Linking the Public with Landscape Preservation: Public Perception of a Traditional Urban Landscape – a Case Study from Suzhou, China

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Linking the public with landscape preservation: public perception of a traditional urban landscape – A case study from Suzhou, China

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of

the degree Doctor rer. nat. of the

Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources,

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität

Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Yang Zhang

Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany 2017

Dean Prof. Dr. Tim Freytag

Supervisor Prof. Dr. Werner Konold

2nd Reviewer Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schraml

Date of thesis' defence: 19.06.2017

Foreword

Acknowledgement

It was an incredible journey for me to reach this far, at this point. This thesis is not only the consequence of my work, but the whole bunch of efforts from many supporters and different countries. First of all, I would like to give my greatest gratitude to Prof.Dr.Werner Konold, who accepted me as part of Landespflege team and offered me the opportunity to conduct my doctoral thesis. He is not just being professional for work, but also considerate and helpful for daily life. I would not make it so far without his generous helps. Whenever I’ve got problems and questions, he is always the one that I can approach and ask for. Thank you so much Prof.Konold!

My gratitude goes also to my second supervisor Prof.Dr. Zhiyi Bao from China. Thanks for accepting my request as being the external supervisor and offering me valuable information as an expert in urban landscape management. In particular, I would like to thank Prof.Dr. Ulrich Schraml for generously accepting being the second reviewer of my thesis. Many thanks go also to Dr.Harald Scheich, who made efforts to contact me and discussed the research agenda at the beginning. Furthermore, to my colleagues from my former institute Landespflege, I appreciate your kindness and openness and the time we spent together. Because of this lovely working atmosphere, I was not feeling lonely even though I am so far from home.

My friend Fabian Faßnacht and family, thank you for being so warm-hearted and kind to me, I am so grateful to know you guys. Liwen, as my friend, you taught me so much during this journey. I can’t forget the time I spent with you here, and the advices you gave me on work and on life. Roxana, my most caring friend, thank you for the great time at work and during the private time! Also to my dear Chinese friends Yapeng Hu, Qiongjuan Xie, Xiaofei Song: thanks so much for being helpful whenever I went home, either for field work or for private visiting. I know I can always account on you! I would also love to thank my parents and my little brother, even though they do not understand at all what my thesis is about. My parents in-law, Angelika and Manfred Rupp, you are so generous and big hearted to me. Last but not least, to my husband Mattias, together we have been experienced an incredible journey, but I am so grateful that you are always there ready to help. You are helping me going through the hardness of life of work, and I am really thankful for your support. To my beloved child Svenja Leia, you are most precious that could happen in my life. You teach me how to be myself, how to be strong and how to be better. This is for you my dear Svenja. THANK YOU ALL!

Summary

China is a historically rich country, which results in numerous historical heritage sites scattered all over the country. At the same time, as the biggest developing country in the world, China is undergoing dramatic economic developments, resulting in a decline of its cultural heritage. Those heritage sites in urban areas are especially under threat of disappearing, particularly due to urbanization processes. How to preserve this heritage efficiently still remains a pending issue. Unlike the conventional top-down decision-making processes, this study is trying to find an answer by applying the public participation theory to preservation issues. One main research question addresses how the Chinese public perceives the landscape and why it is important to them. Several sub-questions are arisen to help answer this main question. This thesis is the divided into seven chapters, the first and second of which provide brief introductions about the research background, a problem statement, research questions and the structure as well as the scientific terms and concepts applied during research.

An advanced city, Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, has been chosen for a case study. A description of Suzhou is given in chapter 3. This city has over 2,000 years of history and is culturally rich; as a consequence, an historical and traditional old town area in its centre still remains. It is famous for its traditional landscape with its Jiangnan style and encompasses the Chinese Classical Gardens, a water town structure and essential elements of Wu culture. In this case, the public includes insiders (residents) and outsiders (tourists) of the landscape, for they both have direct contacts with each other and interact with the traditional landscape. The methods of the study are analysed in chapter 4. The semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with residents and tourists, in conjunction with a thorough literature study and on-field observation.

The results are subdivided into three parts which are presented in chapter 5. The first part takes on the residents’ perspectives in terms of how they perceive the traditional landscape based on their daily contacts. It is concluded that the residents consider it to be significant and traditional based on their life experiences, memories, neighbourhood intercourse and other daily observations. Every change of the traditional landscape would affect not only their physical lives but also their spiritual and emotional attachments. The second part is based on the tourists’ perspectives. Tourism affects the traditional landscape in different ways, such as through their behaviours and demands. Their considerations towards the traditional landscape are more leisure- and recreation-oriented. Besides the appreciation of sightseeing, other sensations such as hearing and smelling obtained in the traditional landscape are also uttered by tourists. The third part describes the cultural ecosystem service concept which is to be linked with the traditional landscape and could eventually provide a new angle of view to acknowledge the values of the

traditional landscape as well as its interaction with the public. In total, 26 different cultural services received by residents and tourists have been identified.

The results of the study offer valuable information to better understand the traditional landscape, which is discussed in chapter 6. The current management strategy is excluding both residents and tourists and is generated according to experts and political decision-makers. The residents voice the close connections between themselves and their surroundings, even though not all landscape elements are functioning smoothly in this context. Merging tradition and modern demands can end in a struggle, like altering the looks of a preserved historic site, but it also offers modern accommodation standards. Some elements, such as the water body, are occupying intrinsic positions for their emotional and spiritual connections; thus, they are required to be preserved in the future so as to ensure cultural continuity. The challenge is thereby to preserve the objects’ values in a surrounding in which their former practical functions are lost and transformed into modern emotional functions as part of the cultural memory. From the tourists’ side, the authentic traditional elements similarly turn out to be most attractive. Based on the fact that tourism directly or indirectly impacts Suzhou in various forms, the tourists’ perception should also be taken into account for future management. The cultural ecosystem service concept provides an unfamiliar perspective to view and study the traditional landscape of Suzhou. The interviewees, including residents and tourists, disclose positive feelings or experiences obtained from the traditional landscape, which could be turned into cultural services, if the decision makers use the concept. Consequently, an extensive and clear comprehension could be drawn of the important role the traditional landscape plays for human life.

The study reveals the preferences and opinions the public holds towards the traditional landscape and the irreplaceable benefits it gains from it. These interactions are mutual and significant for the apprehension of future landscape preservation. In accordance with this process and the results of this study, several future recommendations are provided in chapter 7.

III

Zusammenfassung

China blickt auf eine reiche Geschichte zurück, wie sich an der Vielzahl historischer Stätten ablesen lässt, die über das ganze Land verteilt zu finden sind. Daneben erlebt China, als das größte Entwicklungsland der Welt, in neuerer Zeit dramatische ökonomische Veränderungen, wofür vieles des Kulturerbes geopfert wird. Besonders die historischen Stätten in urbanen Gegenden sind der Gefahr des Verschwindens ausgesetzt, ausgelöst vor allem durch den Prozess der Verstädterung. Die Frage, wie man das Kulturerbe effektiv erhalten kann, ist bisher noch nicht beantwortet.

Im Gegensatz zum sonst gebräuchlichen „Top-Down-Entscheidungsprozess“ versucht diese Studie Antworten mittels eines Vorgehens zu finden, mit dem die Einbeziehung der betroffenen Bevölkerung für den Erhalt der Schutzgüter berücksichtigt und untersucht wird. Eine der wichtigsten Forschungsfragen dieser Dissertation lautet daher: „Wie nimmt die Öffentlichkeit Landschaft wahr und warum ist Landschaft für sie wichtig?“ Um diese Leitfrage umfassend beantworten zu können, wurden zudem verschiedene, unterstützende Unterfragen beantwortet.

Die Dissertation ist in 7 Kapitel gegliedert, wobei das erste und zweite Kapitel eine Einführung in das Thema geben. Neben dem wissenschaftlichen Hintergrund, der Problemformulierung und den Forschungsfragen werden das Forschungskonzept, dessen Struktur und wissenschaftliche Begriffe erläutert.

Als Untersuchungsobjekt wurde eine fortschrittliche, wirtschaftlich entwickelte Stadt gewählt, Suzhou in der Provinz Jiangsu. Diese Stadt wird in Kapitel 3 ausführlich beschrieben. Suzhou weist eine über 2.000-jährige Geschichte und eine lebendig gehaltene, vielfältige Kultur auf. Die historische, bis heute erhaltene Altstadt bildet das Stadtzentrum. Diese Altstadt ist für ihre traditionelle Stadt-Landschaft berühmt. Sie ist im Jiangna-Stil gehalten und beinhaltet klassische chinesische Gärten, die Architektur einer Wasserstadt und die wesentlichen Elemente der Wu- Kultur. Die Menschen, die in dieser Umgebung angetroffen werden, teilen sich in zwei Gruppen; zum einen in die Anwohner (Insider), zum andern in die Touristen (Outsider). Beide Gruppen haben direkten Kontakt zu dieser traditionellen Landschaft und interagieren mit ihr.

Die angewendeten Forschungsmethoden werden in Kapitel 4 erklärt. Das teilstrukturierte, persönliche Gespräch (Interview) wurde sowohl mit Anwohnern als auch Touristen durchgeführt. Unterstützend wurden eine umfassende Literaturrecherche und Geländeaufnahmen gemacht.

Die Ergebnisse werden in Kapitel 5, in drei Teilen strukturiert, präsentiert. Im ersten Teil wird aus der Sicht der Anwohner erläutert, wie sie durch ihren täglichen Kontakt die traditionelle

Landschaft wahrnehmen. Es konnte herausgefunden werden, dass die Landschaft für die dortige Bevölkerung von enorm wichtiger Bedeutung ist, als Teil des täglichen Lebens mit immer wiederkehrenden Abläufen, der Erinnerungen und des nachbarschaftlichen Miteinanders. Jede Veränderung der traditionellen Landschaft könnte nicht nur ihre Lebensführung sondern auch ihre spirituellen und emotionalen Verbindungen zu ihrem Umfeld beeinträchtigen. Es müssen aber auch Kompromisse gefunden werden, um von den modernen Entwicklungen profitieren zu können, wie zum Beispiel die Anlage von breiteren Straßen, die für Notfallfahrzeuge zugänglich sind. Der zweite Teil schildert die Erfahrungen aus Sicht der Touristen. Der Toursimus beeinflusst die traditionelle Landschaft auf vielfältige Weise, wobei die meisten Einflüsse direkt von den Touristen selbst ausgelöst werden, meist durch ihr Verhalten und ihre Ansprüche. Die Erwartungen an die tradierte Landschaft beziehen sich vor allem auf Freizeit- und Erholungsangebote. Neben dem schönen Anblick erfreuen sich die Menschen auch an den Schönheiten, die mit anderen Sinnen als dem Sehen erfahrbar sind, wie etwa der Landschaft eigene angenehme Geräusche und Gerüche. Der dritte Teil beschreibt wie das Ökosystem- Dienstleistungskonzept mit der traditionellen Landschaft in Verbindung gebracht werden kann. Dieses Zusammenführen ermöglicht es, einen neuen Blick darauf zu richten, welche Werte - und sogenannte kulturbedingten Ökosystem-Dienstleitungen - in solchen Umgebungen zu finden sind und wie die Menschen zu ihrer Umgebung in Verbindung stehen. In Summe konnten 26 verschiedene dieser Dienstleistungen für die Bewohner und Touristen identifiziert werden.

Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit liefern wertvolle Erkenntnisse für ein besseres Verständnis von Traditionslandschaften, was in Kapitel 6 ausgeführt wird. Aktuelle Managementstrategien sind bisher nur von Experten und Entscheidungsträgern entworfen worden und schließen die lokale Bevölkerung und die Touristen als Teile der Entscheidungsfindung aus. Die Anwohner betonen die enge Verbindung zwischen ihnen und ihrer Umgebung, obwohl in diesem Zusammenhang nicht alle Landschaftselemente optimal funktionieren. So stellt das Zusammenführen von Ansprüchen an Traditionen und die Moderne eine große Herausforderung dar, wie etwa der Erhalt eines historischen Landschaftsbildes und die zeitgleiche Bereitstellung moderner Unterkünfte. Einige dieser Elemente, wie zum Beispiel die Wasserkörper, nehmen wesentliche Funktionen ihrer emotionalen und spirituellen Verbindung zur Umgebung ein. Daher leitet sich die Notwendigkeit ab, sie für die Zukunft zu erhalten, auch um die Beständigkeit der Kultur zu gewährleisten. Die Herausforderung besteht darin, die Werte eines Objektes zu erhalten, dessen ursprüngliche Funktion in dessen Benutzbarkeit begründet lagen, diese aber heute verloren sind und es „nur“ noch als Teil des kulturellen Erbes gesehen wird.

Aus Sicht der Touristen verhält sich dies ganz ähnlich, die authentischen Elemente der Traditionslandschaft werden als die attraktivsten empfunden. Weil der Tourismus Suzhou in vielen verschiedenen Formen direkt oder indirekt beeinflusst, sollte die Wahrnehmung durch die Touristen im zukünftigen Landschaftsmanagement berücksichtigt werden. Das Konzept der kulturbedingten Ökosystem-Dienstleistungen ermöglicht eine noch ungewohnte Sichtweise auf die Dinge und schafft dadurch die Möglichkeit, die traditionelle Landschaft von Suzhou mit einem neuen Forschungsansatz zu untersuchen. Die Interviewpartner, sowohl die lokale Bevölkerung als auch die Touristen, beschrieben die positiven Gefühle und Erlebnisse durch den Aufenthalt in dieser Landschaft. Dies kann als ein Teil der kulturellen Ökosystem- Dienstleistungen gesehen werden. Aus den Forschungen abgeleitet, kann ein umfassendes und klares Bild davon gezeichnet werden, wie wichtig die Rolle der traditionellen Landschaft für die Menschen ist.

Die Untersuchungen zeigen die Vorzüge und Meinungen der Bevölkerung ihrem Lebensumfeld gegenüber und welche unersetzbaren Werte sie daraus gewinnen. Die Wechselwirkungen sind derart bedeutend, dass sie für den zukünftigen Erhalt der Landschaft essentiell sind. Dementsprechend werden in Kapitel 7 Empfehlungen gegeben, wie ein solcher Landschaftserhalt umgesetzt werden kann.

Abbreviation

CBD Convention on Biological Diversity

CES Cultural Ecosystem Service

ELC European Landscape Convention

ES Ecosystem Service

HLE Historic landscape element

HUL Historic urban landscape

IAPP International Association for Public Participation

IITS International Institute of Tourism Studies

IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature

MEA Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

NGO Non-governmental Organization

PP Public participation

TEEB The Economics of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity

TIES The International Ecotourism Society

UCES Urban Cultural Ecosystem Service

UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme

UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNWTO World Tourism Organization

WHITRAP World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO

VII

Content

Foreword ...... I

Acknowledgement ...... I

Summary ...... II

Zusammenfassung ...... IV

Abbreviation ...... VII

1 Introduction ...... 1

1.1 Problem statement ...... 1

1.1.1 Urbanization in China ...... 1

1.1.2 Preservation of historical heritage in China ...... 2

1.1.3 Related issues ...... 3

1.2 Research questions and objectives ...... 4

1.3 Research structure and outline ...... 5

1.4 Summary ...... 6

2 Historical background and theoretical framework ...... 7

2.1 The interaction history of humans and the landscape ...... 7

2.2 The state of research on the relationship between humans and the landscape ...... 8

2.3 The research status of human and landscape relations in China ...... 9

2.4 Scientific terms ...... 11

2.5 Theoretical Concepts ...... 20

2.6 Summary ...... 30

3 Study area ...... 31

3.1 General information ...... 31

3.1.1 Geographic location...... 31

3.1.2 Climate and topography ...... 34

3.1.3 History and culture ...... 35

3.1.4 Social and demographic conditions ...... 36

3.1.5 Tourism development ...... 37

3.2 The traditional urban landscape in Suzhou ...... 37

3.2.1 Landscape changes ...... 37

3.2.2 Traditional urban area...... 39

3.2.3 Classical Gardens ...... 42

3.3 Summary ...... 43

4 Methodology ...... 44

4.1 Case study approach ...... 44

4.2 Data collection ...... 46

4.2.1 Primary data ...... 46

4.2.2 Secondary data ...... 51

4.3 Summary ...... 51

5 Case study ...... 53

5.1 From insider’s perspective ...... 53

5.1.1 Water body ...... 54

5.1.2 Vegetation ...... 57

5.1.3 Architecture...... 59

5.1.4 Classical garden...... 63

5.1.5 Traffic infrastructure...... 64

5.1.6 Intangible elements of traditional landscape ...... 65

5.1.7 Landscape change ...... 79

5.2 From outsiders’ perspective ...... 91

5.2.1 Tourism impact in Suzhou ...... 93

5.2.2 Appreciation of the traditional landscape ...... 99

5.2.3 Expectations for the future ...... 104

5.3 Connecting cultural ecosystem services concept with urban landscape management – a new concept ...... 105

5.3.1 Cultural ecosystem services in ancient era ...... 106

5.3.2 Cultural ecosystem services derived from urban landscape nowadays ...... 108

5.3.3 Cultural ecosystem services received by residents ...... 114

5.3.4 Cultural ecosystem services received by tourists ...... 117

5.4 Summary ...... 122

6 Discussion ...... 125

6.1 Methodological critique ...... 125

6.1.1 Study area ...... 125

6.1.2 Method...... 126

6.2 Interactions between humans and the traditional landscape...... 128

6.2.1 The residents’ perspective ...... 128

6.2.2 The tourists’ perspective ...... 130

6.2.3 The application of a new concept on traditional landscape management ...... 134

6.2.4 The variable ...... 147

6.3 The premise for traditional landscape preservation in China for a promising future ...... 149

6.4 Summary ...... 154

7 Conclusion and recommendations ...... 157

7.1 Conclusion ...... 157

7.2 Recommendations ...... 158

References ...... 161

Appendix І...... 178

Appendix ІІ ...... 180

Appendix ІІІ ...... 182

1 Introduction

1.1 Problem statement

1.1.1 Urbanization in China

As the biggest developing country in the world, both demographically and geographically, China has lately been undergoing dramatic social-economic changes among which urbanization turns out to be the most obtrusive one. Two aspects are to be considered about the meaning of urbanization in accordance with the United Nations. One definition is as following: …increase in the proportion of a population living in urban areas’. In the other process, ‘a large number of people become permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities’ (United Nations, 1997).

According to the Chinese statistic yearbook 2010, the urbanization level expanded from 17% in 1979 to nearly 50% in 2010, and the growth is still increasing. Unlike in other countries, the spatial distribution of urbanization in China is very uneven. The super- and extra-large-sized cities are spreading only in certain provinces or areas. The reasons for this phenomenon are rather multivariate, according to the numerous studies focused on the driving forces of Chinese urbanization, which may include the differences in the regional economic development levels, the industry, societal investigation and consumption, the accessibility of means of communication and transportation, environmental conditions and restrictions, traditions and so on. These uneven developments pose immense pressures on local, regional and federal governments and create a situation called ‘the rich get richer, the poor get poorer’. Furthermore, scholars argue that the urbanization quality in China is rather low in comparison with other countries. The urbanization level rests with the population living in urban areas, although, according to Chinese Hukou system1, around 100 million labourers are living in cities without access to social welfare and rights (Li, 2010). Still, they are counted as part of the urbanization process, even though their living conditions are far below the urban life standard. This could, for example, pose a great challenge for urban management due to their low or even non-existent education levels. Additionally, some researchers claim that the industrialization level in China turns out to be much lower than the urbanization level, which leads to the other obvious issue of a poor life quality in the cities. The overall driving forces for urbanization could be summarized as the human need for an accessibility of transportation, communication and technology. However, due to this need,

1 Hukou is a system of population registration whereby individuals are identified as either rural or urban residents (http://economicstudents.com/2014/03/a-brief-history-of-chinas-hukou-system/. Accessed date: 22.03.2015). The system in its current form came into being with the 1958 People’s Republic of China Hukou Registration Regulation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system. Accessed 22.03.2015 1

1 Introduction those cities with an enormous historical and cultural heritage are facing the dilemma of having to reconcile modernization and conservation.

1.1.2 Preservation of historical heritage in China

China is one of the oldest existing civilizations on Earth. Today, numerous human traces can be followed back due to the remnants of landscape arrangements and architecture which we call heritage. Most of them are not only aesthetically valuable but laden with abundant historic value for scientific research and national history.

For a long time, the preservation of the historical heritage in China was not recognized by authorities, sometimes even counteracted due to complex social-demographic issues. Especially during the Cultural Revolution from the 1960s to the 1970s, countless objects of important architecture, documents, sculptures and so on were burned down and smashed. The few people who endeavoured to stop the sabotage were also trodden down. Then, along with the Reform and Opening-up2 that started in 1978, China started contact and exchange with Western societies. From that point on, the new ideas about and experiences with historical heritage conservation were gradually publicized and adopted nationally. At the beginning of the 1980s, international heritage preservation principles such as The Venice Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites were introduced to the Chinese people and induced a wider discussion. Of course, the Venice Charter did not and could not solve the Chinese issues, nor did it change the exoteric mind-sets; however, it did offer a new vision for Chinese people to look through their own situations. Following this trend, in 1982, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics was promulgated, which marked the legalization of heritage preservation nationally. From then on, the concept of the preservation, conservation and protection of historical heritage sites began to be an important part of the national agenda and later of the daily routine of the general public.

The breakthrough came in 1985, symbolized by the ratification of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritages by China. It exhibited the willingness and gesture of China and the Chinese people to accept and participate in international protection institutions. Following in 1987, China identified and nominated six sites to be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List, all of which were later accepted. During this period, the economy in China had been booming, and its exchange with other countries was increasing like never before. A new world was displayed in front of the Chinese people, and advanced

2 The Reform and Opening-up policy in China started under Deng Xiaoping in 1978 and lasted until 1992. This policy allowed China to open itself up to the international stage and to welcome communications with other nations for the very first time. It changed China dramatically and brought unprecedented economic growth for the country. 2

1 Introduction management strategies were imported into the country. Its first six World Heritage Sites fostered a tourist boom, thus boosting revenues for its young tourism industry. Meanwhile, rising incomes ensured abundant financial investment into better preservation. Both societal and economic benefits inspired the masses to pay more attention to the cultural heritage even on the micro-level. Some might argue that the Chinese rush for pursuing inscriptions on the World Heritage List was unhealthy and often ephemeral, but nevertheless, this enthusiasm did push preservation activities. Moreover, preservation firstly required thorough investigation, including inquisition, research and the study of the heritage sites, during which more knowledge could be disclosed to the public. This turned out to be another path to enhancing the significance of the cultural heritage to the society. Until 2015, 48 Chinese heritage sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site List, ranking second after Italy. Among all Chinese heritage sites, there are 34 cultural, ten natural and four mixed cultural and natural sites.

The truth is that until 2015, 138 of the sites recorded within China were ancient urban ruins of great historic value; however, only 16 of them were maintained with conservation programmes, and at least 46 were under investigation for future conservation. The urbanization processes are posing great risks for the maintenance of these historical sites. Besides the UNESCO-listed heritage sites, though, the regional and national treasures that represented thousands of years of cultural essences are facing the danger of disappearing. Taking historical cities in China as an example, the number has been declining from 2,000 to nearly 138 over the last 50 years. Nowadays, the maintenance of historical cities becomes even much harder, especially those lying within expanding surroundings. The negative outcomes of urbanization in China demonstrate the destruction of indigenously designed architectures or places with culturally rooted senses. It is still unclear when the urbanization process in China will come to a standstill, so the task is now to seek effective ways for protecting the cultural treasures without further delay.

1.1.3 Related issues

It is no news anymore that in historical areas in China, the activities of people cause great damage to heritage sites; on the other hand, the current preservation strategy does not meet the needs or basic requirements of the population.

The historical buildings or places are the enriched and inherited cultural sections deeply derived from people’s ways of living, traditions, natural conditions or religions. The historical heritage sites, especially those located in the centres of urbanization areas, desperately require new methods and strategies for better and more efficient preservation work. Thanks to the experiences from other countries, one promising way is to involve the local population in both

1 Introduction manage-ment and/or policy-making; in this context, the affected population is congruent with the public. In China, the management of historical heritages was traditionally held by a very small number of people in high positions, while the voices of the public were neglected or even disregarded. There is solid scientific evidence about the drawbacks of management disconnecting with the public (McNeely, 1990; Ouyang et al., 2002) as well as about the huge advantages of interacting with the public (Xu et al., 2005; Stenseke, 2009).

Despite all the advantages of doing so and the disadvantages of not doing so, in China, the studies focusing on the voice of the public – who are normally in most direct contact with these heritage sites – merely exist. The political environment, the top-down political process, the centralized decision-making tradition, the mentality of the public all together result in the consequence. However, an effort worth making is to understand the perspectives of the public towards the historical heritage in China.

In this study, a national historical heritage site, Suzhou city in Jiangsu Province, is chosen as the subject for investigation. In the centre of Suzhou lies a traditional urban landscape where this study has been conducted.

1.2 Research questions and objectives

There are still no valid data about the public perception towards traditional landscapes in China. The purpose of this study is therefore to explore and acknowledge the perspectives of the public, in other words, its perception of traditional landscapes in China, including the interrelations between the public and a particular landscape, the public’s preferences, discontent, expectations for the future and so on. The results could be utilized for two important purposes:

 to exhibit the voices of the normal people, even though this might differ than the voices from upper ones;  to inform and provide the decision-makers with different ideas and concepts about preservation policies.

The main research question therefore is: how does the public perceive the landscape, and why is the landscape important to them?

The following six sub-questions are addressed in order to fulfil this task:

1. How do the locals perceive their own daily living circumstances, in this case, the traditional urban landscape, especially with respect to traditions? Which elements or aspects do they consider to be significant, indispensable or representative?

1 Introduction

2. Have the locals observed or experienced landscape changes during the last couple of years? What do they think about these changes? 3. Why is tourism important for Suzhou in connection with traditional landscape preservation? 4. How do the tourists of Suzhou perceive their destination with respect to tradition? What are their expectations for the future? 5. How does the traditional landscape interact with human? 6. Do any new perspectives arise from the results that differ from the normal or so-called official epistemology?

In order to answer these questions, the objectives of the study are:

 to clarify the roles the traditional landscape plays for people, including both locals and tourists;  to understand the traditional landscape changes;  to identify the benefits people gain from the traditional landscape;  to identify new perspectives derived from the interviews and observations.

1.3 Research structure and outline

This thesis is divided into seven chapters. This first chapter strives to clarify the current problems, the research questions and objectives. The second chapter gives brief explanations about the historical background of the study as well as the scientific terms and theoretic framework that were applied during research. Chapter 3 describes the related details about the selected study area, Suzhou city in Jiangsu Province. Furthermore, it provides an explanation about why Suzhou has been chosen for this research. Chapter 4 presents the methodologies used in research and data interpretation.

The case study in chapter 5 uses the data collected to analyse the perceptions of locals and the tourists towards the Suzhou traditional landscape, as well as the interactions between them. The subsequent chapter 6 gives an overview, critiques and examination of the study and its results. The last chapter includes the conclusion and possible recommendations for the future.

The image below illustrates the research design as well as the conceptual framework of this thesis.

