45 years old; 76% has a historic and cultural characteristic, which is a disappoint persons’ income is under 5000 yuan per month; And the result that doesn’t achieve the goal. majority of the interviewees were local residents of Yangliuqing, When analyzing the results, the author finds that the Shi’s with few visitors from other provinces and cities. According to Family Compound is considered as the most site that has the the current condition of Yangliuqing, the questionnaire sets 6 historic and cultural characteristic, and the Peiping-Tianjin main questions which are the historic and cultural, aesthetic, Campaign Memorial Museum is the second one. leisure, ecological, spiritual and economic characteristics, and each of them has several evaluation elements. Compared the local residents’ view with the tourists’ on the historic and cultural characteristic we found that they have some Through the study of the nuclear density of questionnaire, difference. For instances, the local residents thought the old the author found that Shi’s Family Compound and its station that has historic and cultural characteristic while tourists surrounding area occupied more than one characteristic. It is have no such cognition. Through interviewing the local people because there are variety of compounds, culture centers, we learn that the old train station gave local people convenient amorous feelings street, etc. The ecological park in the northern transportation at past. The old station is a second floor buildings part of Yangliuqing is the most outstanding ecological made by brick with German style, which is the pride of the local, environment characteristic, and its aesthetic characteristic, so they think it has the historic and cultural characteristic while economic charcteristic and leisure characteristic are relatively there is no proper measure to preserve or take advantage of it. low(Figure 9). There is an Eighteen Bodhisattva that has the historic and cultural characteristic with a professional perspective. While it is unknown by the tourists even the local residents because of disrepair. Although it is one node of the main landscape line in the preserve planning. The planning isn’t carried out and the rescue is not timely, so people can not realize its characteristic. And this shows that the quality of heritage has a great effect on people’s judgment of characteristic. In addition, some people think the Yangliuqing Square, Yangliuqing Manor, Yangliuqing Expo Park and the golf courses are historic and cultural, although these places doesn’t have the historic and cultural value from the professional

100 GSTF © 2018 6th Annual International Conference on Architecture and Civil Engineering (ACE 2018) perspective. After the field investigation we find that part of the street landscape and green facilities reduce the quality of the buildings among there are archaized, so some people think they spots. We also find that the commercial activities are not fit with are the historic architecture and have cultural characteristic the historic cultural surroundings and cut down the quality of the (Figure 10,11). This shows that the planning measures have a historical spots. As Ashihara Yoshinobu said, the external space great effect on people's landscape characteristic cognition. So is an external environment created by people and is more the archaized architecture should be built carefully. meaningful than nature [9]. Therefore, it is essential to improve the design level on the open space, the accessibility of the spots, and the type of the open spaces. So as to make the spaces more characteristic. There is also another problem over the process of the preservation. The contact between the township and town is weak, and the transportation to the spots in the north of the town is extremely inconvenient. Actually, it is better to considerate the tourism elements as whole when making a tourism planning of the town. After analyzing the result of the PPGIS, we find that different groups have different views on the landscape, and some of them doesn’t achieve the goal. For instance, the Lantern Street which was built extremely while only the local people know about it, and the tourists are hardly aware of it; The main tourism

Figure 10 The landscape value identity of the local residents (Source: Drawn line mentioned on the preservation planning haven’t built by the author) because the low quality of the spots and the weak accessibility among the spots, In general, the local residents think there are more characteristics in the town, the significant distribution sites in history, the famous spots, even the important public space such as the people square are all signed as the characteristic places. The tourists just think the famous spots are the characteristics of the town, and they know little about the other important heritage. It needs to be emphasized that these important heritage were meant to be built as the popularity spots, while the result is dissatisfied. Generally speaking, the result doesn’t meet with the goal of the planning and it is because the planning doesn’t meet with the people’s characteristic cultural identification; and the planning is extensive so as to be difficult to implement it completely. Figure 11 The landscape value identity of the tourists (Source: Drawn by the author) Especially, it doesn’t make specific measures to reform the Lunar New Year Paper to meet with the current market and the VI. SUMMARY AND ADVICE people’s demand. And now, the popularity of the Lunar New A. Summary Year Paper cutting is not as popular as before. It is much more difficult to sale them now; Moreover, the lack of the money In the process of implementing The Preservation Planning caused the low quality of the transportation and tourism facilities. of Yangliuqing Historic Cultural Town, Yangliuqing mainly Mostly, the institute lacks of supervision administration, so the transformed the physical space to develop the culture tourism planning doesn’t implement totally. And Yangliuqing doesn’t be based on its tangible culture and intangible culture. As a result, built as the “the gathering area of the folklore and culture in the unable- mobile-relics and historic buildings are preserved Tianjin” and “the tourism service base in Xiqing”. best and gain the tourists and local residents’ identity mostly. These relics are used as museums or galleries, not only can B. The advice to the construction of the Characteristic Town protect the historical architecture, but also can keep alive and At present, the country is in the tide of the Characteristic attract more tourists. But the common heritage are not protected Town construction, and the culture tourism town has become the and used properly, and most of them are abandoned or occupied main direction of the Characteristic Town construction. There arbitrarily. are rich tangible culture and intangible culture in Yangliuqing, On the medium level, the preservation of the medium level which are the foundation to construct the Characteristic Town. is insufficient, the traffic accessibility among the spots is weak During this process, it is significant to enhance the special and lead to difficult to find them. The lack of public space design, culture of Yangliuqing [10].

In my view, the characteristic of Yangliuqing are the [10] Yang xueyin. 2007. Ecological Anthropology and the Protection of intangible culture especially the Lunar New Year Paper Cutting, Cultural Spaces-Taking Yunnan Ethnic Culture Reserve as an Example. Journal of the Guangxi University For Nationalities (Philosophy and the compounds cultural which can stand by Tianjin, and the Social Science Edition) 29, no.3:43. canal culture. It will be rich in cultural tourism combines these [11] Chen Tongbin. 2011. The Preservation based on Cultural Heritage to the other historical spots as well as agricultural and ecological theValue. Chinese Culture, October 10-12(005). tourism. [12] Li A-lin, Li li, Wu Songnan.2008.A study on the Selective Conservation of Historical and Cultural Villages. Journal of Urban and Regional Firstly, it should be pay more attention on the people’s Planning. (03):225-241. culture identity with full investigation before making the planning of Characteristic Town. To preserve and activate the historical site which bears people’s memory and could enhance the local culture identity [11] [12]. Secondly, it should crystallize the rules of the planning, and combined with other planning to make sure the planning be implemented completely. Thirdly, the construction of the Characteristic Town could develop the characteristic industry depend on the folklore, and insert into the social capital to make up the lack of bankroll. The last but significant, it’s better to build the institute to supervise the process of the planning, and ensure the planning make true. The activity to construct the Characteristic Town is an opportunity to improve the urbanization. With the support of the National’s policy and finance, the government should sum up the deficiencies of the planning before, and take good use of the features to make Yangliuqing as the quintessential example of Tianjin’s folk cultures.

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