1 Introduction

Literature review Conflicts Historical Urbanization International journals heritage Conference papers... preservation Analysis

Documents

Humans Intricate relations Traditional urban Literature landscape change; landscape Archives The locals tourism impact Maps Suzhou The tourists Pictures…

Case study approach TIME Perception Field observation attitudes, preferences… Interviews

Benefits cultural ecosystem service

Understanding the public perception towards the traditional landscape and the benefits it provides to the public, thus the potential strategies and trade-offs for traditional urban landscape management in the future

Figure 1- 1 The outline of the research idea and design with the applied methodology.

1.4 Summary

This chapter has explained the current situation concerning historical heritage preservation in China, which has been and still is facing great challenges due to rapid urbanization. Even though an internal preservation plan has gradually been established, the situation still is severe. The most promising starting point to tackle this issue is considered to involve the general public, for it would offer new perspectives for decision-makers in China and challenges the conventional top- town landscape management strategy.

One of the leading cities in heritage conservation, Suzhou in Jiangsu province, which has a traditional landscape in its city centre, was chosen as the study area for exploring the heritage perception of the public (involving both residents and tourists) in order to better understand the role and position of traditional landscapes in daily lives beyond the political or academic scope.

2 Historical background and theoretical framework

2.1 The interaction history of humans and the landscape

Mankind has influenced and altered at least 90% of the landscape on Earth, both deliberately and unintentionally (Blaschke, 2006). At the beginning of human history, due to low productivity and lack of knowledge, humans could not tell the differences between nature and themselves, so they considered themselves as part of it. At this stage, humans depended entirely on nature, with little ability to alter it, but only to adapt. Over time, different civilizations developed, and soon the footprints of humanity became visible and, to some extent, destructive for nature. Antrop (2005) summarizes three periods of landscape changes in recent human history, namely the pre-18th- century landscape; the expanding industrialization and city landscapes from the 19th century to the Second World War; and the post-modern landscape shaped by globalization and urbanization. Before the 18th century, landscape could also be seen as being traditional, which “was experienced as rather stable and having a distinct character or identity and formed a basis for the homeland of those who created it during centuries of work” (Antrop, 2005). The landscape of the revolutionary age was mainly shaped by demographic change, global trade, the intensification of land use, land-use reforms and warfare. Then came the post-war era when societal dynamics accelerated. Antrop (2005) claims that “the new landscapes have been superimposed rather than being integrated into traditional landscapes.” What differs from other periods is that during this time, the recognition of traditional landscape preservation is widespread and still growing.

In China, a deeply rooted cultural concept existed about the interaction between humans and nature. The concept of the “Unity of Man and Nature 天人合一” originated in the Chunqiu Dynasty (around BC 500 to BC 476) and soon became the centrally guided philosophy throughout Chinese history. There were two original meanings of this concept:

 Nature was a living system itself, just like human beings; human should thus understand and respect nature by all means instead of conducting activities only from their perspective;  As the source of life, nature depends on humans to realise its life values. In other words, humanity was the implementer of endowing the life values of nature. This concept had ruled Chinese social development for thousands of years and has been interpreted in various ways for modern societal management. Chinese contemporary landscape researchers have summarised the insights they got from this concept in terms of balancing humanity and nature in a particular landscape:

1. Human beings should not consider themselves as overriding and mastering the landscape; 7

2 Historical background and theoretical framework

2. Human activities in the landscape should be timely and proper without destroying the natural life cycle;

3. Concerning management of the landscape, humans and the landscape should not be separated; instead, so as to achieve sustainability, landscape management activities should always involve both sides. The rationality of the concept has been proven by modern scientists.

2.2 The state of research on the relationship between humans and the landscape

The driving forces of landscape changes nowadays lie mostly in the human activities. It is also broadly acknowledged that a successful landscape management must actively integrate the people who are living there (Volker, 1997; Antrop, 2006), for their actions, satisfactions or movements directly influence the landscape in both agreeable and disagreeable manners. Therefore, a landscape management and development plan should not only consider the physical landscape but also ensure the needs of people in touch with it are met (Blaschke, 2006). Researches aiming at disclosing the public’s perceptions, opinions or attitudes in this respect could refer to public participation studies.

Public participatory research, including gathering perceptions, attitudes, opinions, preferences and so on of the public, has attracted attention to landscape or environmental research for a long time. Back in the 1960s, public participation research pioneers such as Sherry Arnstein, Paul Davidoff and Norman Krumholtz already proposed and then established theories which until now are still being widely used (Suarez, 2008). Particularly, Sherry Arnstein’s point that “citizen participation is a categorical term for citizen power” stressed the significance and benefit of public participation. Later on, she created the highly acknowledged model “Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation”, providing an overview of the various levels for the public to get involved in decision-making processes. Paul Davidoff, however, published his landmark article Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning in 1965 and thus brought public participation into the debate of planning literature and practice. Norman Krumholtz argued that minorities’ opinions should definitely be taken into account, as “(we devoted ourselves to) providing more choices to those who have few, if any choices” (Suarez, 2008).

Despite the long history, public participation research turns out to be very regionally oriented worldwide (Swanwick, 2009). Almost all studies of this kind have been conducted in either North America or Western and Central Europe, and the disparity of this research status between different countries is huge according to the literature study at the beginning of this project. For 8

2 Historical background and theoretical framework example, according to Krishnaswamy, in Canada public participation is often mandatory in aspects of environmental and natural management processes; and sometimes, it is even a civic obligation (Krishnaswamy, 2012). However, very little international literature is published about such research in less-developed countries, including China.

2.3 The research status of human and landscape relations in China

It was not until the middle of the 1990s that the concept and theory of public participation was introduced in China (Cai, 2008); nevertheless, it was rather after 2000 until it was applied in societal activities. Thanks to internal social affairs in 20033, it received broad awareness by the general public and became a critical topic and focus. It is obvious that the changes in the demographic and economic system impelled the wider dissemination and application of human and landscape relation research. In comparison with other countries, though, the public participation concept is much less popular among average Chinese than among scientists in China.

Internationally, only few articles address successful cases of public participation in China. A thorough literature review within the scientific database ScienceDirect has been done to answer the following questions:

 What does the scientific scene of public participation research look like in China?  What are the main challenges for a more successful implementation?

ScienceDirect was consulted in December 2012 by using the search terms “public participation & China”, “public perception & China”, “public preference & China” and “public attitude & China” respectively in “title”, “abstract” & “keyword” for the “whole period search”. At the end, 185 articles matched the search. Giving a detailed survey, the criteria of article selection were developed: 1. overlapping articles obtained in more than one search activity; 2. too narrow research groups; 3. owing to the subject of this study, research fields outside environment, landscape, forest, agriculture and so on were eliminated; 4. international comparison studies conducted by foreign researchers which were not considered to be representative. Based on these, a total of 22 articles remained for analysis.

Although the search mechanism was open for the whole period, the first article published in high-ranking international journals or books turned up after the 1990. However, when the search term “China” was omitted, the earliest articles could be tracked back to 1906, published in

3 In 2003, Green Earth Volunteers and other environmental NGOs launched a public campaign against hydropower development on the Nu River. The consequence of the activity was that in 2004, former premier Jiabao Wen announced the shelving of the development plans. See: https://www.chinadialogue.org.cn/blog/4999-A-chronology-of-public-participation-in-China-s-sustainable-development/en. Accessed 10.10.2013 9

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English focusing on public attitude. Among the selected articles, there is one review article and 21 original ones respectively. Unsurprisingly, 18 out of the 22 articles meant that public participation is still in its infancy in developing countries. China is a brilliant example of the above-mentioned topics being modernity and tradition, openness and isolation, and living under controlled policy of in a democracy. The results have been summed up and recorded below (table 2-1).

Table 2- 1 The obstruction factors for public participation research in light of landscape / environment / heritage management in China.

Type of factors Description

Political Donour-driven and state-led development initiatives result in formalistic styles of participation. The top-down, hierarchical manner of traditionally conducting planning in China excluded the public in the beginning. The legislative provisions for PP are still an abstract and high-sounding principle. Even though laws were passed to enhance PP, they have failed to elaborate on its operational and procedural details, which made them subject to interpretation and manipulation. The underdeveloped legal profession in China impedes the proper involvement of communities as well as individual rights protection and realization. The related necessary information is largely held back from the public. There is a deficiency of detailed implementation, such as identifying who should be involved. The Chinese national legal framework does not promote the creation of public communities like NGOs.

Authority There are concerns that PP could cause disagreement or even clashes among different parties. Poor confidence in public competence with the assumption that the public lacks the knowledge and capacity to participate. Suspicion against and fear of expanded public participation, because it might challenge the deeply rooted bureaucratic culture in China. The benefits and significance of PP in landscape management are not fully recognized by officials.

Societal PP communities such as environmental NGOs are in constant struggle for survival due to legal and political constraints. At the end, in order to survive, they may become tools of the authorities. The related necessary information is largely held back from the public. Absence of open forums associated with more consultative modes of engagement. The necessary information is in most cases not provided to the public. Limited modes exist for PP. The great disparity between Chinese provinces makes the implementation of PP rather complicated and uneven. PP is considered to be time-consuming and costly. The phenomenon that the public has no trust in the authorities or policy-makers has resulted in an unwillingness to participate in the surveys. The possible types of participation are very limited.

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Cultural A nation with a long history of compliance is less likely to absorb the participation mechanism which is translated from a Western approach. The public would not take part unless they realize that their own rights or properties are directly threatened.

Demographic The diverse and multi-polarized population structure in China poses obstacles for conducting such research. Taking manual labourers as an example, their characteristics are large numbers, an educational level below average, low incomes and a low social status, which determines the work being hard and complex despite the fact that they are often the powers most needed in regional development. The huge population of China turns out to be another obstacle. The elderly stay rather quiet due to their well-rooted mind of politics. There is a lack of awareness for participation of the public. Authorities have cynical attitudes towards the value of participation and worry that an overactive citizenry may lead to social disorder and conflicts. Many interviewees are under-qualified.

Others Due to deficient methods and targeting of groups in most cases, participation turns out to be costly and finally meaningless.

From the factors provided above, it becomes clear that not only the deeply ingrained national attitudes towards but also the unappropriated circumstances for PP, notably the development, process and future of PP implementation in China, are rather challenging. Indeed, successful studies have been conducted (Cai, 2010; Deng et al., 2012; Fang et al., 2013; Huang et al., 2006; Jin et al., 2013; Li et al., 2010; Shan, 2012; Zhai et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2013). All of them were designed to address attitudes, opinions, preferences and the willingness by normal people (i.e. the public) on environmental issues, and all these authors have mentioned that such research is brand-new in their relative fields. When carefully comparing the number of international articles with the Chinese population and development status, an incongruity is obvious.

2.4 Scientific terms

Landscape

Landscape was originally generated as a geographic term to describe particular objects of geography studies; thus, it has more or less the same meaning as region or area (Bourassa, 1991). Until 1976, landscape has been adopted for use in humanistic geography with the idea that a place has different subjective meanings for people. Even until today, the term landscape is still an ambiguous concept with both the tangible reality and the intangible index, like meaning or perception (Ventura, 2008). In this study, the focus is on the human dimension of landscape,

2 Historical background and theoretical framework instead of its purely environmental connotation as an area or scenery. Therefore, the term landscape is defined in accordance with the European Landscape Convention (2000: page 2): it is

“an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of nature and/or human factors”.

Traditional landscape in an urban context

The study area is a typical Chinese traditional landscape. In this case, the traditional landscape is first of all a cultural landscape. According to the World Heritage Committee4, a cultural landscape is a “diversity of manifestations of the interaction between humankind and its natural environment that is illustrative of the evolution of human society and settlement over time, under the influence of the physical constraints and/or opportunities presented by their natural environment and of successive social, economic and cultural forces, both external and internal” (UNESCO, 2012). Various researches investigate the cultural landscape and its components. Basically, the foundation of a cultural landscape includes three aspects (see table 2-2). The urban landscape belongs to the cultural landscape category and refers to the trait, patterns and structure of a city’s specific geographic area, including its biological composition, its physical environment and its social pattern based on the definition of EIONET (2012).

Table 2- 2 Cultural landscape foundations (Ziyaee, 2014).

Foundation Description Example

Tangible Physical forms Geography; Vegetation; Structure; Hydrography; Texture… Human-built forms Settlement patterns; Spatial organization; Water features; Roads…

Linking Time/Process History; Memory; Ecological processes; National processes… Method and technique Lifestyle; Art; Human systems; Traditional activities…

Intangible Belief; Meanings; Rules Religion; Ideology; Social practices; Symbols…

According to Sonkoly (2011), as a terminology, traditional urban landscape is fairly new in use. Previously used terms include historic area or historic townscape, with a focus on spatial entities. In Merriam-Webster5, the word tradition has been defined as

1. an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action or behaviour (as a religious practice or a social custom); 2. a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable;

4 An international committee with responsibilities for implementing the World Heritage Convention adopted in 1972 (Mitchell & Buggey, 2000). 5 See: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tradition. Accessed 29.06.2016 12

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3. the handing down of information, beliefs and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction; 4. characteristic manner, method or style.

In this study, the definition of a traditional urban landscape by the UNESCO (2012) has been adopted:

“the traditional urban landscape is the urban area understood as the result of a historic layering of cultural and natural values and attributes, extending beyond the notion of ‘historic centre’ or ‘ensemble’ to include the broader urban context and its geographical setting”.

Landscape element

In this study, a landscape element is considered as everything within a landscape area. There are two points to be demystified about “everything”: 1. an element could either be something individual or single, like a canal, a bridge, a pagoda or a tree, or a structure or group of individuals, like the architecture within a historical urban area, a certain type of tree species in a national park or a pond together with its bank and the vegetation in and around it; 2. an element could either be something intangible, like the atmosphere, a style or stories, or something tangible or real, like houses, the vegetation or water bodies.

The present study is focusing on the rather historical or traditional landscape; thus, landscape elements referred to in this study meet the following criteria: traditional landscape elements are those …

 representing the traditionally determined landscape characters;  possessing typical or unique landscape characters or a regional or national identification;  documenting the cultural aspects or the life of former generations in the landscape;  that might not emerge anymore under current conditions;  that have been preserved due to particular situations or reasons (Bastian & Walz, 2010).

Landscape management

Compared to other, related landscape terms and concepts, the term landscape management has emerged in research much later. The foundation of landscape management is the well-researched knowledge of study area conditions, of landscape dynamics or changes and reactions, of appropriate management processes and of modern technologies that efficiently facilitate the process and gather updated information about the landscape (Fabregas & Ramos, 2011).

Throughout this study, the definition of landscape management from the European Landscape Convention (ELC) has been used (2000):

2 Historical background and theoretical framework

“Landscape management means action, from a perspective of sustainable development, to ensure the regular upkeep of a landscape, so as to guide and harmonise changes which are brought about by social, economic and environmental process”

Perception

Perception is defined as “the activity carried out by the brain by which we interpret what the senses receive. It is not merely a factual report, but tends to be referenced to associations and expectations already in the mind of the beholder” (Bell, 1996). Eiter (2010) has pointed out that through physical experience, perception can be more clearly linked to an understanding of landscape as an area of activity. When talking about landscape perception, van Heijgen (2013) would summarize that landscapes themselves do not intrinsically have perceptual qualities – only living beings ascribe value to them.

Urban ecosystem

An ecosystem is “a set of interacting species and their local, non-biological environment functioning together to sustain life” (Moll & Petit, 1994). An area is urban if its built infrastructure covers a large proportion of the land surface or where people live in high densities (Pickett et al., 2001). In the context of urban landscapes, there are two trends in light of ecology. One considers the ecosystem within an urban area, which sees the ecosystem and the urban area are two separate units that should be dealt with differently. This is consistent with the traditional concept that perceives human activities as a disturbance of an ecosystem rather than part of it. The classical socio-ecological approach could be applied to tackling the problems based on this concept. However, in most cases, it is far from easy to separate the ecology from the urban area itself. This is where the second concept of the ‘ecology of urban’ comes into play, which regards the urban as part of the ecosystem (figure 2-1).

It is true that boundaries between different ecosystems are rather diffuse (Bolund & Hunhammer, 1999), for different ecosystems always have connections through air, water flow and so forth. Yet this new perspective allows researchers to understand the dynamics, patterns and processes of urban ecosystems, as well as combining related policies and development plans with ecosystem management so as to achieve conservation, resilience and sustainability. The combination of biotic and abiotic factors within a whole system is the key.

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Built Ecology

Social Biophysical

Urban Environment

Figure 2- 1 Sketches of two different aspects towards ecology and urbanity.

For example, in an urban area, it is acceptable to either treat the whole city as a system or to define the various ecosystems within the city (such as ponds) (Rebele, 1994). For the case that a set is too small to function and to be called an ecosystem, the whole old town of Suzhou is seen as a system, including all natural green and blue areas inside. Urban ecosystems apply the ecosystem approach to urban areas; the definition of urban ecosystem by Srinivas (2005) thus has been chosen for this study:

“Urban ecosystems are dynamic ecosystems that have similar interactions and behaviours as natural ecosystems. Unlike natural ecosystems, however, urban ecosystems are a hybrid of natural and man-made elements whose interactions are affected not only by the natural environment but also culture, personal behaviour, politics, economics and social organisation”.

The most notable distinction of urban ecosystem from others such as marine, wetland or forest systems is that the human component and human-induced contents constitute the majority of this ecosystem – even though it could overlap with other ecosystems. Thus, for analysis and assessment, it is important to adopt a pragmatic view of ecosystem boundaries, depending on the questions being asked (MEA, 2003). The reporting categories used in the MEA contain ten different types of ecosystems, including the urban ecosystem whose boundary limits for mapping has been specified as “known human settlements with a population of 5,000 or more, with boundaries delineated by observing persistent night-time lights or by inferring areal extent in the cases where such observations are absent” (MEA, 2003: page 245).

Cultural ecosystem service

The ecosystem service is the benefit people gain from the ecosystem and has been categorized within the broad groups of provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services (MEA, 2005). Different ecosystems offer different services; thus, a general classification of ecosystem services

2 Historical background and theoretical framework must be adapted to the specific case. The urban ecosystem is highly interconnected with human activities, and hence, ecosystem services derived from it are more likely to be socially oriented. Ecosystem services from urban areas are summarized and classified below, based on various studies conducted worldwide (table 2-3).

Among these services, cultural ecosystem service (CES) has been defined as “nonmaterial benefits people obtained from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation and aesthetic experience as well as their role in supporting knowledge systems, social relations and aesthetic values” (MEA, 2005; TEEB, 2010). Many scholars argue that the intangible nature of CES cause it to be less noticed and accounted for. This intangible nature manifests itself in two aspects. First, its production and reception is very individually oriented or subjective. The physical, emotional and mental benefits people gain from an ecosystem are frequently subjective experiences and cognitions which are very difficult to present with quantitative data. Normally, CES could only be expounded indirectly, such as by one respondent expressing the feeling of being inspired by an oceanic ecosystem. Secondly, there is no decrement of CES during the process. Unlike the provisioning service, the cultural service would not wane just because of human consumption. For example, if more people received religious or aesthetic services, this would result in more of these services being produced.

As illustrated in table 2-3 the fact that CES is more substantial and occupies a priority in the daily lives of residents of urban areas turns out to be quite clear. A case study assessing ecosystem services provided by the urban gardens in Barcelona, Spain, has revealed that among twenty identified ecosystem services, a majority of twelve belongs to CES (Camps-Calvet et al., 2016), which the authors called an “overwhelming dominance of cultural services”. To be more specific, learning and education (95.5%, N = 44), social cohesion and integration (88.6%, N = 44), entertainment and leisure (77.3%, N = 44) and the maintenance of the cultural heritage (72.7%, N = 44) were mostly mentioned by the interviewees. Since CES is strongly interrelated with one’s socioeconomic situation, they vary among different individuals or communities. The MEA has listed ten different types of general CESs (table 2-4), yet even more types could exist depending on the individual case.

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Table 2- 3 Ecosystem services from urban areas (Bolund & Hunhammer, 1990; Camps-Calvet, 2016; Gómez-Baggethun & Barton, 2013; Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2013; MEA, 2005; TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiersity), 2012; Thiagarajah et al., 2015).

Provisioning service Regulating service Cultural service Supporting service or habitat Ecosystem service that Ecosystem service provided by The non-material benefits describes the material or acting as a regulator, for example people obtain from Ecosystem service that is energy outputs from regulating the quality of air and soil ecosystems through necessary for the ecosystems, including or by providing flood and disease spiritual enrichment, production of all other food, water, raw material, control cognitive development, services. Habitats provide medicinal and other reflection, recreation and everything an individual resources aesthetic experiences plant or animal needs to survive food climate regulation tourism biodiversity fresh water noise reduction recreation medicinal resources & water purification appreciation aromatic plants air purification cognitive development

runoff mitigation spirituality

maintenance of soil fertility education

pollination social cohesion

erosion control placemaking

waste treatment relaxation & stress reduction

maintenance of heritage

sense of peace

connection with nature

sense of familiarity

local history

joyful time with family

Furthermore, unlike others, CESs are intangible and hard to quantify. In Chinese, only little original research literature exists that focuses on cultural services. Not only because of the short history of such research but also because of the intangible and immaterial nature of cultural ecosystem services, their significance is difficult to assess, especially in a fast-developing country like China where the material and economic ranks first. Dong et al. (2014) have analyzed the literature about cultural ecosystem services in English and Chinese respectively, and they found that the discrepancy in research statuses is rather big (figure 2-2). Among all analyzed articles, 17

2 Historical background and theoretical framework forest, wetland and coastal ecosystems are the ones studied most, whilst little attention has been paid to urban ecosystem services.

Table 2- 4 Cultural ecosystem services (MEA, 2005).

Cultural ecosystem service Annotation

Cultural diversity Ecosystem diversity is one of the driving forces of cultural diversity.

Spiritual and religious value Many religions attach spiritual and religious value to ecosystems.

Knowledge systems Ecosystems influence the formation of traditional cultures.

Educational value Ecosystems provide one of the bases for education.

Inspiration Ecosystems are great inspirers for art, folk culture, national symbols and so forth.

Aesthetic value Ecosystems offer incomparable beauty for people.

Social relations Ecosystems influence the types of social relations that are established in particular cultures, such as fishing activities.

Sense of place A sense of belonging is essential for a healthy human psyche. Ecosystems extend special features for human beings to have a sense of place, which might trigger a strong sense of belonging.

Cultural heritage value Many societies place high value on the maintenance of either historically important landscapes (“cultural landscapes”) or culturally significant species.

Recreation and ecotourism Ecosystem-related tourism or activities provide an enormously high value to human well-being.

200 180 160 140 120 100 In English 80 In Chinese 60 40 20 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Figure 2- 2 Numbers of publications on cultural ecosystem services in Chinese and English (Dong et al., 2014).

The same literature review was conducted in 2012 by researchers in order to understand how urban ecosystem services had been reflected in the literature (Hubacek et al., 2013). At the end, 463 articles were found that specifically dealt with ecosystem services in an urban context (figure 18

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2-3). Although the distribution of the publications throughout the years is not even, the number of articles clearly shows an upward trend. Hubacek et al. (2013) did not find any articles on urban ecosystem services before the year 1995, which may not necessarily mean that no such research had been conducted as early as that. Actually, as they declared, the importance of urban ecosystems had already been addressed in the fields of urban ecology, landscape planning, urban management, urban forestry, environmental psychology and many others. They could even be traced in ancient Chinese literature of over 1,000 years ago, which will be discussed later. Furthermore, Hubacek et al. (2013) also categorized the articles into five main categories depending on their research focuses: modelling studies, governance, tools, economics and the social, as well as the proportion of each category (picture 2-1). Among these, the social category contains the articles on social behaviour and perceptions. Obviously, only a minority of research addressed public perception of urban ecosystem services.

250

200

150

100

0 modeling governance tolls economics social studies

Figure 2- 3 Number of articles on urban ecosystem services falling into each category (Hubacek et al., 2013).

Unlike the ignorance towards CES in China, some leading ecologists insist on the idea that CES is actually the key factor for achieving sustainability (Chan et al., 2012). Chan et al. even proposed another idea that CES is an ecosystem’s contribution to human well-being (including experience and capabilities) via human-nature interaction. The main difference of their definition from others is that they stress the fact that CES is not only produced by the ecosystem but rather also recognized and received by humans. It is more like a co-production. This definition also reveals that without human attendance, CES would not even exist. The present study adopts this definition and idea, for the community as well as the population to be studied.

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Picture 2- 1 Number of articles (left scale) referring to urban ecosystem services (UES) and percentage (right scale) of UES articles with respect to all ecosystem services (ES) articles published (Hubacek et al., 2013).

2.5 Theoretical Concepts

Stakeholder engagement

According to the Oxford English Dictionary6, stakeholder originally means “a person, company et al., with a concern or interest in ensuring the success of an organization, business, system, et al.” From this definition, it is clear that a stakeholder 1. could be a person or a group of persons, depending on the particular case; 2. must have interrelations with the related programme, project, research, business and so on. However, the definition or identification of stakeholder varies from case to case due to its highly time- and site-specific character. Glicken (2000) proposed another definition: “a stakeholder is an individual or group influenced by and with ability to impact (positively or negatively) the topical area of interest”.

With an adaption of the two above definitions, the stakeholders in this study are identified as those who

 directly affect the future or direction of the landscape management progress, i.e. regional or national landscape policy-makers;

6 See: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/stakeholder. Accessed 17.04.2011 20

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 provide knowledge and expertise to policy-makers that will dramatically determine the direction of the landscape management process, i.e. landscape experts (regional, national, international);  are in charge of implementing the related policies or of managing the landscape, i.e. local environmental bureaus;  are physically and mentally in contact and interaction with the landscape on a daily basis, i.e. local residents;  are temporarily immersed in the landscape get attracted to or inspired by and benefit from the landscape, but whose behaviours, demands or attitudes will also alter the landscape and landscape management, i.e. tourists.

With respect to engagement, van Asselt et al. (2001) explained that “participatory methods are methods to structure group processes in which non-experts play an active role and articulate their knowledge, values and preferences for different goal”, whilst Rossouw (2013) described engagement as “the process of exchanging information, listening to and learning from stakeholders – with the goal of building understanding and trust on issues of mutual interest”.

Van Asselt et al. (2001) stressed the non-experts’ role which will thus be adapted in this study concerning urban landscape management. On the other hand, Rossouw (2013) addressed the significance of stakeholder engagement which is just another method that has been going through different stages in research history and in different countries, so it is undergoing different statuses as well. Nowadays in China, it is true that stakeholder engagement remains stuck in the stage of awareness-raising and trust-building. Participation or engagement in China is treated like a threat by those who are in positions required to hand over their authority. Thus, stakeholders other than experts or authorities are also to be considered and included in this study.

Despite this reluctance, stakeholder engagement has been widely recognized as a powerful tool in various fields, especially in terms of environmental or natural resource management which links tightly with people who are of completely different social backgrounds. The advantage in involving stakeholder engagement in urban landscape management in Suzhou (or in China in general) could be synthesized as follows:

 Landscape values could be revealed and better understood. There are large numbers of historical landscape elements in Suzhou. For some locals, for example, they are not only symbols of their cultural quintessence or identities – like most experts assumed – but also feelings of belonging or a sense of acceptance. By listening to their voices, more unrealized

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or neglected values could be revealed with greater insights through landscape management. Hence, that work would be more effective and fulfilling.  The demands of stakeholders and the main impacts on the landscape could be disclosed and better acknowledged. Neglecting the needs of landscape users, i.e. the citizens, may lead to grave consequences. Taking Suzhou as an example, in its old town, people are still living in traditional narrow alleys which date back hundreds of years. Despite their invaluable significance for the nation, the appearances and characteristics of these alleys may pose great inconveniences for or even interfere with the daily lives of local people, such as the impossibility for ambulances to drive into this area. The related consequences could be that locals might sabotage or destroy the landscape for the sake of their own convenience or safety.  The adverse impacts or footprints could be diminished by jointly informed planning, generating intelligence and integrating activities. This progress is based on the above step. Through a good understanding of the potentially adverse impacts on the landscape by locals, and by then corporately working out and implementing a landscape management strategy, a balance of interests could be maintained.  Trust could be established between stakeholders from the organizations, authorities and institutions that are in charge, and social connections could be enhanced for further operations. There are NGOs or civil groups in Suzhou aiming at preserving its cultural landscape elements, evoking public awareness and endeavouring to be heard by the authorities. If these players could be consulted, cooperated with and integrated during decision-making processes as well as the implementation afterwards, trust and a good reputation could be assured.  Derived from multiple perspectives, creativity and innovation could be generated.  The sustainability and continuance of landscape policies are more likely to be achieved. It is scientifically proven that when people feel that they are in charge of or significant for certain decision-making process, they are more willing to contribute and cooperate in the long term. Besides, stakeholder engagement is based on local knowledge and capacities, which might make the implementation easier.  Capacity-building, confidence reinforcement and community strengthening would possibly be realized. Cooperating and making plans with authorities empowers locals with a sense of ‘ownership’ of their own surroundings, builds up self-confidence in both individuals and the community as a whole and capacitates them for better participation, tackling challenges, solving problems and thus reducing vulnerability.

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 From a long-term perspective, stakeholder engagement turns out to be more cost-efficient. Taking stakeholders into account during the complete process may slow down the whole procedure. Nevertheless, due to the fact that new ideas and potential sabotage by the locals can be analyzed, tried or averted during the stakeholder engagement process, the expenses could be dramatically reduced in the long run.

Since the definition of stakeholder was formulated by the Stanford Research Institute in 1963 and then linked with management strategies by Freeman (1984), stakeholder engagement has been developing unevenly in different parts of the world. However, it must also be pointed out that different stakeholders play different roles in terms of projects or issues; thus, they represent various levels of engagement (table 2-5).

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Table 2- 5 The level of stakeholder engagement (adapted from Twigg, 2001, and the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, State of Victoria, 2011). Means of engagement Activities of stakeholder engagement Engagement level

Dialogue with authorities People- In power & in control Self-governance oriented - stakeholders take the initiative and are self-mobilised; Joint working - final decision-making is in the hands of stakeholders; Source provision High - stakeholders mainly control the outcomes, although they Supervision of project may contact external experts for advice. Capacity-building

Interactive collaboration Reference groups - partnerships are built between authorities and Web 2.0 tools stakeholders for developing alternatives, making decisions, Forums for deliberation and identifying potential solutions etc.; decision-making - stakeholders’ opinions are very important for the Experimental projects outcomes.

Involvement Workshop - stakeholders work directly with authorities throughout Official polling the whole process, and their concerns and demands are

Web 2.0 tools being considered and acknowledged; Forums - stakeholders are functional in terms of enhancing pre-

determined projects or programmes. Public comments Guided / Consultation Hearing controlled - stakeholders are asked about their views, opinions, Focus groups feedback about proposals, outcomes, working plans etc. Surveys without exactly being included in decision-making; Interviews - stakeholders’ views may be taken into account. Questionnaires

Fact sheets Getting informed Open houses - stakeholders are being informed about the final

Newsletters, bulletins, decisions, plans etc.; circulars - stakeholders just need to understand the problem, the Low Websites processes, the opportunities and so on, without any Media chance to alter or influence the final result.

The last two levels are considered guided or controlled engagement, seeing the stakeholders as being passively engaged without the capability of altering the consequences or even being part of decision-making. They are only participating as information receivers or providers – whether or not their information is viewed as valuable is not in the hands of these stakeholders. The other three levels are so-called ‘people-oriented’ or ‘people-centred’ ones; here, they, are actively

2 Historical background and theoretical framework engaged in decision-making, and their opinions may influence the results enormously. They play rather significant roles during the decision-making process or even control it. Only these three levels, however, can be viewed as enabling sufficient engagement, for they assure the achievement of more sustainable, effective and long-lasting goals.

Urban landscape management in China urgently requires a stakeholder engagement strategy, due to past experiences and its current global status. As the literature study has indicated, the stakeholder engagement practice is rather in state of infancy in China. Actually, there is still no official and well-accepted translation for the term stakeholder engagement in Chinese. Introducing a definition, clarifying the concept and arising awareness are the priorities for researchers in order to put a stakeholder engagement strategy into practice in China.

Public participation

The word participation refers to the actions of local individuals or communities who are affected by a decision in the process of a plan, the implementation or evaluation of a project or programme (IAPP, 2007; Creighton, 2008). Public participation signifies the procedure during which the public might influence decision-making by being informed, consulted, involved or by jointly cooperating towards the issues they are related to (Pétursdóttir, 2011).

Public participation could be seen as a form of stakeholder engagement. Arnstein published his landmark article on the topic A ladder of Citizen Participation in 1969, based on which modern public participation theory has been consummated and spread. The article classified eight levels of the public that can be involved in decision-making (figure 2-4).

These eight levels of participation are arranged in three categories: non-participation, tokenism and citizen power, respectively. At levels 1 and 2, the public is entirely kept out of control as well as from understanding the decision-making progress. By means of opinion manipulation, the public has been forced to accept or agree to whatever outcomes the final decisions have, which may be antipodal to their own expectations or wishes. Their expressions of discontentment will not have any consequences at all. At the therapy level, the authorities employ certain strategies and give incentives to persuade the public to accept or appreciate the decisions. Subconsciously, the public is subject to assuming that the final decisions are congruent to their own volition. At these two levels, democratic citizen rights are minimal and the public has no influence on planning, managing or implementing policies that affect their everyday environment. Due to the special environmental political agenda in China, manipulation and therapy still exist or even do so as the main form of participation (or lack thereof) in remote regions.

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Citizen Control 8

Delegated Power 7 Citizen Power

Partnership 6

Placation 5

Consultation 4 Tokenism

Informing 3

Therapy 2 Non-participation Manipulation 1

Figure 2- 4 The ladder of participation (Arnstein, 1969).

The second category, tokenism, includes three classes of participation: Informing means that the public will get informed during the decision-making process via the media about the current status, relevant consequences, benefits and maybe potential drawbacks of a project. The public may voice their prospects based on the information gained. However, whether or not this voice is listened to by the authorities and whether it has a certain impact remains unsure. Consultation states the level on which the authorities seek public advice, aiming at uncovering problems, making improvements, gaining insights, controlling the procedure and so on. On this level, the opinions of the public will be taken into account and may alter the results to differing extents. Placation indicates that the public has certain powers the authorities are aware of; therefore, they placate the public in order to avoid potential conflicts about the project. Through placation activities, the authorities are very likely to modify or alter the results in order to conciliate the public. As a result, the public’s willingness will be reflected in the final decisions.

The highest category for participation is called citizen power and also includes three sublevels. By occupying this category, the public has the ability to change final decisions and to initiate cooperation with the authorities during the project process rather than being a passive receiver. Partnership implies that the public associates with the authorities equally, e.g. by exchanging interests, and the final goal is for both sides to benefit. Delegated power refers to the public having been conferred with complete mastery to make final decisions about specific and conflict issues

2 Historical background and theoretical framework during the project on behalf of the higher authorities. On this stage, the public is not only able to get their voices heard and considered, but also has power and control to a certain extent. The highest version of public participation is called citizen control, where the public owns the entire charge of the course of a project. The authorities, however, perform rather as an agent or executive during the whole procedure.

The distinction between stakeholder engagement and public participation, though, must also be disclosed in this study. Many studies have utilized the two definitions to different extents but as the same guiding theories or methods. According to Yee (2010), stakeholder engagement is termed as a theoretical framework which emphasizes the significance of citizens, communities, individuals, groups and organizations being engaged in a meaningful way during the effective process of decision-making, thus ensuring the opportunity of engagement. In this study, the public has been recognized as the most important stakeholder; hence, public participation could be accepted as a practical activity of stakeholder engagement. They are both adapted in this study as a theoretical background.

Cultural ecosystem service and landscape research

Cultural ecosystem service builds a bridge between human beings and their natural surroundings and is one of the key factors for humans to feel a sense of belonging. Also, cultural ecosystem services play a significant role in incentivizing people to actively engage in environmental conservation in more developed areas (Philips, 1998). Even though the importance of cultural ecosystem services is widely recognized, their assessment is rather difficult. Schaich et al. (2010) assert that only three out of ten CESs (spiritual and religious values; aesthetic values; recreation and ecotourism) could be assessed, whilst for the remaining seven services, the patterns of human use and the status of the services could not be assessed from the available information (MEA, 2005; Schaich et al., 2010). This is partly due to them requiring different measures to those generally used in economically and biophysically informed trade-off analyses (Daily et al., 2009; Zoderer et al., 2016). Negligence exists not only in the work of the MEA but also in mainstream research on ecosystem services. According to a meta-analysis of assessments evaluating the provision of biodiversity and ecosystem services in a wide range of ecosystem types worldwide (Schaich et al., 2010), although 524 quantitative indicators were extracted, not a single study had measured cultural ecosystem services explicitly.

Interlinking the CES concept and cultural landscape research could benefit both fields significantly. The intangible and invisible nature of the experience people gain from the landscape makes this rather abstract. Within a CES framework, the cultural landscape experience could be classified and categorized or even quantified, from which a clear overview for management could 27

2 Historical background and theoretical framework be derived. Moreover, as Bieling (2014) concluded, people tend to describe landscape features, places or biophysical attributes in their narratives about experiencing CES (Zoderer et al., 2016). Other studies have also revealed that participants assign CES to certain landscapes and elements therein (Fagerholm et al., 2012). Although participants may not consciously use the scientific terminology or concepts to analyse the feelings or experiences they gain from landscapes, this solid interrelation just discloses the correlation between CES and the cultural landscape.

As discussed above, the cultural ecosystem service is a rather new concept in Chinese academia. Even though the Chinese gardening culture has a development history of thousands of years, the systematic study of the cultural landscape has begun rather late (Chen et al., 2011). This study is trying to apply the cultural ecosystem service concept to urban landscape research – in other words, to the cultural ecosystem service of the historical urban area of Suzhou. This might provide a new perspective on landscape management for stakeholders and policy-makers. For CESs in an urban landscape are rather scarce and should be prioritized.

Development strategies of historical cities

Although China owns the longest urbanization history worldwide, historical city management and development policies are rather recent phenomena. After reforming and opening up the regime in late 1970s, China has been driven by rapid and catch-up urban development which could be divided into three phases (Wu et al., 2014). Phase 1 lasted until the end of the 1980s and was characterized by a growth in urbanization and industrialization. During this period, China had just been opened up for foreign investment and was undergoing a transformation from a command to a market economy. With only limited concerns, concepts for historical city/area management and preservation were drafted, marked by the release of a first batch of historical and cultural cities (Yin, 2012). Phase 2 began extended across the 1990s, with fast urban growth and urban land expansion, which also led to disordered urban sprawl and severe environmental issues. During this time, the emphasis shifted to historical city preservation. Phase 3 began in the early 2000s and is still going on, along with grievous urban pollution issues, some urban culture losses and a ‘McDonaldization’, which raised an awareness of and emphasis on healthy cities, so that the preservation of cultural/historical urban elements started to become a priority. These phenomena can also be found in the above-mentioned literature study results. Taking Suzhou as an example, the formulation of policies concerning urban (historical) landscape preservation in China could be illustrated in figure 2-5.

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International atmosphere

National People’s Congress (NPC) National level General Policy Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)

Authority State level Province Policy International cooperation

NGOs Regional level Ultimate Policy Special local council

Local authority

Figure 2- 5 Urban landscape policy formulation in Suzhou, China.

The NPC and the CPPCC are supreme conferences in China which are held once per year to discuss and grant the policies proposed by participants in the whole nation. The policies prescribed on these levels, however, are very general and vague and rather rough ideas. Furthermore, international trends would have great effects on them. The next step then takes place on the state or province level and is based on the general policy from a national level but is further discussed by combining the state policies. International cooperation may also have a significant impact on this level.

Detailed policies take place on the regional level; they are worked out by local authorities and under the supervision of a special council. For instance, the local committee in Suzhou, the ‘Cultural City Management Council’, is in charge of managing the historical landscapes, proposing required changes and policies, implementing them and evaluating the impacts. However, its members are all from related bureaus. In this stage, NGOs have the chance to show their powers as well.

Until the end of 2006, 2,768 environmental NGOs existed in China and could be divided into four types according to their organizers. Type I was launched by the government but operated by non-governmental members, and constituted half of all types. Type II was projected, operated and managed spontaneously by citizens and had a share of 7.3% of all NGOs. Type III belonged to student associations and accounted for 40.3%. Type IV turned out to be the affiliated agencies of international NGOs in China and constituted 2.5% of all. In recent years, environmental NGOs started to play important roles in landscape policy-making processes in China. They utilize 29

2 Historical background and theoretical framework various ways to get the attention of authorities and the awareness of local inhabitants for landscapes. International cooperation can also effectively influence policy-making on this level. The experiences of foreign institutions or cities will be discussed during the dialogue between the two sides and thus be taken as reference or else be avoided in the future.

2.6 Summary

This chapter provided two important aspects in the context of this study: the historical background and the theoretical basis.

The historical background contained three parts: the general introduction of the interaction history between humans and the landscape, the research status on this interaction worldwide and the research status on this interaction in China. This interaction has been going on since the first day humans existed, whilst research on it started much later. Compared with other countries, especially those in Europe or North America, China has been lagging behind in terms of human- landscape interaction research. The reasons for this have been pointed out above by applying a literature study. This was important in order to understand the obstacles that impeded research and to be better prepared for present and future studies.

The theoretical basis encompassed two parts: the scientific terms used in this study and the theoretical concepts to be applied. This study was conducted in a traditional landscape. Therefore, it was important to clarify the definitions of terms such as landscape, urban landscape, traditional landscape and historic landscape, as well as other landscape-related terms. Urban ecosystem is not a new term; however, it is a relatively new method to be applied on urban ecosystems and in the context of urban landscapes. In particular, the term cultural ecosystem service was introduced because it is an important scientific term for this study. As the title of this thesis suggests, the main aim was to determine the perception people have of the urban landscape in Suzhou. This approach originated in the research concepts of stakeholder engagement and public participation in environmental sciences. As mentioned above, the new concept of linking cultural ecosystem services and traditional landscapes was be described. In the end, future recommendations can be made only by knowing how a management strategy for traditional landscape preservation can be developed.

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3.1 General information

China is the third-largest country in the world, covering 9,600,000 km² at 5,200 km from east to west and 5,500 km from north to south. There are 656 cities in mainland China (Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan excluded), most of which are located in the south-eastern and north-eastern parts of the country. Due to geological settings, natural resources, climate variations and ethnic features, the discrepancies in development levels between cities are very large. For the less- developed cities to benefit from the experiences of other areas in China, the site for this case study had to be chosen carefully. In the light of thorough and intense literature study, the old town of Suzhou city in Jiangsu province was selected as a study area for this project.

3.1.1 Geographic location

Belonging to Jiangsu province, Suzhou is situated in south-east of the Yangtze River Delta in southern China (picture 3-1). It lies between the northern latitude 30°46’ to 32°02’ and the east longitude 120°11’ to 121°16’ and is surrounded by the Tai Lake in the west and the Yangtze River in the north (picture 3-2; 3-3). In total, Suzhou covers 8,488 km² (including the country- level cities within the jurisdiction of Suzhou), among which plains occupy 4,660 km², water bodies 3,607 km² and mountainous areas 221 km². The city is located alongside the Tai Lake Basin which is characterized by a flat topography and abundant water bodies. That is why Suzhou has been also called ‘Ze Guo’ (inundated land) and ‘Pingjiang’ (flat river).

a b c

Picture 3- 1 Illustrations of the locations of study area (from left to right: a.China, b.Jiangsu Province, c.Suzhou City. The blue area in the middle of Suzhou is the old town, which is the research site).

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Due to its special location in the Yangtze River Delta, Suzhou has become the most important wing-city of Shanghai. Furthermore, it connects the most developed cities nationally as a significant transport hub. The naturally endowed geographical position offers Suzhou great opportunities to grow and develop towards a city that without totally destroying historical heritages for the good of modern transportation. It is also one of the criteria that Suzhou has been chosen as the research object.

500km

Picture 3- 2 Image of the location of Suzhou in China (marked with red balloon). Source: Google Map

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20km

Picture 3- 3 Geographic location of Suzhou city. Source: Google Map

The study area is the old town of Suzhou, which lies in the heart of the city and occupies three administrative districts (highlighted with blue colour in picture 3-1 c) with the area of 14.2km². The old town is in rectangular form (picture 3-4), surrounded by circumvallation and moat which could ascend to 2,000 years ago. The current Suzhou city has been developing around the old town.

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2.5km

Picture 3- 4 The urban area of Suzhou, of which the study site (the old town. Area: 14.2km², population: 161,880 in 2011) is located in the middle, surrounding by the city moat (marked with dark blue line). Source: Google Map

3.1.2 Climate and topography

Suzhou is under the influence of the East Asia Monsoon, with a mild and humid climate. Seasons are distinct here, with usually hot summers and plenty of precipitation throughout the year and cold, damp winters (Jiangsu.NET). The average annual temperature is close to 20 ºC. The hottest month is July with an average temperature of 28 ºC, and the coldest month is January with an average temperature of 4 ºC.

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(ºC ) 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Average temperature (ºC)

Figure 3- 1 The monthly average temperature in Suzhou in year 2012 (Suzhou Statistical Yearbook 2012).

(mm) 250

200

150

100

0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Average precipitation (mm)

Figure 3- 2 The monthly average precipitation in Suzhou in year 2012 (Suzhou Statistical Yearbook 2012).

Suzhou has been dubbed as ‘East Venice of the world’, for it is crisscrossed by rivers and lakes. Water transportation has always been playing an essential role in the daily lives of its inhabitants. Due to its plain topographical feature and abundant water bodies, a traditional Chinese water town could be built along the urban development.

3.1.3 History and culture

The recorded history of Suzhou dates back more than 4,000 years, with the city having been built 2,500 years ago. This is one of the oldest and still functioning cities in China. According to historic documents, in 514 BC, Zixu Wu started to do site investigations, obeying an order by the Emperor of Wu. He followed ancient Chinese geographical principles that combined an analysis

3 Study area of earth, water, nature and humans and chose Suzhou as the new capital for the country. Since then, the physical foundation of Suzhou has been confirmed and did not change ever since. This rare phenomenon in city history illuminates the scientific validity of the city site selection, as well as the ideal natural conditions of Suzhou’s location for a settlement. For the past thousand years, Suzhou has always been the economic and cultural centre of the Jiangnan region (i.e. the southern bank of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River), and even a national cultural hotspot in the Ming and Qing dynasties (between 1368 AD and 1912 AD). This leading economical and open societal situation in Suzhou attracted elites from all over the country to settle down here who created numerous masterpieces in art, architecture, literature, gardening and so forth. The mixed aspects towards culture and nature brought a good livelihood and rapid development to Suzhou. Most of the urban architecture and gardens now inherited in Suzhou originate in that period of time.

The geographic, climatic, societal and economic features all together have determined the highly developed cultural status. Suzhou was also one of first cities to be nationally chosen as an historic and cultural city for its deep cultural roots. Many scholars believe that Suzhou is a national cultural centre in any sense of the arts, festivals, classic gardens, local traditions, even its dialect and opera tradition (Jiangsu.NET). For example, the Kun Opera which originated in Suzhou is the mother of dozens of operas in China and has been inscribed as an intangible heritage of humanity by the UNESCO back in 2001. Among them, the most distinguished one goes to classical gardens, which is a basis for the city’s international reputation. There are still around 50 gardens being conserved successfully, despite the long-lasting wars and the Cultural Revolution. And the municipal government has already renovated 27 of them for World Heritage listing, a move that has been achieved for nine of them in the years 1997 and 2000 respectively. These gardens are scattered around the old town area and have been struggling to survive during the city’s expansion.

3.1.4 Social and demographic conditions

Together with the condign natural environment, the openness and inclusiveness of the societal features of Suzhou made it so popular that it became the second-biggest immigration city in China. Comparing it with other cities, the social welfare system, job opportunities, revenues, internal security and so forth are all progressive. The immigrant population not only provides abundant labourers for urban development, but also poses a challenging situation for society. Among all immigrants, over 90 % are holding high-school certificates or have a lower educational background. It has been confirmed that this poses difficulties for urban management.

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3.1.5 Tourism development

Back in the Song Dynasty, the great Chinese poet Chengda Fan (1126 AD – 1154 AD) claimed that there was a paradise in heaven, but on Earth, there were Suzhou and Hangzhou. Right after its establishment, Suzhou began to catch eyes from all over the country and soon became a national sensation. Besides its natural wonders, Suzhou is mainly famous for its cultural features. Since the Opening and Reforming Regime, tourism development in Suzhou could be divided into three steps. The first one is dates back to the beginning of the 1980s; the motto during this time was to follow the national tread of industrialization. Suzhou had been an agriculture-oriented city for a long time. In order to fully utilize the resources and superior social conditions, the city had started to transform its old town to become more tourism-oriented. The second period started in the 1990s and was marked by the establishment of an industrial park district in eastern Suzhou. This district became a famous tourism hotspot to display a modern tourism development. The third period is still going on and is symbolized by a culture-centred urban management and development. People have started to realize that sustainable urban development depends on sustainable cultural development (Zhang, 2013). The motto of this period ends with ‘strengthening the city through culture’.

The transition towards a tourism focus is rather significant, for the citizens have now realized the importance of preservation for culture-related heritage. This turns out to be a win-win situation for both the reinforcement of heritage conservation and enhancing tourism.

3.2 The traditional urban landscape in Suzhou

3.2.1 Landscape changes

A historical perspective provides a great viewpoint for managing the current landscape; hence the landscape changes should be understood. As described in chapter 2, that landscape is a complex of natural and human features, aspects and elements, which is even more truthful when talking about the urban landscape. Based on these claims, it then becomes clear that either a shift of human activities or a turbulence of nature could trigger change in the landscape; sometimes, even just small disorders of humans or nature might end up in great landscape changes. Moreover, these activities or turbulences may change one feature of the landscape or alter it in a holistic way. Landscape changes have a physical appearance; however, the impacts of these changes on the residents are often neglected in China. When mentioning changes of a landscape, the first question that arises is obvious: changes of what? Each component of a landscape has its own character and functions in different degrees, which resolves the fact that the changes are complex

3 Study area and take on various forms according to the changed elements. Sometimes, even when some elements of a certain landscape are altered to a great extent, the landscape itself remains rather stable in a holistic manner. This present study’s object is the traditional urban landscape; therefore, the focus is put on the changes of the traditional landscape – or traditional landscape elements, to be more specific.

Between 1990 and 2010, Suzhou has been undergoing significant dynamics. Actually, it was not until the beginning of the 1980s that dramatic growth started taking place in China and rapid urbanization and industrialization reached southern China where Suzhou is located. Due to the peculiarities of Chinese development, detailed maps and written scientific material on topics like landscape change analysis are unfortunately unavailable. Despite its significance for further research, the study of landscape changes is not easy to achieve. Four main challenges for landscape change studies have been summarized by Bürgi et al. (2004):

1. So far, landscape change studies are mainly dealing with changes in landscape patterns (land use) through documentation and maps. Very few attentions have been paid to the changes of landscape functions or processes, even though this would reinforce comprehending landscape changes. 2. A single case of landscape change can hardly be generalized and applied to other cases. Each landscape is unique, with various natural surroundings and human interests in all their different aspects. This also determines the impossibility to extrapolate the changes of a certain landscape in time and space. 3. A single data source from natural sciences is obviously not enough for studying landscape changes, whereas the social sciences often contribute extraordinarily valuable sources. However, combining natural and social scientific data is never easily handled. At least three issues can be addressed. First, natural science research is often conducted on a totally different scale from the social sciences. Second, concerning landscape changes, the natural sciences require specific geo-referenced data, whilst social sciences are hardly applicable to an exact place. Third, natural scientists often oppugned the accuracy and reliability of data social scientists apply because they prefer quantitative to qualitative data (Bürgi et al., 2001; Vogt et al., 2002). For instance, oral history is considered to be a very valuable approach to complement written sources, historical maps and statistics for gathering information on forest ecology and forest history (Bürgi et al., 2013), whereas these collected stories may just not be able to meet the rigorous ecologists’ demands for quantification (Whitney, 1994). 4. Considering culture as a driver of landscape changes gives rise to problematic discussions. Even though the impacts of culture in landscape change attract interest and attention, the

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promising evidence of integrating the cultural dimension into studies of landscape change are still missing. As culture is rather a complex concept and mostly remains vague, there is even disagreement on whether culture is a narrow notion of attitudes, beliefs and knowledge or in a broad sense consists of demographic development, economy, politics and technology.

3.2.2 Traditional urban area

Suzhou is nowadays one of the biggest well-developed cities in China, with modern architecture, a high degree of technology and convenient public transportation. Lying in the heart of the city, the traditional urban area is preserved and has even been labelled a “wonder”.

The current historical urban area spans around 14.2 km², which is roughly the same size as the original town 2,000 years ago. Taking its urban development history as a lesson, it becomes clear that once the city site had been chosen, the spatial plan of the city was supposed to adapt to the circumstances for a sustainable and safe development. As mentioned before, Suzhou was founded on flooded land, which determined the water-oriented urban structure and function. The urban area had been designed in rectangular shape, outlined by the city moat of around 16 km in length. Before the construction of the city, there had been abundant rivers and lakes. The pioneers dug canals so as to direct the water for residential and transportation uses, as well as to achieve a reasonable urban planning. Consequently, there were three backbone horizontal and four backbone vertical canals which connected with the city moat (figure 3-3). For the constructions, roads had been mended just adjacent to the water canal in a parallel pattern (figure 3-3). The classical vernacular dwellings of Suzhou turned out to be a house with a street in front and a river bordering the backyard. Besides the main streets and canals mentioned above, there were subordinate canals and streets designed in the same pattern in between, connecting with the leading traffic artery. Until recently, there were still 54 neighbourhoods with a pattern of a street at their front and river at the backyard (figure 3-4). This urban structure has been called ‘double chessboard’ pattern, and it became a legend in Chinese urban history due to its design and long existence. The French philosopher Montesquieu (1689 AD – 1755 AD) once said that Suzhou was ‘superlative craftsmanship’.

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Canal

Street

Moat

Figure 3- 3 The Double Chessboard structure of the urban Figure 3- 4 The schematic diagram of the 54 area in Suzhou. neighbourhood blocks in the old town of Suzhou.

In 1986, the very first conservation plan for the historical city of Suzhou was released by the State Council of China. It was very clearly marked in the plan that the historic urban landscape should be completely preserved and conserved, which made Suzhou the only one in the whole country to prioritize its protection over its urban development (Yu, 2006). The preservation of the historic urban landscape is a pre-requisite in order to understand what exactly represents it, in other words, what exactly we should preserve for the sake of preserving the historic landscape. Yu (2006) and his team have analysed it and came to the opinion that the following six aspects characterize the historic landscape which needed to be actively preserved in terms of physical action:

 The initial urban structure.  The Chinese water town scenery, constituted by bridges, the city wall, rivers, boats and traditional houses.  The spatial configuration of the old town, segmented judiciously by an ancient pagoda in each corner, a group of ancient temples in the city centre as well as the rampart, the city gate tower and ancient constructions.  Remarkable classical gardens scattered around the urban area.  An air of antiquity that is floating around.  Ancient architecture and places of historical interest spread all over the area.

It is believed that the historic landscape of Suzhou is characterized comprehensively by these six aspects, that they integrate with each other and that they simultaneously show individual

3 Study area characters. However, whether this list is complete or if the public is of the same opinion, i.e. that they are willing to support preservation activities, is still unknown.

Although the first preservation activities have been launched 30 years ago, there are still unsolved issues and knotty propositions. Take the soul of the city ‘water’ as an example; it functioned effectively for such issues as regulating the micro-climate, beautifying the environment, controlling fire as well as preventing waterlogging, impoundment and draining. However, owing to the extensive management model and negligence, there was a long period in which the sewage was directly emitted into the canals. The water system as well as the ecosystem in and around the urban area was thus dramatically damaged. Furthermore, between the 1980s and the 1990s, the average flow velocity of the water system was reduced to only 50% of its original or even became stagnant thanks to the operation of an electric power plant and the reconstruction of the Grand Canal (Xia, 2009). Limited water volumes, declining water quality and slow flow velocity brought negative impacts for the urban hydrographic net. Even though the unwanted activities had already ceased, the revitalization turns out to be very time-consuming, costly and technology- oriented. To some extent, it is becoming a bottleneck for future management.

The ongoing preservation plan of the urban historic area is a continuity of the primary one in year 1986, and the core concept is developing new urban areas outside the old town. Only based on this idea, the complete preservation of the old town could be possible. The other issue that should be thoroughly considered is that over 200,000 residents have settled in the old town area, with all the related facilities which already place the hug pressure.

How to adjust daily life to a modern lifestyle while at the same time minimizing harm to the environment turned out to be very complicated. The neighbourhood number 37 was chosen for an experiment in 1995. Neighbourhood no. 37 encompassed 220,800 m² (0.2208 km²), with 68,465 m² of residential building coverage (52.65%), a non-residential area of 54,837 m² (42.1%) and ancient architecture covering 6,740 m² (5.18%). More than 1,800 households were located in this neighbourhood, which means that the average living area for each household was less than 45 m². In addition to the overcrowded living conditions, the quality of the living spaces was also poor, mainly attributing to the frail infrastructure. They depended on the river for domestic use as well as for draining sanitary wastewater. The traditional lives there were written about romantically and well-preserved, whilst the locals announced high expectations for better living conditions. Based on the careful investigation of these conditions and the values of the houses, the neighbourhood was divided into different sub-districts for various reconstruction degrees: absolute preservation, major melioration, partial melioration and so on (Shi, 1998). Derived from this idea of different melioration levels, reconstruction could thus be implemented. Afterwards,

3 Study area the living conditions had dramatically improved with the modern infrastructure; thus, the work was considered a success. However, the case of neighbourhood no. 37 could not be easily applied to the whole area. The preservation of the historic urban area is still pending.

3.2.3 Classical Gardens

The Chinese Classical Gardens in Suzhou are outstanding in both their number and quality, which brought a high reputation for the city internationally. The traditional Chinese classical garden has been categorized into two types, the private and the royal one, and the gardens Suzhou are related to the latter. The private garden first emerged around the 4th century; its quality and quantity peaked in the 18th century (during the Qing Dynasty). The most ancient garden in Suzhou is located around the Cang Lang Pavilion which was laid out in the Song Dynasty between 1041 and 1048. The core conception of the private garden is “虽由人作，宛

如天开” (artificial yet looking natural or unnaturally natural). Until today, over 60 gardens have been well-preserved, out of which 19 are open for visitors. Nine of them have been listed as World Heritage Sites. According to the UNESCO, the classical gardens in Suzhou have been influenced by traditional Chinese craftsmanship and artistry introduced from Chinese paintings; they originate in the ancient Chinese intellectuals’ desire to harmonize nature while cultivating their temperament; to exhibit the monumental achievements of social, cultural, scientific and technological developments through underlying philosophy, literature, art and craftsmanship; they are outstanding examples of the harmonious relationship achieved between traditional Chinese residences and artfully contrived nature (UNESCO, 1996). Although all these gardens were structured in different eras, the garden masters all went out to mimic nature in a handful of gardens through the assistance of innumerable plants, stones, water, architecture and various combinations of them. Visitors even have a sense immersion when they are in the gardens.

Besides the specialty mentioned above, the gardens in Suzhou also possess other salient features that advocate their uniqueness. First of all, they show the impressionistic style of Chinese mountains-and-waters paintings. In China, the style of gardening is derived from the art of Chinese painting and literature, which has determined the indivisibility of their relations. This impressionistic style can be seen in almost all private gardens in Suzhou and conveys an artistic, painting-like aura to visitors. Second, the gardens offer ideal circumstances for living and residing.

The other significant basis for the Chinese gardening theory is that it treats human life as part of the ecology instead of a manipulator or superior. The way the garden masters have arranged the garden elements was always based on this simple but solid conception, on which a harmonious and ideal living condition with nature could be constructed. This way, the intellectual intended to

3 Study area seek the presence of nature in crowded and dense urban areas. The harmony is present in every sense of a garden: in the style and colour of its architecture, in the structure, in the arrangement of the furniture and of the vegetation. Third, it is widely recognized that a rich cultural connotation has been embraced in almost every sense, which turns the gardens into carriers of traditional Chinese philosophy as well as culture. This manifestation is, for example, expressed through the name of the hall, decoration, the choice and arrangement of vegetation, the piling and layout of the stones and so on. In this sense, the gardens are not only exhibitions to explore their posterities but also physical material for the research of folk science in southern China. For example, take the most admired garden ‘Humble Administrator’. Its master Xianchen Wang drew back from his political career due to frustration and intended to build a private garden as a retreat on the ruins of an ancient temple. The name ‘Humble Administrator’ originates from an old poem of a retired politician in the Jin Dynasty (266 – 420) who described himself doing better when watering the plants rather than mediating in court. The title exposes the intention of the owner and the leitmotiv of the garden straight away. The inner garden is without doubt designed to suit the leitmotiv. For instance, the dominating flower plants inside the garden are lotus, plum flower, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, of which the latter four are also referred to as the ‘four noblemen’ in Chinese traditional culture. They have been used in classical gardens ever since, not only due to their aesthetic value but also because of the folk meaning they represent.

3.3 Summary

This chapter has provided an overview of the research site, namely the old town area of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The reasons for choosing Suzhou out of the 656 major cities in China can be summarized from the information provided above. First of all, the advantageous geographic location of Suzhou made it easy to access. Second, the pleasant climatic conditions helped making the landscape more beautiful and enable it to be available for tourism in all four seasons. Suzhou has become a tourism destination thanks to its deep cultural background and long history, which is the basis for the historical heritage sites and traditional landscape in it. As a city full of cultural essentials, their preservation is facing threats from human activities, including local residents and tourists. That was why it was important to introduce the demographic conditions and information on tourism here.

Detailed information about the old town has also been given to convey where the study has actually been conducted.

4 Methodology

4.1 Case study approach

The popular methods to conduct qualitative research of real-life phenomenon include but not limit to case study, experiment, survey, history and epidemiologic research (table 4-1). According to Yin (2009), there are generally 3 criteria to determine if case study as approach applicable for an ongoing research: the type of the research question, the control an investigator has over actual events and the focus on contemporary as opposed to historical phenomena.

1. The research question A case study is preferable if the research question is asked in form of “how”; in other words, the more the objective of the research is seeking to understand and explain the real-life phenomena, the more relevant is the case study as method to apply (Yin, 2009). The present research is aiming to comprehend how the public perceive and understand the current traditional urban landscape and how are the interactions between the public and the landscape.

2. The power of investigator

A case study approach is preferable when the investigator has little control over the current event. The strength of case study that distinguishes it from other research methods is that case study approach allows the investigator to directly observe or interview with the people related. This happens, however, only when the investigator has very little influence or control towards the situation, event, or phenomenon. The present study has been done by the person who has basically no control or influence over the situation during the period. This criterion makes a distinction between case study approach and other methods like experiment.

3. The research focus

A case study is preferable on the condition that the research focus is on a contemporary phenomenon within a real-life context. Even though the methods could be overlapped in many ways during the research process, the case study tells difference of itself from the approaches like history under this circumstance.

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Table 4- 1 The relativity of research methods and criteria (Yin, 2009).

Method Research question Control over the events Weather focus on from investigator(s) contemporary event

Experiment how, why yes yes

Survey who, what, where, how many, how no yes much, how often

Archival analysis who, what, where, how many, how no yes/no much, how often

History how, why, what no no

Case Study how, why no yes

Based on the analysis of criteria above, case study has been chosen as the main method for the present research. In terms of the definition of case study, there are two aspects should be considered: scope and data collection, and analysis of case study (Yin, 1981, 2009).

1. A case study is an empirical enquiry that

- investigates the current phenomenon in depth within real-life context, especially when

- the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident.

2. A case study enquiry

- deals with the situation in which there are many more variables of interest than data points, and as one result

- relies on multiple sources of evidence, and as another result

- benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis.

The advantages of case study approach for this study are obvious:

 The examination of the data is conducted within the context of its use (Yin, 1984) that the researcher could examine the data in depth. That is, the research process is within the situation in which the activity takes place.  The detailed qualitative data produced during the case study could help to describe real-life problems as well as to describe the complexities of situations which might not be captured through experiment (Zainal, 2007). The results then could also be interesting for the public to acknowledge.

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4.2 Data collection

Two types of data are required for the progress of this case study: primary data and secondary data (figure 4-1).

DATA COLLECTED

Primary data Secondary data

1. Observation 1. International journals

 Nonparticipant observer and structured observation; 2. Conference papers  Field nots; 3. Domestic internet documents (such as forum)  Nonjudgement concrete description 2. Semi-structured interview 4. Chinese literatures on the related topics

 On a one to one basis; 5.Administrative archives  In depth interviews with the local and the tourists; 6. Maps  Combination with observation 7. Pictures

Figure 4- 1 The data types and respective methods that have been applied in this study.

4.2.1 Primary data

Perceptions towards traditional landscape

As figure 4-1 illustrates, for this study two ways have been applied to gain primary data: by observing from first-hand experience and by interviewing on field. The preliminary study focused on the interdependence of classical garden in Suzhou and Chinese culture was conducted in 2005 and 2006, which also serviced as the initial part of the primary data derived from observation. Afterwards, four times field visiting were paid on 10.2010 (before the launch of the project), and on 08-09.2012, 10.2013 and 01.2015 (during the process of the project), respectively. The random diagonal sampling was chosen for the primary data collection (figure 4-2) due to the rectangle shape of the study area (figure 4-3). Five different sites, in respect to the function, the main population, landscape, alongside the diagonal line were chosen for observation and interview (table 4-2).

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Figure 4- 2 Diagram of random diagonal sampling.

5 1km

Figure 4- 3 The selected sites and structures for primary data collection using the random diagonal sampling concept.

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Table 4- 2 Description of the selected areas for primary data collection.

Number 1area Number 2 area Number 3 area Number 4 area Number 5 area

Label Classical Garden Jianxin Alley Guanqian Street Public park- Pan Gate area District Suzhou park

Area/length 0.01km² 400m 740m, 9m wide 0.04km² 151m

Population Tourists Residents Tourist Residents mostly Tourist

History 650 years As old as the city Modern in old 90 years 660 years style

Preservation scale High Average Average Average High

Landscape Chinese classical Traditional alley; Modern buildings Cultural memorial; Ancient city gate; characters garden (UNESCO Traditional with ancient style; Modern park Moat; world heritage architecture, design with Ancient city wall Commercial site) lifestyle Chinese Garden atmosphere essences

The approach for observing in this study was designed as nonparticipant and structured. Non participant observation refers to a research technique whereby the researcher watches the subjects of the study, with her own knowledge, but without taking an active part in the situation under scrutiny (Scott & Marshall, 2009). Structured area observation means even though the observation is without any respondents, it is selective in two aspects. One is the preparation and selection of areas to observe (Thi Ut, 2013). Two is that the researcher attempts to focus only the elements of the situation that are relevant to the study and follows some pre-defined rules (for example the observation area) (Dissertationindia, 2015). The observation technique as primary data collection method had been applied in this study in terms of experiencing traditional urban landscape change/dynamic, identifying traditional landscape elements and understanding the interactions between human and the landscape in all 5 selected areas.

The other approach for primary data collection was semi-structured interview on both residents and tourists. The characteristics of semi-structured interviews (Cohen & Crabtree, 2006) determined the validity of it as the main interview means for this study:

 The development and use of the interview are following questions and topics that need to be covered during the conservation, usually in particular order. For collect the useful data, certain questions have already been design before and must to be focused during the interview.

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 On the other hand, the interviewer follows the guide, but is also allowed to follow topical trajectories in the conservation that might stray from the guide when the interviewer feels this is appropriate. This character of semi-structured interview is essential for this study, because the residents and tourists are not trained to give direct answer to the questions. Sometimes, the questions out of the interview list are needed to be asked to guide them back to the topic or offering the valid answers.  According to Bernard (1988), semi-structured interview is best used when it will not be more than one chance to interview someone, which fits the description of this study.

The residents’ interview took place in number 2 selected sites (Jianxin alley) and number 4 selected site (Suzhou Park). For the residents’ interview in Jianxin alley, all the households resided (58 households till 2013, except the commercial used such as shops) were notified and asked for joining the interviews. One participant represented one household. In Suzhou Park, an open space near main entrance was utilized as the interview location, for that was the most possible spot to encounter the most visitors. The interviews were conducted on morning (6am to 9am) and nightfall (6pm to 9pm) weekdays respectively, because this was two main periods that the residents visiting the park. The random selection was using by asking the passerby to join in the interview. When one was finished, the next passerby was chosen and so forth. The interviews were done in Chinese and lasted in average 60min to 90min. Eventually, in total 45 residents’ interviews were succeed and valid for the analysis. The content of interview could be found in appendix І.

For tourists’ interview, selected sites number 1 and 5 had been chosen. In site number 1 the classical garden area, the rest plot outside the gardens was chosen as the interview spot (figure 4- 3). The tourists who passed by were asked to have interview until the first one agreed. Afterwards, the next passing traveller would be asked, by parity of reasoning. Similarly, the interview was conducted in site number 5 as well. The grouped and organized travellers with tour group were excluded for the interviews mainly due to time limitation. The interviews were done in Chinese and the detailed information about questions could be found in appendix ІІ. The interview lased 45min to 60min. Consequently, 76 finished interviewed were succeed and valid for the study.

There are several considerations why face-to-face based interview has been preferred by the study instead of other methods.

 Because it is the recorded first time that the public have been involved on the topic of traditional landscape preservation, face to face interview is helpful for build trust through explanation, eye contact and so on.

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 During the interview, the emotions and behaviours of respondents could also be captured and interpreted.  Personal interview offers the opportunity for observation, especially when dealing with residents. The living condition, appearance and way to living would add extra substantive information for the study.  This study is trying to find out the perceptions of public towards traditional landscape, which indicates that the new perspectives are expected. Instead of questionnaires, in which the designed answers are already offering, interview allows the respondents expressing more wide ranged answers that could be valuable.  Unlike questionnaire, interview grants more chances for respondents to speak out. The residents and tourists probably could not give direct answers to the question, instead via telling stories and experiences in most of time. Interview is in this case much suitable.  For the present study, there are quite a few significant terminologies, and some of them could even not be found the Chinese counterparts. Comparing with questionnaire, during interview this obstacle is easier to be handled.  Another advantage is, the following up question could be asked during the interview when comes to the interesting and substantive points.

Cultural ecosystem services from traditional landscape

Semi-structured interview was also applied for procuring data about cultural ecosystem service people obtained from the traditional landscape. Additional questions then had been asked on all the residents in this context (Appendix I). Similarly, all the interviewed tourists had been asked the questions in slightly different way due to their short residence time (Appendix ІІ).

During the interviews, scientific terminology such as, ‘ecosystem service’, ‘benefit’, ‘landscape’, ‘perception’ was excluded for the better communication between the interviewer and interviewee. In Chinese, the words ‘landscape’ and ‘ecosystem service’ are only applied in scientific literatures. Instead, words like ‘view’, ‘place’ or ‘feeling good’ have been borrowed. The detailed explanation of questions is illustrated (table 4-3). At the end, 38 residents’ interviews offered the effective data whilst 59 of tourists.

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Table 4- 3 Analysis of interviewing questions

Questions Explanation and required information

1.favorit place(s)/spot(s) Clarifying the related landscape or ecosystem and scale respectively related to the cultural ecosystem service

2.description of the place(s) Identifying the specific elements that most related to the cultural ecosystem service

3.reasons for visiting Examining cultural ecosystem service

4.what the place brings Double checking the cultural ecosystem service

4.2.2 Secondary data

Secondary data were essential for this study in terms of acknowledging the problems and conflicts, understanding the current situation and the possible driving forces behind, comprehending the research status and methodology applied, identifying the potential obstacles for the project, field work preparation and clarifying the possibility for applying the results in other cases in China. Different forms of secondary data were searched and collected throughout the research process (table 4-4).

4.3 Summary

To understand the interdependence between human and traditional landscape, the case study approach was chosen for the research. Case study allows the researcher closely examining the evidence or data within a specific context (Zainal, 2007). In this case, semi-structured interviews were using for primary data collection, during which process both residents and tourists were chosen as participants using random sampling approach in study area. Field observation was the other means to gain the first-hand experience for primary data, especially concerning in light of traditional landscape changes and the traditional landscape element identification. Secondary data were gathering throughout the whole research process. They offered critical references to get informed about the similar research in other continents, to comprehend the method and management strategy, to make sure the feasibility, possibility and accuracy during the field work, as well as to find out the possible application of the results afterwards.

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Table 4- 4 Characteristics of secondary data of the study.

The form of secondary data Language Database Application for the study

International articles English; ScienceDirect; The similar issues in other countries and the Chinese Web of Science possible solving methods; the theoretic background; The possible obstacles for the study.

Conference papers English; ScienceDirect; The similar issues in other countries and the Chinese Web of Science possible solving methods; The newest status of the similar research worldwide.

Domestic academic Chinese Baidu Wenku (Internet Identification of research problems; literatures library); The possible obstacles for the study; CNKI (China knowledge Understanding the relationship between resource integrated traditional landscape and the people in it. database); Docin (the biggest platform for documents sharing in Chinese).

Domestic internet Chinese Docin (the biggest platform Understanding the local traditions and documents for documents sharing in cultures in study sites; Chinese); Clarifying the possibility of spreading the Internet forum results.

Domestic administrative Chinese Suzhou City Library; Comprehending the study site; archives Urban Planning Bureau of Understanding the preservation status and Suzhou process; Understanding the urban development.

Maps and image materials - Suzhou City Library; Understanding the landscape Google; change/dynamic; Baidu Problem identification.

Chinese ancient poems Classical Library Identifying the cultural ecosystem services Chinses that obtained in the ancient era in Suzhou

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5.1 From insider’s perspective

In total, 45 interviews could be used for reliable data, and the demographic characteristics of the interviewees are categorized (figure 5-1; 5-2; 5-3). Among them, the ration of male and female interviewees were purposely adjusted and chosen to be balanced.

Age (years old) Educational Level >70 3 University or higher 1

61-70 8 High School 11 51-60 23

41-50 4 Secondary School 10

31-40 6 Primary School 20 21-30 1

Uneducated 3 <20 0

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Figure 5- 1 The distribution of age among the Figure 5- 2 The distribution of educational level among interviewees. N=45, representing 100%. the interviewees. N=45, representing 100%.

Years of residence

>20 10

16-20 19

11-15 7

5-10 8

<5 1

0% 50% 100%

Figure 5- 3 The distribution of years of residences among the interviewees. N=45, representing 100%.

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Each interviewee was asked to name maximal 3 different aspects or elements in light of traditional landscape they thought representative or important for them. The result was shown below (figure 5-4). Landscape element relating to water was most chosen one, that 39 out of 45 interviewed residents listed water element as their priority, following up by vegetation, architecture, classical garden, transportation, and other 4 aspects which were classified together as intangible elements.

Canal, river, pond and other water body 39

Plant/tree/flower 28

Architecture/ house 22

Classical garden 14

Transportation/accessibility 10

Uncertain/no idea/none 7

Cultural connotation/art 5

Tradition/custom 4

Way of life/habit 3

History/story/background 3

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 4 The traditional landscape elements that playing important roles for residents (Please name 3 aspects that you think are representative or important to you concerning traditional landscape). N=45, representing 100%

5.1.1 Water body

Suzhou is dubbed the ‘Venice of the East’ thanks to its water town scenery (picture 5-1). The whole area of Suzhou is 8,488.42km², of which 42.5% are water bodies (3,609km²), including 21,000km river courses and 323 lakes. In old town, the water body exist as forms of city moat and canals, which had been illustrated in chapter 3 (picture 3-7). The length of city moat is currently 15.5km whilst the length of canals approximately 35km comparing with 82km at its peak in Song Dynasty (960AD-1279AD).

The canals in the old city were used as water supply and drainage system, impoundment, flood prevention as well as transportation system. These multi and significant functions were important reasons why the canals survived during hundreds years’ national complications. From the

5 Case study beginning of the 20 Century, modern technology and facility slowly substituted the canals for offering these functions. Nowadays the city canals are not applied as functional materials anymore, rather as historical evidence and heritage or as tourism sightseeing spot.

Picture 5- 1 Water town scenery of Pingjiang Road, Suzhou

For residents, water was the most rated element regrading traditional landscape. When being asked why they chose water as the most related or favoured traditional landscape element, the answers were summed up and demonstrated (figure 5-5). From their dictations, it is clear that water was playing intrinsic roles in their daily lives, such as washing, draining and travelling. They dictated the personal life experience and childhood memory which strongly linked to water that no longer in existence anymore. From their points of view, the water body did function due to its natural character such as providing habitat for fish or aquatic plant, but at the same time, the life experience and private connection with water was equally fundamental.

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Washing dishes, vegetables, fruits, clothes 31

Drain system for the livelihood 24

As transporting means for visiting 19

Fishing with family/friends as leisure activity 16

Aqatic product such as lutos just behind the house 12

Cultural meaning, water represents richness 5

No response/no idea/do not know 10

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 5 The significance water as traditional landscape element for residents (why do you think water body as traditional element so important for you? Please name maximal 3 reasons). N=39, representing 100%

Table 5- 1 Water body as an important traditional landscape element

Selected descriptions towards water as the most important traditional landscape element

(…)In the past time, there was no running water in the household, but only wells. Of course there was also no drainage system. The life involving water was close connected to buckets. We were using buckets for fetching water from the well and pouring water into the canals. The urine in the bucket was also poured into the canals. We had no choice back then. The canals witnessed the old life style, and are part of our memories.

(…)Talking about tradition, the canals here are definitely symbolic. The waters were part of our daily life and we could not make a day without them. I used to wash all the dishes and clothes by the canals down there. Today we do not need to do that anymore. Of course one reason is we have now convenient water system, the other reason is that the waters in canals are too dirty to use anymore. They are not flowing so fast like before.

(…)I remembered I was used to swim and fish when I was still small. River is the soul of this city. I believe that in the past, everyone who grew up here had special memories about the water. Now just the quality of water is not good anymore, and also not so much water left. Pity.

(…)We were planting lotus before for living. Just behind our house in the river. You can use lotus making medicine, food and so on. In one word, lotus is treasure from head to toe. During blossom of lotus, the view was spectacular. They were covering the whole water surfaces before. Now you have to go to particular tourism spots to see this. And if we want to eat lotus root (author: which were traditional local cuisine), we have to buy them now.

(…)Water means richness in our culture. More water, more richness. Suzhou was rich for over centuries because of enough water. We should not destroy the canals anymore. There were like protectors for our city from flooding. We should obey the nature’s rule.

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5.1.2 Vegetation

Vegetation is one of the four essential constituents of Chinese traditional landscape design, joining by architecture, water and decorative rock. The vegetation design for traditional landscape abides by certain guidelines that rooted deeply in minds. The texture, shape, colour, fragrance and in many cases are more important concerning vegetation design then the actual functions of the plant. The folkloric meanings of the vegetation are widely acknowledged nationally. A distinguishing between traditional and modern landscape could also be told often merely by analysing the vegetation design. Vegetation, or referred by the residents as trees, flowers, plants, was listed the second important by the interviewed locals in terms of traditional landscape element (figure 5-6).

No response/no idea 23

Aesthetic value 20

Providing shade/fresh air 18

Cultural connotation/meaning 11

Representing Chinese pholosiphy 7

Ancient tree owns spirit 5

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 6 The significance vegetation as traditional landscape element for residents (why do you think plant/tree/flower as traditional element so important for you? Please name maximal 3 reasons). N=28, representing 100%

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Table 5- 2 Vegetation as an important traditional landscape element

Selected descriptions towards vegetation as an important traditional landscape element

(…)I think the plant species could indicate if it is traditional landscape or not. Because, for example, a lot of species could only be found in classical gardens, not in new constructed city parts anymore.

(…)Our Chinese way of planting is very special. The uniformity and neatness are not that important comparing with western societies, but the connection between plants themselves and the connection between plants and human (…)the new constructions are not applying this anymore. There is mostly not enough space.

(…)we have our own city tree and flower, and that makes great sense. These plants grow really good here and they represent our culture and tradition. They were commonly used in the classical garden; together with other traditional plants, they created unique atmosphere that good for the mind.

(…)Plant occupies definitely an important spot in traditional landscape. This is our culture, I am sure you could not find it in any other cultures. They are picked carefully based on the philosophical principle. Plants, just like five elements in Ying-Yang Law, are in the relations of generation and counteraction. These principles determine if the plants design releasing signal of peace, passion,

(…)There is a reason why we call ‘traditional’. They are only used and important in our culture. Tree is definitely the most important element…There are several trees in the old town that are hundreds years old. They are not only trees anymore for us; they experienced the history, war, disaster and so on and are still standing. They are believed to possess spiritual forces with magic powers. They might heal, protect, make dream coming true (…) they are like gods. You cannot cut them down, or you will get punished.

Most interviewed residents uttered the obvious significance of vegetation in traditional landscape. They agreed that only in traditional landscape, a certain pattern of selection and design of vegetation could be seen. The plant design was releasing invisible cultural meanings that could merely be found in modern landscape. This application strategy is rather indigenous, very culture- related and critical for traditional landscape (picture 5-2; 5-3; 5-4; 5-5).

There was an interesting expression from one resident in table 5-2. The resident vented that they would rigorously protect the ancient trees with respects due to the spiritual belief. It could be observed in Suzhou before that people hung the red cloth straps on the ancient tree praying for blessings or placed the food under the tree as sacrifices. Currently, due to the urban appearance management, it is not allowed anymore.

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Picture 5- 2 Bamboo is one of the favours in traditional Picture 5- 3 Chimonanthus praecox is blooming in winter landscape, representing honesty and pure-heartedness with stunning fragrance and is favoured and applied ever since by litterateur and landscape master, representing fearlessness, unyieldingness and nobleness

Picture 5- 4 Cinnamomum camphora is chosen as city Picture 5- 5 Lotus is a must in water body for traditional tree of Suzhou, not only because of its long cultivating landscape, representing keeping pure even in evil history in Suzhou, but also its profound moral as surroundings (mud in real case) longevity, luck and ability of exorcising evils

5.1.3 Architecture

Traditional Chinese architecture had been made out of wood. The building process with wood was faster and more convenient than with concrete. In old town of Suzhou, more than 50% of ancient buildings were timber constructions. While their appearances attractive to people, the maintenance and constancy was rather discontent. The conservation of wood architecture had been a debate topic in different places nationally. On one hand, experts considered these architectures with great historical values that deserving repairs; on the other hand, the repairs were considerably time-consuming and costly that some experts advocated replacing them with modern materials. Among the ancient buildings in Suzhou, over 85% of them were putting to residential uses, which also indicated that, the residents who lived within such buildings owning

5 Case study knowledges others not. Besides the wood architectures, the traditional Jiangnan style ‘white washed wall and black roof tile’ buildings were extensively applied over the area. They were at least with one century history and represented the local characteristic. The aborigines invented Jiangnan-style architectures with special combined colour of black roof tile and white wall. This colour combination became a name card of the area in the southern Yangtze River (picture 5-6). There were several reasons: first, due to the humid climatic condition, the wall had to be well and thick smeared to resist the humidity coming inside; second, the raw materials for wall smearing were limestone which was locally and abundantly available. Lime endued the white colour for the local architecture. So as the same for the black tile coming from the local earth; third, the houses had been made with particular forms or certain spaces that delivered great aeration and ventilation functions.

Picture 5- 6 Architectures with white washed wall and black roof tile, representing typical characteristic of vernacular dwelling (Source: Baidu Baike7)

Jiangnan architecture is no doubt an important part of traditional urban landscape. It has been mentioned often in textbook, travel guide or art book, which illustrates a fact that people appreciate the uniqueness and beauty of such architecture (figure 5-7). In light of traditional urban landscape, the interviewed residents mentioned the styled as well, from their own living experiences (table 5-3).

7 See: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%B2%89%E5%A2%99%E9%BB%9B%E7%93%A6. Accessed: 10.11.2016 60

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Beautiful apperance and style 12

Colour 6

With histroy and culture 2

Position (between river and street) 2

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 7 The significance architecture as traditional landscape element for residents (why do you think it is important for you?). N=22, representing 100%

Table 5- 3 Architecture as an important traditional landscape element

Selected descriptions towards vegetation as an important traditional landscape element

(...)I used to live in the other alley till the early 90s. When the renovation team from government came to my house, to be honest, I was so happy. Because I lived in the first floor of a 2-floored traditional Chinese house with old wooden board. When it rained, the water came from the floor crack and reached till the mattress; quite frightened. So, when the old houses being torn down, our families were very happy. Only, I felt pity because some of the old houses looked very unique, should be saved(…)

(…)What is the renovation plan for this house, and why should it be this way. You have to do propaganda to let people know and then pay an attention to(…)

(…)We had no idea about ‘ancient town protection’ back then. I just remembered, that someone came to my house with survey forms and asked me how did I feel by living here and if I would like to move out. I forgot what did I answer in detail, but only I said yes, I would love to move out’. Because the living circumstance was really bad(…)

(…)However, the restoration of the old buildings or houses should be stopped. I do not think those old buildings should be greatly restored. The money could be saved for financing the human projects such as helping the poor(…)

(…)many people do not understand the meaning of conserving these architectures. Because they are absolutely not suitable for residing anymore. Actually, people wanted them all being torn down and then replacing by modern, liveable buildings. So, if the government plans to preserve these houses continuously, you have to do enough publicity to the citizens about the meaning of the preservation. Otherwise, it will fail for sure.

All the residents who experienced living in such buildings before voiced the willingness and gratitude of moving out, due to the improvement of sanitation, water supply and drainage system or other basic living conditions such as sunshine amount. Yet they are still emotionally connected with these houses.

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Picture 5- 7 Typical Suzhou traditional household, with Picture 5- 8 The other side of the house, which shows relative low-rise roof and poor day lighting the unsatisfying construction of the traditional building

Picture 5- 9 The roof of an entrance from one traditional Picture 5- 10 Due to lacking of space and preservation of household the architecture, the wiring system has to be established by making use of every bit of space

Picture 5- 11 The alley scenery Picture 5- 12 An entrance of a resident house

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5.1.4 Classical garden

As an important part of UNESCO historical heritage sites and city card, Suzhou Classical Garden receives the most intensive protection from the national as well as the regional governments. The number of classical gardens peaked to 270 in Qing Dynasty (1644AD-1912AD). However, after years of civil war, only 91 gardens left in year 1959. From then on till the end of 1970s, the Culture Revolution took place that 69 gardens reminded in 1982. Since that era, the nation welcomed its prosperity and development that in total 53 gardens existed till 2010. Among these 53 classical gardens, 20 of them are in critical conditions that are not suitable for public viewing any more. Without the entrance fee as funding, it is rather costly and very time-consuming to conduct any restoration work in these 20 gardens. The rest of 33 have been listed in ‘Directory of Suzhou Classical Gardens’ in 2015, which means they could receive regular examination and renovation. Even though, currently only 19 gardens are in the condition of opening for visitors.

Even though the Classical garden owns such great reputation worldwide, relatively small amount of residents (14 out of 45) deliberated the Classical Garden as important for them. Those who did mention the garden also said the entrance fees would be too high for them paying frequent visiting, even though they lived nearby.

Table 5- 4 Selected descriptions towards Classical Garden as traditional landscape element

Descriptions about classical garden in respect of traditional landscape change

… It is quite obvious that we should preserve the classical gardens. They possess enormous beauty and are just special. You could not find any other gardens originated from such long history like the ones here anymore.

…Suzhou is famous firstly due to classical gardens. Then the whole nation was fever of building up gardens according to Suzhou style. We do not have enough historical gardens for tourists, and then the government built up some based on the style for tourism reason.

…Any garden here, anyone of them is at least hundreds years old. They are small and delicate. In bank holidays, the travel buses are everywhere, occupying the whole area. I am afraid that this many tourists will destroy the gardens sooner or later. I do not think everyone can appreciate the value of the gardens. So I suggest the entrances of tourists should be strictly controlled. Otherwise, we will lose the gardens for sure.

…Rich people made all these gardens. They were the combination of wealth and intelligence. In old days, it was impossible for normal people getting into these gardens. But now, they are open for everyone. I like the gardens myself for its meaningful design. I can understand why the government investigated so much money to preserve them.

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5.1.5 Traffic infrastructure

The main transportation means in old Suzhou was by water, which was determined by the natural and local geographic conditions. The area of old town is 14.2km² with length of approximately 3km from west to east and about 4.5km from north to east. In such an area, there was in total 82km long water canal across in Song Dynasty (960AD-1279AD) with 314 bridges; however, 58km canal left in Qing Dynasty (1644AD-1911AD) with 241 bridges and currently only 35.28km long canal available with 168 bridges, respectively. Due to the modern technic, filling in the canal to reclaim land for more infrastructures became reality. Not like the old time anymore, at present day, the old town is approachable almost everywhere by vehicle. Since 2012, even the metro system has been putting into service in Suzhou.

When being asked how the current traffic infrastructure comparing with the situation years ago as much as they can remember, all of the residents expressed the gratitude and appreciation of the current transportation system for its convenience for daily life (picture 5-13) (table 5-5).

Picture 5- 13 A modern vehicle is struggling to cross a narrow ancient bridge

The stone slate street is one of the unique identifications of the traditional components in Suzhou and is beloved by artists as well as tourists. In this case, one resident expressed the distaste of such street because of its inconvenience and potential danger for the elderly, especially after raining. As descried above, all the residents showed favour of modern transportation over the past.

“Yes, I know. But, comparing with capable of living a normal life, what else can I do?”

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Table 5- 5 Modern traffic infrastructure and traditional landscape

Descriptions about traffic infrastructure in respect of traditional landscape

(…)Over the past time, when it rained heavily, it was very different going out. Sometimes the canal water did not flow fast enough that there was water everywhere. You can even take a boat on the street.

(…)the traditional street (made of stone slate) was very slippery when it was raining. My mom could not go outside whenever it rained; otherwise it could be too dangerous for her.

(…)it took me a whole day to get to my relatives living in countryside and not far from here at all. We needed to walk long distance to reach the points where bus started. Nowadays, you pick up your package and walk out of the alley, then you see the bus.

(…)I appreciate of the new traffic net; the situation will even get better thanks to the tram. I was always fearful of my illness. The ambulance could not drive in and I could not be driven out. What should I do then?

5.1.6 Intangible elements of traditional landscape

Chinese literature about Suzhou illustrated an interesting fact about traditional landscape that the nonmaterial part occupies a weighty part. Interviews with residents also suggested how well acknowledged the nonmaterial values of traditional landscape have been. In according to the interviews, nonmaterial, or in another word intangible in some literatures, elements of traditional landscape of Suzhou could be categorized into belief/religion, life style, art, function and law.

Life style

Suzhou was and still is the centre of Jiangnan (south of the Yangtze River) culture, which resulted from multiple factors. This culture was performed in almost every aspect of daily lives. There is even a folk custom museum of Suzhou built up to demonstrate the special regional folkloric traditions, customs, antiques, life style and so on about food, festival, activity, marriage, birthday and daily life in ancient time. One interviewed resident mentioned

“…I think it is the people that make the landscape alive. Looking at the historical performance in museum, there were always people involved. Without people, a traditional landscape could not be called ‘tradition’ at all…”

In this description, it is stressed the importance of human in a traditional. The activities of people make a certain cultural landscape more vivid, especially when the activities being characterized traditionally. The emphasis was continuing by saying

“...if we only focus on protecting the ‘shell of the city’, we would mostly have only tourist spots eventually. In my opinion, to protect the old town, the most import thing is to protect the soul of the city, by saying the soul, I mean the people who lived in here and the cultural characteristics and spirituals they made…” 65

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A new idea of traditional landscape that should not only be the material matters but also the intangible aspects had been suggested. For example, the scenery of local females washing up groceries or clothes alone the shore was considered by this resident very traditional and indigenous (picture 5-14), for this kind of activity was formed during the history due to the special natural and cultural conditions. The fact that the similar picture could also be seen in photographic exhibitions underpins his statement.

Picture 5- 14 Washing up with neighbours along the shore as daily activity of the local

Picture 5- 15 Trade of local vegetables during the Picture 5- 16 Traditional way of cooking using morning market on neighbourhood, Suzhou (unknown honeycomb briquette, Suzhou (unknown source) source)

In a dense populated area like Suzhou old town, the neighbourhood relation was strong and harmonious, which belonged to traditional lifestyles (picture 5-15; 5-16). The residents regarded such sceneries as important segments for traditional landscape as well. Like in many other Chinese cities, the economic development and transformation left such lives no place to survive.

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Just as one resident mentioned about one certain local fruit as “once normal thing, today a luxury”, this expression was also suitable for the old way of living.

Those ancient life patterns exist nowadays only during small amount of residents and inevitably are dying out due to the vanishing of related traditional environment. Take traditional garment of Suzhou for example, they were devised in light of convenient application in water town, such as working in paddy field. During last years, thanks to the explosion of urban growth, more and more traditional villages and farmlands had been transformed into industrial or residential land. There was thus less and less platform for traditional garment. Taking boat as another case, boats were the most possessed and important object for a household of water town. Currently though, the boats and boatmen are only essential for tourism purpose (picture5-17).

Picture 5- 17 Nowadays in old town of Suzhou, boats as transportation medium and boatman as occupation are mostly existing for touristic purpose

Belief/philosophical concept

Suzhou, the same as other Chinese cities, has no major or official religion. However, among the folks, some beliefs were established by usage during the historical process. These rules were progressively integrated into the local culture and became part of it. Especially when mentioning tradition related topics including traditional landscape, these folkloric factors always came on the carpet. With regard to traditional landscape, there are certain guides concerning every aspect such as geography interpretation and vegetation design. The interview with residents also revealed the important role of such philosophy on traditional landscape. A resident declaimed that

“…people should not only focus on the appearances of the landscape here, but rather they should dig deeper by asking why the landscape looks like this. There is rich knowledge behind. This knowledge is so important that, in my opinion, if the knowledge is well preserved, the traditional landscape would never disappear…” 67

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Afterwards, the resident added that

“…anyone who makes preservation or reconstruction policy must understand the cultural meaning behind every part of the landscape. Otherwise, they will destroy the significant ones and have trash at the end…”

The depiction stressed an ignored fact that the cultural interpretation behind the traditional landscape was just as essential as its physical appearance. One of the cultural essences, the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth) and four directions (east, south, west and north) concept, was often being applied during the area investigation of for example a garden. Although they were criticized as being superstitious, the concepts had been accepted and widely applied nationally as ‘the eastern cultural ecology’. For example, site selection was considered perpetually the most important section of certain landscape design. The foremost consideration was the harmony among ‘the three talents (heaven, earth and human being), for which the five elements and four directions concepts as philosophic framework joined in. The idea was keeping the balance among heaven, earth and human being by analysing the location, quality and quantity of five elements surrounded. So was how the location of Suzhou as well as the gardens inside the city had been selected.

By understanding the centre meaning of culture, the meaning of traditional landscape could be then deciphered deeper and better. As the resident mentioned

“…we inherited these treasures from our ancestors. We know why they are important to us. But we have to teach the children to understand as well, because it is finishing yet. Our children have to inherit something as well from us. The physical stuff might disappear already, but the culture has to be passed down…”

With or without consciousness, the resident delivered an important message that the physical appearance of traditional landscape was not timeless; instead, it was changing along with the societal development and knowledge advancement; however, the philosophy behind might last if well preserved. Chinese garden culture had been outdistanced the other, but it is fading away and withdrawing the world stage. Pretty much traditional cultural quintessence nowadays could only be experienced in certain sections of area, which were mainly under protections.

Another resident uttered the engraving on top of the doorframe for the local houses (picture 5- 18). The Chinese chose these to place expectations on fame, health, wealth, peace or other positive aspects for life. The engravings could be animals or plants or flowers or even mythical figures, which could reflect the expectations and background of the owners. The only way to understand the design and then to preserve them properly was to acknowledge the philosophy and culture behind.

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Picture 5- 18 An entrance of a traditional house, with engraved Chinese characters as well as the decorated pattern both of which own special meanings (Left: the whole exterior appearance of the entrance; Right: illustrated with details)

Another great aspect of Chinese philosophy is geography interpretation, namely Fengshui theory. A geographic interpretation of either large or small scaled landscape (such as a new city, a garden, a private villa) kept to the Chinese rule of ‘Si Ling (four mythical animals) model’. According to the historical literatures, all the classical gardens in Suzhou were constructed grounding upon this model. The four mythical animals represented not only the respective characteristics of the animals, but rather the deeper meanings of various landscape elements in different directions behind these characteristics. To be in detail, the four mythical animals and the corresponding landscape elements were: rose finch-south-pond, tortoise-north-mountain, blue dragon-west-river and white tiger-east-road, respectively (figure 5-8). The optimal location for the house (garden, village) was in the centre of the surroundings.

The constructions of independent gardens or yards in Suzhou were following this model to maximally realise the concept, for it was believed to bring fortunes for people who lived in. Besides the folkloric belief, the current environmental scientists actually found out that the living condition based on this model was to a great extent agreeable. It was like a synthesis of all liveable factors that created pleasant living conditions in light of interactions between human and nature or ecology.

At the end, the resident stressed:

“…every single facet of the traditional landscape was carefully placed and contains great meaning. We should not change, let alone destroy them. They brought lucks…”

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Mountain (tortoise)

River (blue dragon)

Pond (rose finch) Road N (white tiger)

Figure 5- 8 Sketchy diagram illustrating the Si Ling model, which was widely applied for site selection in Suzhou either for classical garden or for private housing. The house in the centre represented the optimal position for the building object

Art

Traditional landscape had been a great inspiration of arts in national history, mainly in forms of fine art, opera, literature, sculpture, music and calligraphy. Vice versa, art brought also great impacts on landscape. There were already cases in China that a certain spot, which had been destroyed before, had been rebuilt and restored to the original state according to the descriptions from paintings or literatures. The interaction between landscape and art created vivid experience and treasures in human history and should be noticed and encouraged. This fact was not only being found through literature review, also 2 interviewed residents expressed the opinions concerning the significance of art in traditional landscape by saying:

“…there will be no traditional landscape if without art…”

There were two meanings inside: firstly, the traditional landscape itself was a result of combination of various art forms; secondly, traditional landscape and art inspired each other and had mutual effects.

Traditional landscape and ancient Chinese novel

Landscape and literature supplemented each other. Literator got afflatus from the landscape for their work, which might make the certain place famous thus the preservation activities launched. Actually in ancient Chinese novel, the description of landscape or landscape theory turned out to be the significant fragment of story structure. In masterwork ‘Dream of Red Mansions’, the abundant figures of landscape theory made it one of the most accepted nonesuch apotheosises 70

5 Case study for researchers conducting ancient gardening art. It also creatively conjoined the northern and southern styles of gardening in China into one called ‘Grand View Garden’ which ran through the whole stories and placed great influences on every character. The accomplished combination of two total different even inverse landscape types lighted the minds of readers then to landscape researchers. The ‘Grand View Garden’ had been even built up several times according to the descriptions in the book nationwide and captured great attentions. A resident mentioned ‘Dream of Red Mansions’ as the greatest example because the book and the landscape were so famous in China that he was almost certain that “everyone knows it and is definitely willing to protect the garden”.

The other brilliant example goes to autobiography and memoir ‘Six Chapters of a Floating Life’, written by Fu Shen in around 1808AD, in which he presented spanking new ideas for gardening and landscaping such as the principles of using hiding and showing the master features to make the view even more interesting and attractive, of making more tortuous lanes to inspire the curiosity. He lived an unusual life at that time with relative poor substantial but rich spiritual life, which offered him opportunity to comprehend lives from non-upper class people and to think beyond the boundary of feudal society. The portrayal of gardening in his book is evocative of bygone periods as well as encouragement of art in workaday. He brought the gardening art to ordinary life from the upper-class.

Traditional landscape and recordation

There had been an unwritten constitution of Chinese garden design tradition that a recordation must be written along with when a garden had been built up. The owner of the garden normally released a garden introduction or garden journal either produced by themselves or written by entrusted refined scholars. China had suffered in war for over 100 years in modern history, during which a big amount of ancient architectures had been demolished Thanks to the survival garden recordation, the later generations could still analyse the structure, story, planting, materials so as other essential landscape contents of a certain garden. These kinds of garden recordation turned out also to be the excellent representation for Chinese traditional literatures (picture 5-19).

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Picture 5- 19 A recordation in the form of stone inscription existing in the garden, presenting the background story, design philosophy or other related information. (Left): a famous poem about a love story happened between the occupants of this certain garden, inscribed on the wall or stone stele; (Right): nowadays they are protected by the framed glasses. Not only the contents of the recordation of significance, but also the different styles of Chinese calligraphy.

Traditional landscape and ancient opera

The combination of garden and theatre stage was pursuing by abundant garden masters, for appreciating opera along with viewing the pleasant landscape, potation and poetizing was believed to be the most beauty in man’s world at that time. One resident spoke about opera as part of traditional landscape by repeating the old Suzhou saying that ‘when the melody of the opera being in concordance with the landscape elements, the enjoyment satisfactoriness from both opera and garden would reach much higher level’ (picture 5-20).

Picture 5- 20 Kun Opera as the local and traditional opera in Suzhou is considered as cultural essence and is always performed in traditional gardens/architecture/landscape to create the atmosphere (unknown source)

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Landscape and ancient Chinese painting

In China, landscape painting, or more accurately mountain and water painting, emerged around Tang Dynasty (618-907AD). From then on, landscape as an ever–lasting subject in Chinese art development history inspired numerous painters to create the masterpieces. Also, the designers were at the same time painters and they mixed the painting theory with gardening together. In traditional Chinese landscape paintings there was a trick named ‘drawing-blank’ (Picture 5-21), a technique that purposely left relative more blank in one painting, through which the appreciators were believed to gain more imaginations and pleasant. Likewise, in traditional landscape design, the wall had been painted white as backdrop to set off the ornamental plants, stones, architectures, animals or any combinations of them, so that the appreciation of landscape would have the same taste just like enjoying a painting. The other good example for the interosculation between painting and landscape lied upon the so called ‘enframed scenery’ in Chinese. The doors or windows had been made in particular positions or shapes to capture the certain scenery of the landscape creating a sense of painting (picture 5-22). There were other garden design theories to mimic the painting strategies; together they made Chinese traditional gardens more attractive and matchless.

Picture 5- 21 (Left): Drawing blank in Chinese traditional painting8; (Right): Designed blank in Classical garden as the background to set off the landscape elements in the foreground

8http://www.nuolinguoji.com/%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E5%9C%A8%E6%95%99%E8%82%B2%E4%B8%AD%E7%95%99%E7%99 %BD/. Accessed: 01.10.2016 73

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Picture 5- 22 Enframed scenery in Chinese classical garden with window (left) and with door (right) to create a sense of painting

Handcraft

Handcraft of Suzhou has been listed in Nonmaterial Heritage of the province (Jiangsu province), among them especially Suzhou embroidery is famous nationally due to its exquisite craftsmanship and ingenuity.

“…in my opinion, the culture of Suzhou, for example, the Suzhou dialect or the diverse traditional handcrafts here, should be more attractive than houses…”

Indeed, the traditional handcraft products as well as the process of making them could always be found in the old town, which actually gave the air of ‘Suzhou’ atmosphere (picture 5-23). The fine workmanship resulted from the multiple interactions among natural, cultural and social factors, thus was considered as an important part of traditional landscape.

Picture 5- 23 Handmade shoes are welcomed especially by parents for their children, for the master quality and the cultural meaning stuck inside (representing longevity, healthiness, wealth and so on) (unknown source)

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Unfortunately, unlike the material heritage, nonmaterial heritages were mostly neglected or overlooked.

“…if you ask me, I would say that the primary school in Suzhou should set up some kind of Wu Culture courses. It is essential to make the mother town’s culture taking root in children’s minds, so that the thousands years of cultures here could be continued…”

Chinese interpretation of landscape

In Chinese traditional landscape, the selection and arrangement of landscape elements are not only based on the function and aesthetic, but on certain principles derived deeply from Chinese culture that could not be found on any other cultures. It is actually so significant that without the knowledge of these principles, the rebuilt or preservation could not be realised. As one resident said

“…without protecting the culture inserted inside the landscape, only forgery will come out of the reconstruction…”

One of these nonmaterial knowledges was the Chinese design concept, in other words, the Chinese way of interpreting landscape and landscape elements.

“…the new architectures on Gangjiang Road (author: one of the main roads in old town) do not own any aspects of Suzhou old town style or landscape element. They are disaster in terms of landscape reconstruction… Just take a look at them, the details are missing and not at all in place…”

The interviewee could tell the lack of ‘Suzhou style’ of the new constructions, although what exactly determined the absence of the style stayed unknown for him. There were some explanations based on the literature study and observation on-site, which were divided to: building, vegetation, water and air.

Building or architecture might be the most obvious landscape element to be noticed firstly. The direction of city plan and management of Suzhou was set to match the traditional water-town identity and rich cultural folkways. The concept was adapted to the new construction as well. However, as the resident spoke above, the style or tune was just missing on the new architectures (picture 5-24; 5-25). Based on the on-site observation, the new architectures applied the colour concept just as the traditional way. Actually, the Jiangnan styled architecture was much more than just white-black tone. It developed pretty advanced and was reflected in various architectures such as vernacular dwelling, garden building, store building, religious building (temple, monastery, nunnery and so on), city wall, city gate, bridge, street, memorial arch, pagoda and eave. Although there were similarities among all these architectural types for a certain region/style, in this case the tone, each of them was individually characteristic that required thorough investigation before construction work starting. 75

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Picture 5- 24 Two architectures of historical and modern in the same style with similar tone. (Left): original traditional dwelling with more detailed features which are determinedly essential for the style; (Right): new dwellings applying Jiangnan-style tone to match the city character.

Vegetation delivered physical functions like providing incense and medicine, adjusting microclimate, food resource, ornamental and aesthetic intermedium. In Chinese culture though, they functioned in a way that far beyond their natural attributions, which had been analysed in chapter 5.1.2. They could make total different landscapes by appearing in different shapes (picture 5-25). Also, vegetation reflected an important philosophical conception in Ying-Yang theory that ‘curve creates luck, whilst straightness creates misfortune’. This concept was well accepted since long time ago nationally and ‘curve’ became an exceptional characteristic of Chinese traditional landscape design. From which, the derivation for ornamental plant planning concept was generated, that was ‘curve and indirectness’ (picture 5-26).

Picture 5- 25 Comparison of traditional and modern garden design (Left): classical garden; (Right): neo Chinese garden. (Source: Zhiwuqianyan, 2015). Both applied same tone (black and white) and same landscape elements (architecture, water, vegetation and stone) for the keynote of the garden. However, the details about the shape of water body, the style of architecture, the arrangement and processing of plants and stones together created tow totally different types of gardens.

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Picture 5- 26 (Left): ornamental plants design in Chinese classical garden. The meticulously arranged plants together invented a closed and indirect view, because preventing the vision reaching the main parts directly generated more interests and fun. (Right): neo Chinese garden design (Source: Zhiwuqianyan, 2015). Much fewer plants were used to provide a direct and straight vision to the main architecture without blocking any sight.

The word ‘Fengshui’ literally means ‘wind and water’, which mirrors the indispensability of water and elements related to air in Chinese landscape. In practice, air (or Qi in Chinese) was normally used to speak for wind. Except water and air, the application of stone was another manifest differentiation between Chinese and other types of landscape. There was even a saying in Chinese meaning ‘without rockery there would be no garden’. Similar to the decipherment of the water and air, the art, style, selection, colour or shape of rockery contained profound meanings beyond its physical characters.

‘…whenever I visited the classical gardens, I felt carefree and joyous, like I was far away from the troubles in life. Our ancestors designed these treasures by balancing the heaven, human and earth…’

The interviewee mentioned the harmony between human and nature (heaven and earth), which was also the core of Chinese landscape concept. Heaven and earth were manifested in air and other natural elements. Unlike water and rockery, which could deliver the cultural meanings via their appearance, the air (Qi) is invisible. By talking about Qi, there were always two aspects: Qi inside the human body and Qi of surroundings outside the human body. To make sure the human body as well as the surroundings functioning properly, not only should the both Qi flow fluently independently, but also the exchange and communication between the two Qi should be smooth. There were in general several ways to guide the preferred flowing of Qi in a certain landscape through composing various landscape elements. Firstly, Chinese traditional landscape design was using bigger constructions such as house or very often veranda for blocking view line to create the visiting routines. Alongside the designed routine, physical factors such as sunlight, flowery odour, and sound and so on were optimized for human well-being to ensure the positive flowing of Qi by employing various landscape elements (picture 5-27). Secondly, there were always great numbers of pavilions for example scattered in the traditional landscape. It was

5 Case study originally designed for taking breaks, because the surroundings of these pavilions were also meticulously arranged so that human could get enjoyment, especially in terms of Qi exchange (picture 5-28). Thirdly, water was often used to adjust the atmosphere to make sure the existence of positive Qi.

Picture 5- 27 A typical front door design for the main Picture 5- 28 Half opened corridor along the water in architecture of traditional garden, which was believed to order to fully provide the designed view and flowing create a wanted path for energy and air as well as for routine human being

Historic value

2 interviewees referred to the urban area they were living every day. The old urban town was valuable according to their opinions in context of culture and history. The current old town area was chosen and built up in Spring and Autumn Period (722BC-481BC) by Zixu Wu. Accompanying with the site inquiry, Zixu Wu designed the city structure for shape of a rectangle with land and water transportation in parallel inside. This pioneered the so called ‘3-3-1’ city structure (3 vertical lines, 3 horizontal lines and 1 loop) in Chinese water town plan (figure 5-9) and became later the classical paradigmatic. Such design was not only convenient for daily transportation by water but more important for quick draining. The main structure was well preserved during the last 2500 years even under gigantic stresses like heavy floods. There were also more other relative small canals than 3 horizontal and 3 vertical ones in-between, all of which were undertaking the roles of daily use.

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Moat

Canal Picture 5-29

Road

Picture 5-30 Household

Figure 5- 9 Sketch of Suzhou city structure designed by Zixu Wu

Picture 5- 29 The imagine of city moat Picture 5- 30 House-river-road-house pattern of double chessboard structure of Suzhou old town

5.1.7 Landscape change

Observed landscape changes

From the perspective of observer, the land use pattern did not alter so dramatically in light of statistic that the numbers turned out really to be even. The traditional landscape elements though kept changing in different speed and scale due to human-made reasons. Still, the landscape maintained its salient features to be considered ‘traditional’. In some cases, even though the landscape components keep changing in a long period, the landscape just maintains the styles and characters as ‘traditional landscape’ as a holism. In the other cases, the structure changes to a certain degree that the traditional landscape starts to lose its characters and eventually replaces by 79

5 Case study a new landscape. There is no clear transition bound though to absolutely determine the types of landscape, which makes it more difficult to study the landscape change.

The landscape changes could be described in two aspects: observed physical landscape and perception of landscape (intangible part of landscape) (figure 5-10).

Landscape change

Observed physical landscape Perception of landscape

Structure/appearance Function Local resident

Figure 5- 10 Illustration of observed landscape change

The site observations were paid as in chapter 4 described and the time-span was almost 10 years.. Firstly, water body was rated the most significant and traditionally representative by the residents. The field observation did not provide any obvious evidences concerning water quantity decreasing. What was observed concerning water was that during the summer, the smell from canal water got worse during the visit in 2012 comparing with the one in 2005, which clearly indicated the quality decline of water. The most notable alternation was transportation system. The major trunk roads were wider and longer and after 2012, even the subway was available in the old town. Classical gardens were under strictly protection to prevent any great damages. Though, there were more and more sessions in the gardens that were not available anymore for visiting due to critical conditions.

The whole old town is considered as traditional urban landscape, however, in some spots, the traditional landscape elements had been altered so much that the modern urban landscape starts taking over. The new landscape offers different living circumstances, or even more convenient as many urban planners declaimed.

Driving forces of landscape change

The driving force of landscape change is essential to understand in light of avoiding any negative aspects (figure 5-11).

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Technology

 Techniques  Education skills  Cooperation  Management Policy Natural environment  Transportation  Regional level  Geomorphology  National level  Soil  International level  Climate  Hydrology

Change of Socioeconomic traditional urban environment Culture landscape  At local level

 Tradition  At regional level  Ideology  At national level  Folk belief  At international level

Figure 5- 11 Analytical framework of driving forces of landscape change (adapted from Brandt et al, 1999)

For traditional urban landscape, the development of technique enables the residents to modify the living circumstances or the tourists approaching from far distance. The educational level poses also great influences through the understanding of tradition and history, which would determine the behaviours of people towards landscape to some extent. The cooperation between international and national institutions, between reginal organizations, between local communities and so on supports the opportunity to partake in the project for experience or information sharing. Thus, the management skill could be improved. Transportation has been addressed quite often in traditional landscape research, for it is one of the bases human related requirements. All these factors could put clearly recognizable alternations on landscape.

Understanding the driving forces in this certain case from Suzhou offers an opportunity to analyse the past and current situation thus the future prospect might be promising. It is true that the driving forces for landscape changes could be summarized and applied in all types of landscapes around the world. But still, a ratio that certain driving force takes in a particular landscape varies. The analysis thus needs to be carried out carefully with various emphases in light of the distinctiveness of each case.

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Based on the fieldwork, most of the interviewed residents accounted strongly with the government/authority/decision makers as the driving force of the traditional landscape changes (figure 5-12). 7 contributed the migration issue to the landscape change. There were 6 residents emphasized the importance of economic and tourism on shaping the landscape.

Government/authority 16

Migration 7

No idea 6

Opness to international world 5

Education/civilization 5

Economic development 4

For the sake of tourism devleopment 2

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 12 Main driving force of the traditional landscape change according to the residents. N=45, representing 100%

Table 5- 6 The majority responses aiming towards government or decision maker as single driving force for the landscape

(…)Of course the government. What else could be?

(…)Those who are in high positions are in control.

(…)I have no idea. The politicians? I just saw a poster or notice, declaring where will be under reconstruction. Then from that date, the reconstruction work began.

(…)Experts. I mean, at least as experts you know how to deal with the city. Probably it is also a group work.

(…)The government makes new development policy, and then here comes after that policy.

Despite the significance of political aspect, literature study suggests that it is rather complicated and mixed forces wheeled urban landscape dynamics of Suzhou. Based on this concept, the driving forces of traditional landscape in Suzhou are illustrated (figure 5-13). Except the political factor which the locals put as priority for Suzhou landscape change, the economic and demographic factors are also two important driving forces.

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Traditional urban landscape dynamic and change

Urban Improvemen Urban Electric Water-supply Infrastructure Public Conservation of Proximate development t for transportatio network and drain system development plan transportation historical for modern appearance n system construction improvement for prospering improvement heritages in urban

construction of the urban improvement and tourism industry area drivers

landscape modernization

Demographic Economic Technological Political/Institutiona Cultural Natural/Spatia l l  Increased number of  The change of ratios of  Modern technology  Shifting immigrants industrial types for local GDP. of construction,  Advanced urban baseline from  Climate  Increased population in  Enormous economic transportation and development generation to change total contribution of tourism industry facility internationally generation  Water body

 Population distribution,  Low domestic incomes  Advanced modern  International  Improvement change Underlying age, structure and so on depending on agricultural technology on conservation policy of educational  Improved reginal products communication,  National policy level

education level  High cost for heritage such as internet development policy  Improvement drivers

 Increased communication conservation construction  National of average

and connections with  The demands of new industry  Modern conservation policy living outside world  Real estate market management condition  Increased number of high  Advanced development of strategy  Folk’s belief educated immigrants areas nearby and attitude

Figure 5- 13 The characteristics of driving forces of traditional landscape element changes in Suzhou old town

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Economic driving force

Suzhou has been always the cultural centre of Southern Yangtze Delta, which is also one of the reasons why the traditional landscape had been preserved well comparing with other areas. The economic boost happened only since recently. In accordance to literature study, the following aspects are those that impact traditional landscape dramatically.

1. Role conversion of first, second and third industry in Suzhou

Suzhou was agricultural-oriented city due to its endowed natural condition. For long time, the first industry, characterized of agricultural products and fisheries industry, was leading local economy, during which period the traditional landscape was built up and serving as daily support. Along with the growing up of secondary and especially third industry, the urban structure and landscape has been altered dramatically to meet up the economic development.

Year 1978, 1990 and 2010 mark the social-economic milestones of Suzhou, that began in 1978 the reform and opening up revolution, in 1990 the new era of rapid development and 2010 the modern development phase, respectively. First industry (also known as primary industry) in local economic contribution dropped down from over 25% till only 2% in 20 years, the proportion of secondary industry doubled and the third industry (also known as tertiary industry) raised 10%. While the reasons for this phenomenon are not the subjective of this research, it did bring traditional landscape degradation of Suzhou through changing land use and land pattern. The interview reviews the same consequence that residents talked about their former livelihood as farmers on water field or fisher, now they have new occupations due to lack of land.

2. Economic contribution of tourism industry

Before the industrial restructure, tourism had been the cornerstone industry for the local and still took 6% of local GDP in year 2010 (Yu et al., 2012). As ‘green industry’ as the local government propagandized, tourism had gained vast investigations from companies and governments and physical and psychological supports from the local.

The city card of Suzhou is illustrated as ‘small bridge over the flowing stream, white walls and dark grey roof’ and is supposed to be the main attraction for tourists. However though, they are also the traditional elements that desperately needed to be protected with limited approachability. In face of the fact that tourism brings working opportunity, income incensement and other benefits, the local authorities as well most local population chose to compromise to economic interest over landscape. One interviewed resident described:

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“…beforetime, the hotel or hostel business was not yet prosperous as today, especially those with local characteristics, so called vernacular dwelling. I had been asked several times by the tourists if they could spend nights in my place, of course with proper payment. That was the moment I thought, it seemed like a good chance for me and my family earning some extra money…I repaired my house for opening up a small ‘family hotel’…Repair means that I had to tear down the sagging walls and roof (which were all historic)… I had to destroy the old floor as well to modernize using modern materials…”

The description gave a vivid example about how the local reacted when facing financial incentive, even when their actions would damage the source that strongly interlinked with that incentive. In the wake of the tourism development, this kind of folk house was slowing losing their identity and original meaning and existed only for economic incentives. On one hand, those houses deep down the traditional alley with historical appearance turned out to be more attractive to visitors; on the other hand, it was this group of houses needing intense preservation or total reconstruction in order to service as family hotel. At the very beginning, such business was legally supported by the local authority for encouraging domestic incomes. However, after several accidents (fire, robbery) in such family residences, according to the interviewees, the restrict ordinances were on the table.

Besides the individual activities above, decision-makers conducted other large-scaled actions causing traditional landscape dynamics, especially the infrastructure projects for meeting up the needs tourists in great number. Not only the public transportation aspect should be worked on, more importantly, the service-type business as complement is also essential for tourism development, such as restaurant, souvenir shop, tee house and so on. Due to very limited land source in old town area, new construction could only be possible by replacing the old buildings or architectures. This process was continuing throughout 1980s and changed traditional landscape in a great deal.

3. High cost for heritage conservation

Heritage conservation requires cooperation among different parties and long-term running process as well. Due to this reason, to make sure the conservation activity going well, the monetary, labour, time and other immaterial cost would be at a great expense. Before, even though there were scholars realised and proposed to start the conservation activity in China, partly due to the considerable expense, real actions had not been undertaken. One interviewee also expressed the fact that in comparison with building up modern architecture on top of aged building, repairing the historic ones turns out to be more expensive and requiring higher technical content. One of the main concepts for historical heritage preservation in China is ‘rehabbing as what they had been’. To fulfil this concept, 85

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not only the high technical content is required, but also great knowledge of material, history, culture and son on. Besides, it is also very time-consuming. The number is still unknown, but it is estimated that there were quite a lot of heritages private owned had been simply replaced by modern architectures.

4. The demands of new industry

Suzhou is surrounded by Shanghai, Hangzhou and other most developed cities in national wide, which on one hand offers opportunity for the development of the city, on the other hand, poses a huge pressure of keeping up with the steps of others. Suzhou was at first an agricultural economy society, then tourism as well as township enterprises as leading economy after one economic transition before the 1990s. The economy of Yangtz Delta began to boost after 1980, and the cities there needed industry transition desperately. Due to this social-economic background, Suzhou was looking for opportunity and possibility to encourage economic development and then decided to expand industry. Suzhou Industrial Park (or Innovation Park) thus was built up in 1994 with the support of Singapore experience.

Demographic driving force

Demographic aspect is a significant part for studying urban landscape and other social science. The number, structure, educational level, occupation and social connect of a certain demographic background could dramatically distinguish one culture from another. The alternation of demographic aspect had changed the traditional landscape of Suzhou as well.

In Suzhou, residents could be divided into two different groups based on their origins: local inhabitants and transient populations. Actually, transient population turned out to be a rather thorny issue for Suzhou in matter of the fact that Suzhou has become the second biggest immigrant city of China in 2012. This claim was based on the statistic that the proportion of migrations is over 50% of all population. According to the investigation, 95% of all migrations are between the age of 19 to 55 years old, which does bring mitigation for manpower shortage. On the other hand, the investigation also revealed the fact that the average educational level of migration is noticeably lower than local inhabitants, which could be a big societal problem. Since the quantity of migrations is rather large, they are not considered in this study due to financial and workload limitations.

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A survey has been launched in 2000 in Suzhou aiming to find out the attitudes of random selected residents towards preservation of historical heritage9 and thus the derived activities from these attitudes.

Increased number of immigrants and increased population in total

The number of population in Suzhou has increased almost fourfold in barely a half century which resulted from the industry transition, economic development, traditional agricultural land loss and so on. Period between 1982 and 2010 was the population explosion duration, as can be told by figure 5-4, especially from 1990 to 2010, which was also the period for opening up attracting outside investment and industry transition. The fact is, based on the statistic investigation, that even though the number of population is giant, most of the populations are immigrants. For example, in 2010 the demographic census had concluded of 11.77 million populations (statistic year book, 2010) living in Suzhou, among which only half of them (6.38 million) owned Suzhou Hukou. In accordance of Hukou system, it means that the other half were basically immigrants from outside Suzhou (figure 5-14). The great portion of external population solved the labour shortage problem during industry transition and development, and at the same time brought the pressure for the city. The residents expressed the impression of good number of immigrants that impacted the traditional landscape, but in negative manner (table 5-7).

(Million)

14.00

12.00

10.00 Total number of population 8.00 Total number of 6.00 household

4.00

2.00

0.00 1953 1964 1982 1990 2000 2010 (Year)

Figure 5- 14 Dynamics of population in Suzhou from 1953 to 2010 (Population census of Suzhou city, Jiangsu, 2010)

9 Thanks to the Hukou system in China, only the residents who has Suzhou Hukou (registered residence, also indicate that the residents originated in Suzhou) could be selected by the applying system. The transient population are ruled out. 87

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Table 5- 7 Migrations as the driving force of the traditional landscape

(…)They are peasant-workers with no knowledge and respect towards the landscape and culture…

(…)There came too many outsiders into the city, like flood. And there were not enough houses and places for them yet, which caused the conflicts. The rents went high as well as living cost. The government has to deal with them and solve their problems on the price of reconstruction of the city…

(…)I think Suzhou offers great opportunity for young generation. And the graduate just wanted to stay here for a promising future. The problem is, they have no emotional connections with the city. And what they are doing to the city is just based on their modern perspectives towards an urban landscape. I think it is no good for the traditional landscape at all…

(…)Most of the street venders have been run by immigrations. They came here for making more money. The venders took too many spaces away of the streets away and are not fitting the townscape appearance at all. Besides, their watered water were just pouring in the canal… well, I strongly recommend the sending back of immigrations…

(…)The city was originally planned for small numbers of residents. So, you can see all the traditional gardens, houses, streets and basic infrastructures were built up for serving small groups of people. It worked well for years because the natural growth of population would not cause any damages. But since the immigrants poured in, the unbalance emerged between people and landscape, because it is not natural growth and violates the natural rules…

Improved regional education level

During a decade from 1990 to 2000 in Suzhou, the illiteracy rate in Suzhou has been reduced from 21.4% to 5.3% (figure 5-15). This success mainly resulted from the nine year compulsory education policy launched in China since 1986, based on which all the school-aged children should attend the school for free. This policy dramatically encouraged the improvement of residential education levels. Besides, it also widened the opportunities for further and higher educations. Learned from the residents, they considered the improvement of whole local educational level is critical concerning traditional landscape (table 5-8).

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(%) 40

30 Uneducated

25 Primary School Secondary School 20 High School 15 University 10

0 1990 2000 (Year)

Figure 5- 15 The education level of Suzhou residents aged above 6 year-old (Tabulation on the 2000 Population Census of Suzhou City, Jiangsu)

5 residents stated that the improvement of education levels or progressive civilization in general worked on the traditional landscape because the demands of people changed. The improvement of education levels had gained very positive feedbacks from residents, especially for the younger generations who did not own deep emotional connections with the landscapes; education just offered them another perspective to re-examine.

Table 5- 8 The impacts of education on traditional landscape

(…)Nowadays almost everyone can go to school and learn knowledge. Not like us. They learn a lot in school and know the importance of our culture and tradition.

(…)Everyone is talking about protection, but what should we protect? The young generations have no connections with the traditions and old things. Only after they receive education, they could understand the meanings in it. Education could change the status of traditional landscape completely, and it is the only way.

(…)I would say that education changes the way people recognize their surroundings. For example, after knowing the story behind, a house would not be a simply house anymore, rather something more significant and important in an invisible manner.

(…)The younger generations have greater opportunities than us to get better education. ‘Education saves the nation’, which I believe deeply.

Increased communication and connections with outside world

Till the end of 2010, there had been over 20,000 international companies set down in Suzhou or even established headquarters there. It was not only the financial benefits encouraged by the

5 Case study international companies, but the foreigners coming and working in the city that brought new chances and broaden the visions. Their contributions for connecting Suzhou and other cultures outside China were enormous. Even though there have been yet not open studies exclusively investigating the roles of these corporations as well as the foreigner staff on traditional landscape preservation, resident interview did find evidences. The most obvious and probably also essential one was the reformed communication between Suzhou and international cities. A brilliant example was the Partnership Town program first launched in 1980. Till then end of 2010, Suzhou had established partnership with 43 international cities or towns (5 cities from 1980 to 1989 and 38 cities from 1990 to 2010, respectively). This program advanced the city and its people in different aspects including traditional township management. For example, the first Partnership Town of Suzhou is Venice, Italy and the partnership was established in 1980. It is widely known that Suzhou was titled with ‘Venice of the East’. At the beginning of the development after long time national depression and civil crisis, Suzhou was lack of experience for proper traditional landscape management, or actually the whole nation was just on its initial starting. Multiple activities between the partnership towns included, but not confined, exchanging information and experience by means of international symposium or conference, paying visit to gain first data about specific theme, qualified experts for focused problems and student exchange.

The interviewed residents also proposed that communication with other more advanced cities could do some good for Suzhou itself (table 5- 9), especially in terms of experience on heritage conservation and financial advantageous. At the same time though, some also worried that the western experience would not fit the Chinese situation.

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Table 5- 9 The impacts of connections and communications with the foreign on traditional landscape

(…)I am seeing so many foreigners every day. Tourists, business man, or probably citizen here because they could even speak Chinese. I think their appearances pose pressure for our government to make things better. Yes, the government does not want to look bad and lose face in front of the foreigners. That is why the old broken buildings have to be repaired.

(…)There are reasons why western countries are rich and advanced. We have to learn from them. We did not have chance before, but now, the door of the nation is open. Take a look at of Venice for example, why does it become the world famous tourism site? I mean, Suzhou is not worse than Venice at all. Everyone on the earth knows Venice, but how many foreigners know about Suzhou? I doubt it. They must do something right and have more advanced know-how to conquer the technic problems…It is an efficient way to learn from them.

(…)Our nation is still busying on resolving problems of food and clothing. I think the cooperation with foreigners could aid us at least in financial manner. International cooperation always gets bigger funding, isn’t it?

(…)There are so many foreigners here and I am worried about that. We have our own culture and style, and that is also why the foreigners like coming here. But if we try to cater their tastes and needs, I am afraid that one day we will lose ourselves. You noticed the boat there? Well, for meeting the needs of foreigners, people renovated the structure of it. It is not like our original boat anymore, but foreigners like that way. Well, it is my point.

5.2 From outsiders’ perspective

The distinction of insider from outsider was, according to Cosgrove (1984), that ‘there is no clear separation of self from scene, subject from object’. Cosgrove explained it as following:

“…the experience of the insider, the landscape as subject, and the collective life within it are all implicitly denied. Subjectivity is rendered the property of the artist and the reviewer – those who control the landscape – not those who belong to it…”

In this context, the definition of outsiders from Solymosi (2011) was adopted: everyone with no permanent residence in the research area is seen as an outsider. Obviously, a large group of people fit this definition: short-term labour workers, university students, businessman and so on. The tourists, who also belong to the group, will be seen as outsiders of the study area who spend limited time in Suzhou due to the significant role of tourism and tourists were playing last years in shaping Suzhou’s traditional landscape. In fact, tourism impacts a destination through tourists.

Suzhou is well known and appreciated for its Chinese classical garden as well as Jiangnan (Southern Yangtze River) Water Town landscape, particularly after UNESCO named the Classical Garden of Suzhou to its World Heritage Site list. Tourism as a new industry in Suzhou began to emerge and boost after the Reform and Opening-up Policy of China. Due to the easy connections of Shanghai metropolitan area, Suzhou is accessible from almost all the big cities of China, either by train or by highway. The modern tourism in Suzhou started in early 1980s, 91

5 Case study shortly after the entering of industrialization stage for the city. Following up was the proposal of ‘building Suzhou into one of the leading tourism cities in China’ in the middle of 1980s. Indeed during the coming years, Suzhou’s tourism industry was on the top prosperous status of the nation. The main infrastructures or tourism attractions in Suzhou are listed below (table 5-10).

Table 5- 10 Tourism attractions in Suzhou (adapted from Xu, 1999)

Appellation History Description

City of Gardens The classical gardens were mainly built in Song Classical gardens of Suzhou hold an (960-1279), Yuan (1279-1368), Ming (1368-1644) extraordinary architectural art and landscape and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties and most of gardening and are characterized by small but them were destroyed by the late 1970s due to the fine garden techniques. Furthermore, the political movements. Considerate efforts had Suzhou gardens demonstrated a variety of been made to restore the gardens for the sake of artistic and imaginative techniques drawing tourism development. upon from nature and Chinese ancient poetry.

The ancient The old town was founded in 514BC and is still It represented the prevailing socio-political townscape in well-preserved structure. The basic structure of structure as well as Chinese philosophy. The the water townscape is a so called ‘double-line typical scenery of Suzhou is known as ‘small chessboard’, which means that streets and alleys bridges, flowing waters and residential houses’. on close parallel with canals, with houses hanging at the shore.

Metropolis of arts Suzhou has a 3000-year history of sericulture, Local souvenir industry (silk products) is rather and crafts which made the city great reputation for delicate important in tourism industry. Not only are the designs and exquisite workmanship of silk fine and exquisite handcrafted productions products. Also, Suzhou is one of the leading silk attractive, but also the process of production bases nationally, contributing about manufacturing that frequently sought by one-sixth of the country’s silk exports in the tourists. In an effort to expand local exports 1980s. The local government started to sponsor and raise reputation, the local government even the Suzhou international silk festival in 1992. began to sponsor the Suzhou ‘International Silk Festival’ in 1992.

The development of tourism industry had changed not only the sightseeing destinations, the historical landscape in this case; but also the accessorial facilities, which related strongly to the urban development. To put it simple, the tourism did change and is still altering the traditional landscape, thus needs to be comprehended and managed carefully. As the essential and active part of tourism, tourists play significant role in light of the interaction with tourism destination. It is true that tourists’ need should be met for the sake of maximizing tourism revenue; however, their demands could also impact the destinations dramatically. Hence, the better understanding of their opinions is a must for the future.

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5.2.1 Tourism impact in Suzhou

Tourism is a goose that not only lays a golden egg, but also fouls its own nest.

- Hawkins (1982)

Along with the flourishing of tourism business, other issues occur. As long as the tourism of a certain area becomes an industry, the conflicts related are almost inescapable, among tourists and residents, among managers and residents, among tourists and community leaders, and so on and so forth. Suzhou is no exception. To thoroughly understand the conflicts, the interactions between tourism and the city has to be studied. Suzhou has been being a tourism- oriented city and the tourism industry accounts for over 39% of annual GDP (standard 2010). Of course, the significant impacts of tourism on the city are not only expressed through economic performance, but also in other forms, sometimes even in negative fashion. Yet most of people think of tourism in terms of economic impacts, jobs and taxes, the impacts of tourism are much broader and often concerning the aspects that far beyond those normally associated with tourism (Kreag, 2001).

It is no doubt that in all categories both negative and positive impacts exist. As well, in different cases the importance and proportions of these impacts also differ. To achieve a successful landscape management in traditional urban area, the decision maker must figure out the related impacts firstly and then enact the management strategies to make the most of positive impacts as well as to diminish the unwanted ones. Furthermore, not only in different cases the impacts vary, but also even in one case among the different stakeholders, their opinions towards impacts also differ. Some may intend to maximize the economic incomes via tourism and neglect any other impacts even when they cause damages. Some might only aim to improve the community circumstances which have been influenced by tourism despite of other positive impacts along with. Ideally, like Kreag (2011) exampled, groups with different interests could work separately with their very own focuses, thus each group could bring maximum benefits from tourism to community. However, in reality or in most cases, the complete isolation of individual group does not exist. The overlapping of interests, working procedures, related facilities or stakeholders is always appearing (figure 5-16). The only way to solve the potential conflicts among different groups is through a collaborative manner and finding the balance to meet the various needs as much as possible. Once the different groups have been identified and their demands have been recognized via interviews, the existed questions could be answered as well as the future management recommendations. Future recommendation raises another question of the role of planning, and then the active implementation of these plans. The workload is

5 Case study giant thus requires a big scaled project. In this subchapter though, the demands of tourists were analysed.

Social & Economic Environmental cultural impacts impacts impacts

Group A Group B Group C Ideal divergent interests

Social & Economic Group C Group A cultural impacts impacts

Environmental impacts

Group B

Overlapping interests in reality

Figure 5- 16 Interests in tourism impacts (Kreag, 2001)

Economic impact

According to UNEP, tourism industry generates economic benefits to both host destinations and home lands. Especially in developing countries, one of the primary motivations for a region to promote itself as a tourism destination is the expected economic improvement. However, just as coin has two sides, the impacts are not always preferred (table 5-11). A successful run tourism industry requires not only the attractive landscape but also accessorial facilities and infrastructures. Often in less developed areas, this requirement may cause negative even damaged effects economically.

In Suzhou, the main positive tourism impacts were relating to contributions to local government revenue, generation of employment and offering business opportunities. The government revenues from tourism could be gained via both direct (taxes on incomes from tourism employment and business) and indirect (taxes on goods and services evoked by tourism)

5 Case study duties levied. Tourism increased the employment opportunities enormously, for as tourism boosted, the hotel, restaurant, souvenir shop or taxi were all sources to offer great number of jobs. Not only the basic low wage jobs were available, the high-paying positions requiring managing, technic skills or expertises were also generated. For example, the preservation and maintenance of traditional landscape posted requests of high educated and trained experts to participate. Various institutions such as museum, research centre and administrative organization had been established to assist the long term running of the traditional landscape management.

Very often, tourism development disclosed the shortage of local infrastructure, such as water and sewage system, transportation, electricity and so on. The local government would be induced to make efforts to improve these facilities, from which the local residents could also benefit. Additionally, tourism also turned out to be an efficient media for promotion nationally or even worldwide, from which the business opportunities could be offered. Last but not least, tourism expenditures and the export and import of related goods and services generated incomes to the host economy and could stimulate the investment necessary for finance growth in other economic sectors (UNEP).

It is essential though to understand that tourism could also bring unwanted impacts on economy besides the attractive benefits. There are great deals of hidden-cost derived from tourism industry, which may put pressure on local economy including the generation or renovation of airport, roads, sewage system, water supply system and other infrastructures. In some tourism hotspots of Suzhou, the prices of basic service, foods, electronics and transportation were apparently higher as doubled as normal prices, whereas, the incomes of local residents were not increased proportionately. Another big issue was the real estate, of which the price was overwhelming for the locals.

Tourism held important part for regional economy development, however, over dependence on tourism could be devastating. Also, tourism did bring job opportunities, yet during off-season the rates of under-employment or unemployment were too high that causing other social issues.

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Table 5- 11 Economic impacts of tourism (Kreag, 2001; Mathieson, 1982 & UNEP)

Positive economic impacts Negative economic impacts

Contribution to Government revenue Leakage

Employment generation Enclave tourism

Stimulation of infrastructure investment Additional infrastructure cost (water, sewer, power, fuel, medical, etc.) Contribution to local economy Increase in prices (goods, service, land, housing, living, etc.) Contribution to standard of living Economic dependence of the local community on tourism Improvement of public utilities infrastructure Seasonal character of jobs (highly related to high-risk, Improvement of transportation under- or unemployment issues) Increasing opportunities for shopping Increase in potential for transient labour Creation of new business opportunity Increase in transportation maintenance and cost Foreign exchange earnings Competition for land with other use

Jobs may pay low wages

Social and cultural impact

Social and cultural impacts refer to changes to destination residents’ everyday experiences, as well as to their values, way of life and intellectual and artistic products (Glasson et al., 1995). Social and cultural impacts are strongly interrelated but not limited to the local population (table 5-12). It is true that tourism does also influent tourists to some extents, however, as UNEP depicted, for some reasons, host communities often are the weaker party in interactions with their guests. Thus, the impact on tourists would not be discussed in this context.

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Table 5- 12 Social and cultural impacts of tourism (Kreag, 2001; Mathieson, 1982; McGahey, 2015 & UNEP)

Positive social & cultural impacts Negative social & cultural impacts

As a force for peace Commodification

Strengthening communities Standardization

Facilities developed for tourism can benefit residents Demonstration effect

Revaluation of culture and traditions Loss of authenticity and staged authenticity

Keeping culture and traditions alive Adaption to tourists’ demands

Encouraging civic involvement and pride Loss of cultural identity, dignity and sense of belonging

Funding preservation of monuments and historic sites etc. Economic inequality

Preserving identity of host population Tourist behaviour

Promoting cultural exchange and diversity Job level friction

Greater tolerance of social differences Physical influences causing social stress

Raising awareness of poverty and human rights abuses Depriving local people of access

Satisfaction of psychological needs Encouraging urbanization and migration

Stimulation of capacity-building Ethical issues

Creation of synergies with others

The impacts occurred when tourism brought about changes in value system and social behaviour. To summarize, the impact was performed after all by the local, through their direct or indirect interactions with the tourists. In China, most of the tourism destinations were not willing to talk about social-cultural impacts especially the negative ones because the economic impacts were top priority for local industry; or even when the negative impacts already became problems for the local, they still ignored them by believing that these problems could not be solved due to their interferences with economic priority (McGahey, 2015).

Despite the positive influences tourism brought for travel destination, the dark social and cultural side of impacts were there as well. The most recognized and talked over negative impact in Suzhou was the change or loss of indigenous identity and value, resulted from commodification, standardization, demonstration effect and adaption to tourist demands. Take the Kun Opera for example, Kun Opera as the provincial Nonmaterial Heritage was often performed in the Classical Gardens or museum due to the matching atmosphere. The tune- pattern and libretto were so hard for the extraneous to understand and follow, let alone to appreciate. As the consequence, the host community had to either re-arrange the opera by

5 Case study combining popular musical elements or cancel the show. Yet the Kun Opera was favoured by the local, especially the elderly. This was a vivid case for loss of cultural identity. Unfortunately, researches and attentions on social-cultural impacts of tourism were limited in China.

Environmental impact

The quality of environment, both natural and artificial, is essential for tourism development. Still, the response of tourism on environment turns out to be complex or even unwanted. The environmental impacts of tourism perform mainly in four fields: natural resources (water, land, ecosystem et al.); flora and fauna; pollution and physical impacts, through three kinds of sources or activities: developing infrastructure, facilities and products; operating profitably by attracting and satisfying tourists; attitudes, behaviours and actions of tourists (table 5-13). In this case study, the subject is urban traditional landscape, thus the natural environment being less touched. The distinct natural environmental impact of tourism on Suzhou was the construction for accessibility promotion, which requires huge amount of land for either high way or rail way building.

Table 5- 13 Environmental impacts of tourism (Kreag, 2001; McGahey, 2015 & UNEP)

Positive environmental impacts Negative environmental impacts

Educating tourists Overuse of water resources

Educating locals Depletion of local resources (energy, food, raw materials)

Development of tourism’s environmental concepts Land degradation

Financial contributions to the conservation Air pollution and noise

Improving environmental management and planning Solid waste and littering

Raising environmental awareness Sewage

Contribution to environmental protection and conservation Aesthetic pollution

Providing an alternative to development scenarios Damage of ecosystem

Regulatory measures Loss of open space

Improving the areas’ appearance Destruction of flora and fauna

Smokeless industry Degradation of landscape, historic sites and monuments

Among those of all tourism attractions, landscape is one of the key-elements playing an important and recognized role in motivating the visit, influencing the quality of experience and providing psychological satisfaction (Marujo & Santos, 2012). Meanwhile, the transformation of tourism destination for the sake of tourists might dramatically alter the local landscape that 98

5 Case study should be maintained. This has been actually the main issue in Suzhou concerning landscape management and historical heritage preservation. As a tourism-oriented city, dealing with the interrelations between tourism and landscape is one of the top issues to be solved.

5.2.2 Appreciation of the traditional landscape

The interviews with visitors in Suzhou revealed a fact that a majority of the individual visitors, in comparing with group travellers, were rather younger generations. This supported the observation about organized group tourists that were tend to be middle aged or yet older. The range of effective responses of 76 visitors was between 19 to 58 years old, yet almost 70% (N=53) were at the age of 10 to 35 while 30% (N=23) of 36 to 58.

Concerning the appreciation of the landscape of Suzhou, the response was rather positive (figure 5-17). Over 85% of interviewees considered the landscape in Suzhou being archetypal matching its orientation as a traditional city owns water townscape. The 2 visitors repined against the full representation by uttering the crowding, loudness and the being treated unfriendly previously, which had actually little to do with the subject but definitely pared away the appreciation and the satisfaction for the landscape.

Very representitive 65

Representitive 5

Neutral 4

Somehow representitive 2

Not at all 0

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 17 Opinions towards the traditional landscape in Suzhou (To what extent do you think the landscape here concerning Chinese traditional urban landscape and water town scenery). N=76, representing 100%.

The results would be divided based on the five senses concept which was highly appreciated in Chinese culture when talking about tourism experience. Five sense: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing were classified by Aristotle (384BC – 322BC), and no doubt that they were basic essential admissions of human for any advanced feelings or emotions, including the next step of

5 Case study character ‘cultural association’. A certain landscape held elements or features that could trigger different human sense first, then following up with deeper awareness that acquiring the coordination of multiple sensory organs. By experiencing theses complicated process, the characters of landscape could be identified.

Sight

Sight is considered the most advanced sense of human and surely also the most direct impression from an object to human. The architectures, the vegetation, the town structure, the life styles, water-related scenery and other visible landscape features created together the distinctness of Suzhou traditional urban landscape. When being asked to select the features they thought mostly defied the traditional landscape in Suzhou, the 76 valid responses were demonstrated below (figure 5-18). The most rated features were plant, building, local people and local lifestyle. Plant, especially the Chinese styled ones like bamboo and Japanese banana (Musa basjoo). They were both endued with bright meanings in Chinese culture thus preferred in classical gardens. The white-black coloured building was also chosen by tourists as one of the essential element; particularly when with variegations which represented the footprints of time. They were more admired than those brand new even though with exactly same colour and style. The local and the related lifestyle were other characters that rated highly by tourists concerning traditional landscape (picture 5-31). The other favoured elements by tourists went to architectures such as bridge and pavilion, alley and traditional flowers.

Plant, especially bamboo, Jananese banana 74

Local building, especially those with variegations 70

The local 66

Livelihood style 62

Other architectures like bridge 55

Alley 43

Chinese traditional flower 41

Aquatic plant 40

Others 12

Urban Fauna 2

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 18 The landscape features that defining the traditional landscape. N=76, representing 100%. 100

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Picture 5- 31 It is the unwritten habit that in the morning taking a stroll with pet birds and a pot of tea to drink (left); or just taking exercise apparatus such as Chinese spear instead when strolling the birds (right) (unknown source).

Smell

There were abundant scientific evidences done to explore the status of other four organic senses, smell, taste, touch and hearing, in the context of the inner connection between landscape and human being. Among them, smell was proved to be the most potent sense in evoking memory (BOWRING, 2006); accordingly change of the smell for a landscape could stir a feeling of loss. The smell of a landscape came principally from vegetation, water and earth, from which the alteration derived the changes of smell follow. 11 out of 76 interviewed tourists mentioned the unique smell they experienced in Suzhou, which they considered as an important part of enjoyment of the traditional landscape.

“…here is the highest spot of the whole garden, that you can get the panoramic view. I was once here when the osmanthus bloomed, and I am telling you, that was really an experience! You can just close your eyes and quietly inhale the flavouring essence. It seemed like that I was in the past with the ancestors sitting here in this garden, toasting each other, enjoying inspired talk about past and present, getting rid of all the sorrows, painting, laughing. Even when I was not here but somewhere else, whenever I smelt the similar flavour, the experience here just came immediately back to me. I could never forget that feeling…”

The tourist described the special smell from Osmanthus fragrans, which is the city flower of Suzhou. During bloom, the scents provided the authentic and first-handed experience for visitors that deeply engraved on the memory. This description supported the statement that the smell might trigger more memories than visual impact. The management of plant in urban

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5 Case study landscape in Suzhou before was more aesthetic and culture oriented; very little attention was paid for the relationship among odour, human and landscape. Not only could the vegetation release the scents, but also did the widely used floor materials stein slates in Suzhou (picture 5- 30). Howbeit the re-construction of the city had changed the urban looks as well as the connections of people and city.

“…I remember so vividly about the valley where my grandparent’s house located. Particularly after raining, the smell from the mixture of water, slate, earth, grass and so on was so intense and pleasant that I could not find exact words to describe it. That smell reminded me of my childhood, laugh and light-heartedness…unfortunately, many of the stein slate streets had been removed and replaced during the last years. I felt losing an important part of my life …”

Picture 5- 32 Stein slate street after raining

Hear

Not only sight and smell were integrated into garden design, also the other senses like hearing had been applied for obtaining essences of nature. In Humble Administrator’s Garden (Zhuozheng Garden), the ‘listening to the rain pavilion’ that was constructed purposely for hearing the rainfall. Besides, the garden master planted Japanese banana in front of as well as behind the pavilion, for the flap of raindrops on the huge leaves creating special sounds which inspired quite a lot poet to poetize the great works. Furthermore, bamboo was another preferred element for creating particular sounds. The vivid example was bluish-green exquisiteness, a group of buildings that surrounded by bamboos, located in pavilion of surging waves, which served the appreciation of the sounds from wind and bamboos. Besides of displaying a close inner-connection with nature, the sound bamboos made when windy was believed to deliver a certain atmosphere or afflatus that inspired the auditor for masterpiece. In 102

5 Case study modern science actually, it was compelling that the proper use of certain sound could benefit the human being or as far as to release affirmative impacts on some indisposition. Quite researchers had realised that the visual landscape could not be analysed alone concerning landscape perception; moreover, the soundscape was playing the significant role as well (figure 5-19).

Soundscape of urban area

Sounds created by human activity Sounds not created by human activity

 Transportation  Domesticated animals  Human movement  Urban fauna  Electro-mechanical  Vegetation  Voice and instrument  Water  Social/ commual  Weather phenomena  Others

Figure 5- 19 Description of soundscape in urban area

“…it is very attractive for me to walk through the narrow alley alone, especially after the rain. Everything is so quiet that you could only hear your steps, of course sometimes also with slight chirps of insects or occasionally occurred residents voices. I have to point out that their (sounds made by human) existence made the experience even better!...”

He announced the sound experience as attractive for him when he visited Suzhou. Along with the traditional scenery for sight, the enjoyment was more dimensional. His announcement revealed the landscape elements that contributed to creating sounds. From other perspective, these elements served for traditional landscape just as those which conduced to visual ones.

Touch and taste

Till now, there are very few scientific works being found concerning the sense of touching or tasting of certain landscapes, for instance what roles they play in defining a landscape or in benefiting human being, whether they are indispensable or rather not essential. However, during the interview, there were 6 visitors made mentions of experiencing touching or tasting as constituents of the traditional landscape traveling (table 5-14).

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Table 5- 14 The appreciation of traditional landscape on the context of two senses tasting and touching

Descriptions of tourists Interpretation

(…)I had a very good appetite since I was here. Don’t know why. But I felt Tasting as part of traditional like trying the local snacks, especially the special local products that I could landscape experience not eat in other places. The food and the view, they matched each other…

(…)Eating is definitely an important experience for me. You know in Suzhou Enjoying the journey in there are so many aquatic food products. I just find it is perfect when taking a traditional landscape through boat and at the same time enjoy the food… tasting

(…)I bought some pearls. Of course everyone should do. They came from Fulfilled the traditional landscape the river just nearby. I feel really better when I wear them. Pearls are like experience lucky charm. I like the feelings of them touching my skin. For me, it is not complete if I miss the pearls…

(…)I know it may not be allowed. But I just like to touch the things to feel Comprehending the feeling in them… traditional landscape

5.2.3 Expectations for the future

At the end of the interviews, two different questions had been offered. The first was about to what extent the tourists would visit Suzhou again in the future in light of appreciating traditional landscape if other travel conditions were all met (figure 5-20). Nearly half of the response gave positive answer without hesitation.

Definitely 42

Maybe 15

Definitely not 11

Uncertain/Do not know 8

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 20 The future plan concerning enjoying traditional urban landscape (Would you visit Suzhou again in purpose of appreciating traditional landscape). N=76, representing 100%.

The most complained reason was the crowding situation in Suzhou, particularly during the peak season. This was also a point that restricted the preservation of the local heritages. The bearing 104

5 Case study capacity of the old town was actually quite small due to the unique land use pattern and structure. The final question was concerning the opinions of the future or expectations. The given answers were summarized and listed below (figure 5-21).

Stay just as it is with no change 21

It is good still to keep the local living here, for they make 9 the town/tradition alive

Do not know/no expectation 8

Tourism is bringing more incomes for the local to improve 8 the house condition, thus should be enouraged The preservation should be in priority, for then the later 7 generation could also enjoy this. The city is hopeless, for the historical heritages are about 7 to be destroyed due to over population/urban sprawl The modern and popular elements should be moved out 6 such as cars The effort should be made to preserve the real heritage, 5 not building the modern fake ones Tourism is demaging the city and the tradition. Should be 3 controlelled and reduced Too many extraneous elements (like foreign food chain 2 store) that lower the quality of the landscape

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Figure 5- 21 The summarization of opinions for the future (What is your opinion about the future or what is your expectation for the future). N=76, representing 100%.

Concerning the expectation and opinion about future, the most chosen answer was the traditional landscape should be preserved as it is now without obvious changes. This also supported the result about the representative level the tourists considered Suzhou landscape would be. However, the anticipations towards future revealed also the discontents. The second most gave response was about the residents living in the traditional area. The people lived in the area were seen by the tourists as an inalienable part of the landscape.

5.3 Connecting cultural ecosystem services concept with urban landscape management – a new concept

As a new concept, ecosystem service has been attracted much attention nowadays, whiles landscape research owns relative long history and turns out to be more mature and sophisticated. For long times, ecosystem service and landscape were two separated topics 105

5 Case study belonging to different research fields, focusing on different aspects and applying different mythologies. Not until recently, researchers proposed that linking ecosystem service concept and landscape research might actually add valuable and new perspectives supporting measuring intangible cultural ecosystem services (Schaich et al., 2010) as well as for better understanding the landscape. Based on the suggestions above, this chapter describes the practical activity taking out for linking ecosystem service and landscape research in Suzhou, China.

5.3.1 Cultural ecosystem services in ancient era

Based on the secondary data analysis, 24 ancient poems (Appendix III) written in classical Chinese were containing both the landscape of Suzhou. Among them, 5 cultural ecosystem services were identified (figure 5-22).

Inspiration of art 10

social intercourse 9

Buddhist mood/spiritual ballast 6

Reinforcement of human character 6

Cultural carrier 3

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 22 The cultural ecosystem services received by the ancestors. N=34, representing 100%

Inspiration of arts

One of the beautiful factors about landscape is that the same landscape would inspire different people in different ways. In Suzhou there has been a stone bridge named ‘Feng Qiao (Maple Bridge)’, under which the fishing boat stayed overnight as habit. When lying in the boat, the scenery of half-moon, torch in the fisher and glittering water surface as well as the sound of crow, spray and bell, plus the coldness of frost were all approaching together. One of the greatest poems in Chinese history was created under this circumstance10. His background of experiencing the turmoil of Anshi in Tang Dynasty and then becoming destitute and homeless

10 ‘Night mooring by Maple Bridge’ by Ji Zhang (birth unknown) from Tang Dynasty. 106

5 Case study made his acknowledging of the surrounding rather negative. Thus, his poem ‘Night mooring by Maple Bridge’ expressed the dreadful worry and sorrow, which was triggered and undergirded by the scenery, sound and frost of Maple Bridge. Besides, there were other poets before or after Ji Zhang who travelled to Maple Bridge and were inspired as well. On contrast, these poems turned out to be showing the deepest serenity instead of endless sadness.

Social intercourse

Social activity like gathering of scholars in ancient China left magnificent masterpieces of literature behind. Literature review has shown that actually the classical gardens had been one of the favourite spots for such due to classical garden’s mimesis of nature as well as ornamental plants that with implied meanings. The essayist and hospitable host Mei Yuan (1716-1797) from Qing Dynasty once resided in Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou. He claimed that the guests were all welcome to his garden to share the beauty of scenery. It became soon a sensation of intelligent scholars gathering together reciting poems. The brain storm brought idea sparks to the finest that quite a number of poems being created from this single activity. Some of them had been engraved in marbles which were used on walls as decoration or beside related landscape element for information in Humble Administrator’s Garden. This is a brilliant example for social intercourse as one of cultural ecosystem services in ancient era.

Buddhist mood

Changqing Liu (around 726AD-786AD) had written down a poem about visiting an acquaintance who was mistakenly absent. With disappointment, on the way back, Liu wandered through the urban alleys, observing the vegetation around, sniffing the raining air flowing, glancing around the pine tree and following the water canal. He wrote down all these elements in his poem and in last line he mentioned ‘water, vegetation and Buddhist mood, I face all these and forget just everything else’. Buddhist mood, in many Chinese literatures, is a kind of feeling of tranquillity, clear and free from vulgarity. It is considered to be one of the most glamour experience people could have among the mortal world. The other great example lies on the Hongjing Tao (AD456-AD536), who resigned from the court but choosing living in seclusion. After being refused several times on assisting for the court, the emperor then confused himself with a question ‘what exactly there are in the mountain’. He then recited a poem as answer that there were bamboos, water, clouds, stones, fog in the morning and birds singing in the evening. It is like a pure land’. He pictured the landscape and the derived sacred feelings which he believed connected with Gods. The remarkable part of his poem was that he added one lase line to the emperor ‘all of these though, can only I enjoy. It is worthless to describe them to you,

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5 Case study since you will not understand at all’. From which a fundamental truth about CES had been revealed: the CES differs among the individuals.

Reinforcement of human character

One of the most distinguishing CES derived from landscape in ancient China was reinforcement for human characters. It was widely applied using landscape elements reflecting the character or social status of the master. Almost all the classical gardens in Suzhou had been built and decorated in a certain way in order to symbolize the character or spiritual pursuit of the garden master. There were various approaches to demonstrate via ecosystem services. First, the ornamental vegetation had been seen with different connotations in China beyond their biologic functions. For instance, pine, bamboo and Japanese apricot have been labelled ‘durable plants of winter or three friends of winter’, which implicates the lasting friendship even in extreme inclemency. Based on this cognition, many garden masters planted pine, bamboo and Japanese apricot as the dominant plants to show indomitable moral qualities. Another type was playing partial tone of the plant name. Magnolia, bignonia, peony and osmanthus were planted together ordinarily to illustrate richness and honour, because the first syllables of these four plants’ Chinese names compose a phrase in same pronunciation meaning richness and honour. Last but not least, some garden masters were applying the colour of vegetation to expound their wishes. Both honeysuckle and loquat contain gold (royal colour), either in form of flower or fruit, which madethem quite popular in classical garden. Wisteria flower is purple which was considered to be a propitious omen. For in Taoism, the purple air comes from where the gods live. That is why wisteria was applied in garden to manifest the wish for god’s favour or free from vulgarity.

Cultural carrier

In ancient China, especially in areas like Suzhou, the most sophisticated scholars were gathering together, which triggered the phenomenon of a hundred schools of thought content. Where the different artistic competition exists, the culture blooms. Garden masters arranged the vegetation, water, stone, animal and architecture in specific way to present their own cultural or religious preference. In other words, the ecosystem was serving as a cultural carrier.

5.3.2 Cultural ecosystem services derived from urban landscape nowadays

In ‘Ecosystem services in urban areas’ (1999), the most cited article all the time concerning urban ecosystem services, the author gave a summary of six types of ecosystem services from urban area: air filtering, micro-climate regulation, noise reduction, rainwater drainage, sewage treatment and recreational and cultural values (Table 5-15). It is quite clear that urban ecosystem 108

5 Case study provides mostly regulating and cultural services, whilst provisioning and supporting services are not prior.

Table 5- 15 Locally generated ecosystem service in urban area (Bolund & Hunhammar, 1999)

UES Annotation MEA type Carrier of UES

Air filtering The major environmental problem in city is air Regulating Street tree pollution, which caused mainly by transportation and service Lawn/parks heating of buildings. The urban green vegetation (such urban forest as street trees) reduce air pollution dramatically cultivated land wetland

Micro-climate At both street and city level. The urban heat island Regulating Street tree regulation effect could be reduced by water area or vegetation in service lawn/parks city remarkably. urban forest cultivated land wetland stream lake/sea

Noise reduction Noises from traffic and others in urban area affect the Regulating Street tree public’s health. There are two key factors concerning service lawn/parks noise to notice: distance to the source of noise and the urban forest character of the ground. A dense shrubbery could for cultivated land example reduce the noise level. wetland

Rainwater drainage The vegetated areas in city allow water to seep through Supporting lawn/parks and the vegetation takes up water and releases it into service urban forest the air though evapotranspiration. cultivated land wetland

Sewage treatment The wetland for example can assimilate large amounts Regulating Wetland of the nutrients and slow down the flow of the sewage service water, allowing particles to settle out on the bottom. Up to 96% of the nitrogen and 97% of the phosphorous could be retained in wetlands.

Recreational and Urban ecosystem provides the opportunity for people Cultural service Street tree cultural values to play and rest, which may be the most valued UES. lawn/parks Secondly, as other ecosystems, urban ecosystem offers urban forest aesthetic and cultural value. Thirdly, the appearance of cultivated land fauna extends to recreation as well. Furthermore, green wetland space is of significance for psychological health. stream lake/sea

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CES was focused in this study on the context of a highly dense urban area. Based on the answers provided by the selected candidates, the CES in Suzhou urban area had been listed below (figure 5-23). There were of course overlapped services between the two target populations (insiders and outsiders), yet the differentiae and focuses were clear. The four overlapped services from old town in Suzhou were: relaxation, inner serenity, education and connection with ancestors (figure 5-24).

CES received by residents CES received by both CES received by tourists tourists and residents  Back to nature  Sense of China  Energy flowing positively  Education (cognitive  National identity  Mental well-being development)  Proudness  Recreation  Conversation with  Aesthetic beauty  History, knowledge and character ancestor  Poetry ambience preservation  Relaxation  Inspiration  Community connection building  Inner serenity  Peaceful respite  Social net  Historical lesson  Longevity  Knowledge  Nature and humanity ideology

Figure 5- 23 Cultural ecosystem services provided by traditional urban landscape in Suzhou

Education or cognitive development 6 9

Relaxation 7 4 Residents Inner serenity 5 4 Tourists

Conversation with ancestor 2 5

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Figure 5- 24 CES received by residents and tourists from traditional landscape of Suzhou. N=97, representing 100%

One should be pointed out that from even one answer, several CES could be examined. This phenomenon supports the conception that cultural ecosystem service is very much a co- production of landscape and human. Take a resident’s narration of his activity as an example, he described:

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“…I love going fishing with my friends on weekends. You see, just alongside the river outside. We met up normally directly on the fishing spot as we always were and set up things together. Sometimes each of us could get really good catch, and then we exchanged opinions. Of course there were times with no harvest, which was also fine because we have got good accompany (friends and beautiful nature) already. You have to respect nature and believe in what nature offers…We would for sure cook the fish afterwards. It was such an amazing feeling eating up the food you just caught up yourself from the river in front of your door, telling your grandchildren about fishing and enjoying the admiring looking from that face…That was the moment that I felt very much home…”

To make it much clear, the analysis of the paragraph is listed below.

A resident’s description Analysis of gained CES

1 going fishing with friends recreation, outdoor activity

2 cooking the fish and eating substance, material

3 exchanging opinions capabilities

4 believing in nature spiritual

5 enjoying the accompany social connection

6 beautiful nature aesthetic

7 amazing feeling psychological well-being

8 telling grandchild experience

9 feeling home sense of place

This is an example of the interactions between human and environment, and during the intertwinement various CES have been received by human. It is quite obvious that even though the other person would do exactly same thing, the CES received might not be the same. It is the beauty as well as the crux for understanding CES.

Education

6 out of 38 residents and 9 out of 59 tourists, respectively, reported the strong function of traditional landscape as tool for education or cognitive development, making education the most rated CES. One university student even said that Suzhou old town was by different universities and schools chosen as education base for subjects like art, architecture, landscape design, literature and history (table 5-16).

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Table 5- 16 Education as cultural ecosystem services in Suzhou perceived by residents and tourists

Object Detailed description

Resident (…)China was once prosperous and the people were strong and powerful. Wu culture has been an outstanding representation of this prosperity. And where do you find Wu culture nowadays? Of course only in Suzhou. The Wu culture is embodied by the living style, by the architecture, by the food, and by literally everything. If you want to learn the old powerful China, you have to understand Wu culture and Suzhou first.

(…)I think all the primary school in Suzhou should offer open classes in classical gardens. So that the children could learn the most distinguish culture.

(…)Even though Suzhou locates in lowland and rainy, there have not been any floods in the history. I think it is fascinating for the modern urban planner to dig out the reasons. Beijing as our capital is struggling every rainy season. They should learn the appropriate urban design from our moat, lake, alley and everything.

(…)Behind every old tree in Suzhou, there was a story. There is so much to learn even only from the trees.

(…)Do you see the garden there? My grandparents used to take me there and tell me the history concealed in. Then you knew about loyalty and morality.

Tourist (…)I am an art student in university. Suzhou is highly recommended to us as sketch place. I have to say the well-preserved architectures, water body, stones and vegetation combined perfectly with each other. But this great combination was not a coincidence, rather an elaborative work. Just by sketching of the scenery, I learn the compositional principles. It is amazing.

(…)I think Suzhou is the only one place in China that you can enjoy so many gardens in a relative small area. I am really impressed by the art of gardening derived from our traditional culture.

(…)After visiting Suzhou old town, I kind of understand what the old Chinese philosophy ‘harmony between man and nature’ means.

(…)It is amazingly beautiful. We should maintain everything as it so we have something left to teach the next generations.

It was worth to notice some of the participants mentioned that Suzhou might be the only place in whole nation which was able to offer well-preserved historic gardens and water town scenery. They agreed that the Chinese art of gardening, cultural meanings of vegetation, and landscape elements such as stone contributed enormously to the education of culture.

Relaxation

Although both tourists and residents declared the feeling of relaxation in old town, the spatial distribution of the relaxation is of rather difference. Whilst the tourists found wandering around Pingjiang Road, a historic road preserved the city’s history and unique features running alongside the Pingjiang River, was extremely relaxing, the locals considered it touristy and

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5 Case study crowd, let alone relaxation. Both of two parties agreed that classical gardens turn out to be a relaxing place only when there were few visitors.

Table 5- 17 Relaxation as cultural ecosystem services in Suzhou perceived by residents and tourists

Object Relaxation as CES

Resident (…)I enjoy walking alongside the canal very much. I am getting up quite early and then making a round walk along the river. It makes me feel relaxed and ready for the day work.

(…)The most relaxing time of mine every day is the time after dinner. I go to the park with some old friends, feeding birds and fish, practising a bit physical exercise and joking.

Tourist (…)The special flowery odour here (classical garden) is definitely a highlight. It is like a cure that polls all the stress away.

(…)Personally, I enjoy strolling over the street (Pingjiang Road) or just sitting to meditate. It feels so good that you are in the mortal world anymore.

(…)I always try to stop by here when I have got business trip. Unlike the noisy metropolitan atmosphere in Shanghai, Suzhou is more like an urban countryside. You can just escape for a while.

Inner serenity

There was actually confusion on distinguishing serenity and relaxation, both of which are referring to a certain positive psychological or mental status. In Medical Dictionary, relaxation is defined as ‘intentional inactivity, where a person performs active or passive exercises to reduce mental and physical stresses, whilst serenity means the quality or state of being calm, tranquil and peaceful’. When someone reaches the feeling of being serene, it should also contain the feeling of being relaxing. However, being relaxing does not necessarily relate to serenity. 5 interviewed tourists expressed the feelings of tranquillity and complete calmness when indulging themselves in strolling around the sparsely populated alley or soundless corner or embarking above the canal. 4 residents manifested the same feeling when practising Taiji in park every morning or taking dinner walk with the children or chatting with neighbours after work.

Conversation with ancestors

The arrangement of different landscape elements, the choice of vegetation and so on were not coincident, rather based on sophisticated thoughts and erudite minds. The informants exhibited intensive appreciation and comprehension of the traditional landscape, not because of their own educational background but the excellent design by the ancestors.

“…I knew that the garden master had been banned from the court so he returned back here to build this garden on his own style. I can feel and understand his thoughts believe or not. Look there, the plants. He chose bamboos, 113

5 Case study chrysanthemum, osmanthus and any other plants you can name which represent being aloof from politics and material pursuit and so on in our culture. You just can tell. But then, take a look of that mural. He drew the country map on the wall of his own home. I also sense the disappointment of not being able to serve his country because of the evil governors…”

Both one tourist and one resident released the similar description concerning acquiring the feeling and emotion of garden master. They also mentioned the arrangement and choice of vegetation in classical garden that more related to the cultural service, especially after certain natural phenomena like raining, bloom, fog or wild, the feeling turned out to be more intense and vivid. According to the description, this service could only be obtained when people own knowledge about landscape, culture and history.

5.3.3 Cultural ecosystem services received by residents

Out of totally 45 interviewed residents, 38 of them offered valid information that could be interpreted for identifying CES. The questions were open so that they could express as much information as they could. In some interviews, more than 1 CES could be detected (figure 5-25).

Longevity 8

Energy flowing positively 6

Social net 5

Community connection 4

Recreation 4

History, knowledge and character preservation 3

Mental well-being 3

Back to nature 1

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 25 Cultural ecosystem services received by residents from traditional landscape. N=38, representing 100%

8 residents mentioned about living longer, longer life expectation, longevity, long lived and five generations under one roof, which all indicated longevity that the local people thought they got from their surroundings. One resident declaimed that the average life expectancy in Suzhou is above the national level and stays on the same level with developed countries. Although there

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Table 5- 18 Longevity as cultural ecosystem services in Suzhou received by residents

(…)I retired 10 years ago, at first my children worried that I may get bored very soon. But I surprised them all. The population in Suzhou has the longest life expectancy in whole China. I can tell from my own experience that the city itself does me good. My very own secret is keeping exercising. There are parks and water bodies all over the place, where I go to doing physical practice every day with friends. I am also within an aviculture community, which offers a great deal of opportunities to be in contacts with others in the same camp. Birds, water, trees, flowers, exercise and friends, how could the life not be longer?

(…)We have abundant water here in Suzhou. In Chinese culture, water represents a flowing energy and wealth. That is why the people live longer here.

(…)In this area alone, there are already several people over 90 years old. This is not a coincidence, but the consequence of coaction of several explanations. For example, we eat seasonal and regional cuisine, which are all from the area nearby. Also, we do big activities according to the season. If you do what nature tells you to, your body will function at the best.

(…)We enjoy strolling around the classical gardens during our spare time. Actually, a lot of ‘old Suzhou’ (means people who live in Suzhou very long) have this habit. The gardens purify the mind and diminish desire. Why? The colour of the garden is quietly elegant, without obtrusive colours. Plus the evergreen plants, the gardens just emit kind of elegance and softness. This fits the pursuing of human to emerge in a quiet, calm and natural atmosphere. If a person can always have inner peace, then he could live long and happily(…)

(…)’Water and soil determine the characters of the people’. It is because the natural characters here, we can live longer than others(…)

They reported to live longer due to various landscape elements, such as the combination of green space and birds, the seasonal food, abundant water, the social activities and the gardens. From their descriptions, it could tell that they believed Suzhou was the only one place that offer the opportunity for people living longer.

6 participated residents stated the experience on Qi flowing. As mentioned in chapter 5.1, Qi is believed existing and moving in human body, that closely jointing with health. There are great numbers of people in China doing physical exercise such as Taiji to adjust the Qi flowing for the purpose of better health. One resident said:

“…nowadays, we have to pay for visiting the classical gardens. Long before, I used to enter the garden every day just for a walk. You see, the garden masters were the people with rich knowledge about our elite culture like Yin- Yang. They arranged the plants, water, stones and any others in such a harmony gesture that represents a core of our great Chinese philology… I enjoyed wandering around the garden – and also I felt like I had to – to keep

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5 Case study my body in an active phase. I could feel the energy exchanging and then the good one coming back to me. It made very clear mind and good mood I am sure…”

In his statement, he mentioned the main activity of his was walking in classical gardens, from which he could gain positive feelings and the energies. Energy is the other form to describe Qi in Chinese language. The layout and composition of the landscape elements were closely connected with these feelings.

5 residents announced to build the social net using open space of the urban area and 4 others declared to keep community connection, respectively. Even though the phases differed, the similar messages were delivered: that the traditional landscape offered residents advantages to keep social life and connection. According to the interviewees, the approaches of getting social and community closeness included: doing excises in regular appointments, playing chess after dinner or during the weekend, dancing in a group, visiting the single, low income household and making city tour together. They declaimed the landscape was significant in terms of offering enough spaces for them to organize and perform any kinds of activities, providing enough shades to make sure the activities going well in the summer, supplying pleasant atmosphere through urban fauna and flora and supporting the chat themes and communication through the appearance. From the interview, it is obvious that the traditional landscape connected the local individual as well as local communities or groups.

4 residents spoke about taking recreation. Drinking tea with friends outside, listening Kun Opera, feeding the urban animals (fish, bird) and visiting the art vendor on the street were the means they listed as recreation. Tea was considered as a culture locally as well, that must fit the certain atmosphere to enjoy. It was normally happening by enjoying Kun Opera whiling drinking tea (picture 5-33). The rhythm, melody and costume of Kun Opera, with the traditional surrounds and Chinese tea in traditional teapot, together they made experience that was highly appreciated locally.

Even though small numbers of residents introduced knowledge, history and character preservation, this service was considered by them essential for the culture and the nation. One resident described, many folkloric stories were happened around the neighbouring landscape, that it was lively instance to talk to the grandchildren. In this case, the landscape serviced as the folklores carrier and preserver. The other resident talked about enjoying looking for the written texts on the stones or bridges. In this context, landscape here conduced to the culture preservation.

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Picture 5- 33 Enjoying Kun Opera and drinking tea in neighbourhood

Mental well-being was also conferred by 3 residents. They referred the landscape was dedicated to reduce mental stress. Even though the interview site was in the centre of the city, there was still one resident mentioned feeling close to nature. Even though the urban area was highly populated and dense, thanks to the traditional landscape elements that he still felt the accessibility to nature. He also added one concern about losing nature in the living area.

5.3.4 Cultural ecosystem services received by tourists

Out of totally 76 interviewed tourists, 59 of them provided feasible data. There were eventually 11 cultural services had been recognized by analysing the presentments from 59 tourists (figure 5-26).

The most rated service was aesthetic beauty that nearly 50% of the tourists reporting to enjoy. Other words being used with similar meanings included loving the view, looking at the big tree, looking at the flowers, enjoying looking at the locals, special, nice, unique view and looking at the golden fish (figure 5-27). Local product/handcraft, architecture, and other local features were the most related landscape elements that provided aesthetic beauty service. 3 tourists even found the locals as part of the landscape offered authentic beauty.

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Aesthetic beauty 29

Poetry ambience 15

Inspiration 13

Knowledge 12

Sense of China 11

Cultural identity 9

Historical lesson 8

Proudness 7

Peaceful respite 6

Nature and humanity ideology 3

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 26 Cultural ecosystem services that received by the tourists from traditional landscape of Suzhou. N=59, representing 100%

Local product/handcraft 13

Architecture 11

Other features such as boat 10

Tree 8

Local art 6

Rockery 6

Flower (including auquatic ones) 5

Other human being 4

Urban fauna 3

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Figure 5- 27 Variables of aesthetic beauty as cultural ecosystem service received by tourist. N=29, representing 100%

Poetry ambience could be identified from the answers of 15 tourists. Similar words used included like in painting, unreal, like in trance, like in dream, walking in poem and like being somewhere else. The landscape made them feeling not being in a current real world; rather like a wonderland that everything was ‘so beautiful to be true’. It was reportedly to gain this service 118

5 Case study through an authentic and complete landscape set, rather not a certain landscape element. 2 residents pictured that the feelings were even more intense after raining or during a cloudy day.

The third most rated service was inspiration that 13 tourists acclaimed to experience. The variables for inspiration service were: taking many photographs, feeling like doing sketching, getting new ideas, having the eager to write a post card and calling friends of landscape (table 5- 19).

Table 5- 19 Inspiration as cultural ecosystem service received by tourists from landscape

Description of tourists The variables of inspiration as cultural ecosystem service

(…)could not help but taking many photographs Inspiration of photograph

(…)wanting to do some sketching as a child Inspiration of painting

(…)getting new ideas about the fitment of house Inspiration of art

(…)eager to write post to someone Inspiration of writing

(…)eager to call a friend to tell the experience and the beauty Inspiration of communication

(…)do not know, just feeling like something in chest that Inspiration of poem(other forms of work) would like to write or scream, in positive manner of course

Then after came the knowledge as cultural service the tourists got from the landscape. 12 descriptions were given that contained the information for identifying the cultural service (table 5-20). Tourists related the experiences they had in the landscape, from which they obtained various knowledge.

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Table 5- 20 Knowledge as cultural ecosystem service received by tourists from landscape

Description of tourists The variables of inspiration as cultural ecosystem service

(…)I only read about the Chinese Gardens before. And now I Knowledge about Classical garden see them

(…)I have heard so many about the houses, nothing could Knowledge about local architecture compare with seeing by my own eyes

(…)I knew nothing about the traditional landscape, I heard so Knowledge about traditional landscape many from our guide so now I can enjoy the landscape

(…)Seeing one is much better than hearing thousands times. I Knowledge about traditional landscape finally saw the rockery and understood how people made it essential

(…)so many famous stories happened here. Knowledge about history

(…)Saw the old city wall for the first time; was amazed by how Knowledge about history and architect it worked

Sense of China, cultural identity and proudness were really close related to each other, and sometime could be tricky to identify. By interpreting and analysing the descriptions from tourists, sense of China implies a sense of national belonging whilst cultural identity distinct cultural character. As regards to proudness, it could show up with both, as exhibited below (table 5-21).

Table 5- 21 Sense of China, cultural identity and proudness as cultural ecosystem services received by the tourists

Description of tourists The interpretation

(…)the landscape culture is just magnificent. I am very Proud of culture and ancestors; impressed. How intelligent and delicate the people were to build a city like this.

(…)the landscapes here has connotations, that you have to own Cultural identity; cultural background to understand them. I am happy that I can. Proudness towards self and landscape

(…)I saw some foreigners taking videos, which made me feeling Sense of China; honoured to be a Chinese. Proudness;

(…)I envy the residents that they can enjoy this view every day. I Sense of belonging; want to move to this place as well. I think people who live here Cultural identity are also noble like the landscape

(…)I want to show my children the landscape here. So he would Proudness; know how profound our culture is, how extensive the Chinese Identity; knowledge is. Sense of China;

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Historical lesson was the cultural service that had been clearly marked by the tourists. They repeated mentioned that they learned the history and the landscape history in schools, and eventually the chance to see by own eyes. The existing traditional landscape severed as a vivid history textbook. The contents of history though varied, including the history of classical garden, the history of famous nobles and their houses here, the history of war that stopped by the city moat, the history of famous events and the history of cultural development. It could be confusing with knowledge, but history here is referring to the facts that historically existed or happened.

Even though it was in the heart of a city, still, 6 tourists expressed the experience as peaceful respite. By saying peaceful respite, it referred to the peaceful status in mind that the troubles did not seem so important anymore (table 5-22). The night view (picture 5-34), the boat trip and the traditional alley were related to this cultural service.

Table 5- 22 Peaceful respite as cultural ecosystem service received by the tourists

Description of tourists The interpretation

(…)I am here for a business trip, very stressful and many Temporary peace in landscape. problems. But surprisingly I feel really calm after sitting here (Pingjiang Road) for a while.

(…)I love the night view here. I stay one day more just for Mentally peaceful. another night. It is the most quiet and peaceful feeling you can imagine.

(…)My favourite here is the boat trip. Feeling I am traversing Escaping from the reality, finding peace in heart back to the ancient time and I have nothing to do with the modern troubles anymore.

There were 3 tourists voiced an old Chinese philosophy, nature and humanity ideology. It was a guiding conception in ancient era for balancing the nature and the human. During the ancient era, people respected nature fully due to lack of scientific knowledge. The ancient landscapes, which were built up under the guide of this philosophy, were preferred and appreciated. One tourist reported to be able to sense this ancient philosophy when she immersed herself in the Classical Garden area.

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Picture 5- 34 The night view of Suzhou old town, was related to deliver peace as cultural service according to the tourist

5.4 Summary

This chapter explained the results from case study design and was divided into 3 parts. The perspectives from residents and tourists respectively, and cultural ecosystem service as a new concept linked with traditional landscape.

The first subchapter 5.1 explored the opinions from insiders of Suzhou – the residents in this case – towards traditional landscape and landscape elements in accordance with ‘tradition’. They gave the answers focusing on the detailed reflections in daily life, the most treasured landscape elements by themselves and traditional landscape changes. Unlike the specialistic and governmental levelled documentation, this time the public’s voice was demanded and heard. Based on the household interviews and the literature study, 7 subcategories were provided with detailed analysis and information: water body, vegetation, architecture, classical garden, traffic infrastructure, intangible elements of traditional landscape and landscape change. The results offered deep understanding of traditional landscape from the perspective of insiders based on long-term daily contact and interaction. The results revealed several facts:

 The residents looked forward to better basic living conditions;  At the same time, the childhood memory, the rooted connection or the psychological need induced the discontentment;

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 The holism of traditional landscape was a trend for traditional landscape research in China, though the interview demonstrated that the individual landscape element functioned in a way that just as important as a holistic landscape;  Except the material factors, intangible or nonmaterial ones were of equivalent significance for residents especially in terms of emotional attachment and cultural uniqueness;  The traditional landscape experienced dramatic change due to complex reasons including various controllable (such as conservation activity, modern infrastructure construction ) and uncontrollable (such as globalization, population floating) factors;  These changes of traditional landscape did affect the physical lives of resident, in both positive and negative manners as well as did to their minds;  From residents’ views, government or decision makers played the most essential roles for altering traditional landscape. Other factors included migration, education, and communication with the international world, economic development and tourism.

The second subchapter 5.2 investigated the perceptions of outsiders – defined as tourists in this case – towards traditional landscape. Unlike the residents, they viewed the landscape based on a short period thus in a different way. This subchapter also analysed the tourism impacts on Suzhou. The main results from this subchapter could be listed as following.

 Tourism impacted the city in different aspects; not only in traditional landscape, but also in social-cultural and economic aspects, which would eventually also trigger the influence on traditional landscape;  The tourism impacts were interrelated and interdependent;  Tourists appreciated the traditional landscape in a different way. Plants, local buildings the locals themselves were rated the most representative for tradition and most attractive for the tourists;  Besides the appreciation of traditional landscape from seeing, the tourists expressed pleasures from other senses, which were equally representative for them as part of traditional landscape experience;  Other senses of appreciation included from smelling, hearing, touching and tasting;  Most of the tourists were holding positive attitude towards the future of Suzhou traditional landscape

The third subchapter 5.3 analysed the cultural ecosystem services that the residents and tourists gained from the traditional landscape, thus a new perspective for better understanding traditional landscape of Suzhou and its role for the people. In China, the landscape, as well as urban landscape, had always been studied in a very conventional way by experts allocated by

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5 Case study government. As most cases in China, every project had to be finished in short time to perform either the political achievements or catch up the schedule in rapid speed. The thorough investigation before a new project or decision concerning landscape had been absent. Culture service though, could not be simply interpreted and listed by experts. For obtaining information away from experts’ opinions, the public had to be approached.

 Cultural ecosystem was already existed long before the generation for the terminology. Based on the secondary data, 5 cultural services had been identified and analysed;  There were in total 22 cultural services reportedly received by residents and tourists, among which 4 of them were obtained by both residents and tourists;  Longevity and energy flowing positive were the most received services by residents; following up by social net and community connections, and other 6 services;  For tourists’ side, aesthetic beauty and poetry ambience were rated the first, following up by inspiration and other 15 services.

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6.1 Methodological critique

6.1.1 Study area

The present study has been conducted in Suzhou in southern China, which is one of the most highly developed cities in the richest area of the country, i.e. representing the most advanced development level. Besides, it is also one of the oldest cities in written Chinese history, which means that it reflects the traditional and cultural essences of China and must be protected without doubt. These are the two main reasons for Suzhou to have been chosen as a case study. Based on the Chinese political system, the advanced development status of Suzhou determines a rather advanced educational standard and a social openness of local residents, which are the core reasons for the feasibility of the interviews. On the other hand, the obstacles to be overcome for a research application in other, more restrictive areas did not leave much of a choice within China.

First, in more remote or less open areas, people would have been too reluctant to voice their real opinions; they might have ended up expressing only positive opinions or only making compliments to the authorities. This is a ditch that is quite hard to step across in public perception research in China. Even during the fieldwork in Suzhou, the researcher had to confess to almost every interviewee about the purposes and future application of the interview, so as to disburden interviewee’s concerns. Second, in less cultural-oriented areas, locals might be much less interested in landscape, tradition, cultural meaning or heritage preservation for the next generations, and rather be preoccupied with the immediate, current, visible advantages, mainly economically. This might have ended up in completely useless data, with the public voicing no opinions or thoughts at all.11 Third, cases were reported in China about the hostile and cold reactions of local villagers when researchers were trying to conduct human dimension studies.12 Forth, for example in southwestern China, where the cultural background is profound, the current below-average educational level makes communication with researchers difficult, let alone conducting a questionnaire survey with a large population.13

11 For example once in Chinese TV program, the local peasants were totally blank faced when receiving the questions from journalist about how they thought about environment deterioration and cultural landscape loss. 12 Internet reports: http://58.213.145.148/news/20100622/20100622151337.html. (In Chinese).Accessed 11.06.2016. 13 See an example: http://xwjz.eastday.com/eastday/xwjz/node213770/node213772/u1a3034554.html. (In Chinese).Accessed 13.07.2016 125

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In order to successfully popularize and generalize such research for a better management and preservation of the traditional landscapes in the whole country, these obstacles have to be overcome.

6.1.2 Method

In a qualitative study like this, bias is unavoidable. The main methodology being applied in this study is semi-structured interviews with residents and tourists. The factors that might cause a bias are analysed below.

1. Sample size

For a qualitative study like this one, the ideal scenario would be that all targeted or related individuals are interviewed. However, in reality, the feasibility of this is nearly zero and in most cases unnecessary. How many qualitative interviews should be conducted is a question of frequent debates. Yet, according to Adler and Adler (2012), unlike quantitative studies, which offer a narrow width of information from a very wide swath of samples, qualitative studies generally focus on much fewer samples but offer deep and valuable information for the researchers to only generate a subjective understanding. Consequently – as Baker and Edwards (2012) point out –, often, even a single sample or two could offer a sufficient and deep understanding for answering a research question as well as the how and why of researched phenomena. According to Thi Ut (2013), the factors determining the sample size are:

 Variability of elements in the target population  Time availability  Budget  The level of research estimation precision  Whether the findings are to be generalized

In this study, the interviews address two different groups: residents and tourists. For the interviews with residents, households in the whole resided valley were chosen to be asked to participate. Randomly encountered residents in Suzhou Park were also selected as samplers. In total, the overall valid and effective number of interviews with residents numbered 45, which were conducted in the course of two months. Of course, in comparison with the whole registered population in the old town, this number is relatively small. The situation with tourist interviews was similar. The validity of the sample, however, can be assessed below (table 6-1).

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Table 6-1 Analysis of data validity

Criteria The present study

Variability of elements in the target The target population is insiders (residents) and outsiders (tourists). The population differences in age, gender, occupation, educational level and other social- demographic factors as well as the relations with the traditional landscape were considered and reduced during fieldwork.

Time availability Fieldwork lasted three months in total. Each individual interview took approximately 60 minutes; when the weather was unpleasant, fieldwork had to be cancelled. On average, five to six interviews could be conducted per day. This is one of the main factors that limited the number of samplings.

Budget This was a private project, so the research and travel costs were all self- financed. The very limited budget did not allow for excessive expenses. This is the most important factor to determine the sample size in this study.

The level of research estimation This study serves as a pioneer of its kind in China, and thus, any new ideas precision and perspectives derived from the results are appreciated.

Whether the findings are to be The case of Suzhou should offer an example and useful information for generalized other areas in China. The effects of the interaction between humans and the traditional landscape should also be reflected in other areas across the country.

It is clear that in order to ensure the validity of the study, the sample size should have been larger if the results are supposed to be generalized. However, due to time and budget limitations, fieldwork could not be taken any further. Yet, the interview accounts meet the above requirements and do offer new perspectives.

2. Sample type In the interviews with tourists, only so-called single travellers were chosen. This is based on careful consideration and a pilot study which found out that organized group travellers have time limitations and particular travel restrictions (they can only go to the places the guide leads them to); so they could not experience the traditional landscape in a synthetic manner. This could lead to an incomplete understanding of traditional landscapes and related landscape elements. Thus, even though group travellers are account for over 80 % of all the tourists in Suzhou (visitsz, 2015), they were not involved in this study. The interviews with individual tourists provided valuable data for the research project; however, group visitors might have provided other new perspectives. Their perceptions

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should also be studied, but a considerate research design, a relatively big research team and sufficient research funding would be needed.

3. Sample method In this study, face-to-face interviews were applied as a means to collect primary data. The advantages of this interview method for the study have already been analyzed in chapter 4. However, the disadvantages of interviews could also have created biases on the part of the researcher. The most obvious two ones are the high costs and a limited sample size. As Wyse (2014) says, costs are a major disadvantage for face-to-face interviews, in terms of both time and finances. Furthermore, due to the limitations of the interviewing staff, the size of the sample is also limited. Other biases could occur with respect to the interviewer’s communicative abilities. The possibility of applying other methods in a similar study, such as questionnaires, would be available only if certain criteria were met. For example, at the beginning of the study, there was an effort to leave questionnaires addressing tourists in local hotels. However, the outcomes were unsatisfactory, not only because of the extremely low response rate compared to guest-flow volumes, but also due to the monotonous tourists type and the futile data that came about. People’s indifference towards landscape preservation is another issue waiting to be solved; but in this case, the indifference blocks the path for applying any other method in order to widen the data set. However, it cannot be denied that questionnaires offer larger amounts of data at lower costs.

6.2 Interactions between humans and the traditional landscape

6.2.1 The residents’ perspective

Research question 1: How do the locals perceive their own daily living circumstances, in this case, the traditional urban landscape, especially in respect of tradition? Which elements or aspects do they consider to be significant, indispensable or representative?

Subchapter 5.1 has provided answers to the above research question. In total, six landscape categories have been summarized in accordance with the interviews; from the most- to the least-rated, they are: water body, vegetation, architecture, classical gardens, traffic infrastructure and intangible elements. These six categories are not only representative in the residents’ opinions; most importantly, they are playing essential roles in their daily lives in the shape of childhood memories, social intercourse and leisure time.

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However, the landscape elements which are important for the residents are not necessarily and equally protected by current laws. Either the current preservation levels for these six categories are uneven or some of them are not part of the preservation policy at all (table 6-2).

Table 6-2 Analysis of the preservation status of six traditional landscape elements as rated by the residents.

Landscape element Preservation level Examples of related preservation policies (starting year)

Water body Regional, personal Conservation regulation of the urban canals of Suzhou

Vegetation Regional (only ancient or famous Conservation regulation of ancient and famous plants of plants), personal Suzhou (2001)

Architecture National, regional Law for the preservation of historical cities (1982); Preservation of the historical and cultural city of Suzhou (2012)

Classical gardens The highest on an international, Convention concerning the protection of the world’s cultural national and regional scale and natural heritage (1997); Cultural relics protection law of the P.R.C. (1982); Conservation and management regulation of Suzhou Classical Gardens (1996)

Traffic infrastructure Personal -

Intangible landscape International (only the Kun Convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural element Opera is at the highest heritage (2001); preservation level thanks to Preservation regulation of the Kun Opera of Suzhou city (2006) UNESCO), regional, personal

Based on the above analysis, it becomes quite clear that the most strongly preserved landscape element is not necessarily significant for the residents (for example the classical gardens). Vice versa, the landscape elements residents treasure might not be in preservation lists at all (for example the vegetation; only plants with a long history or with underlying stories are under protection). This cognitional discrepancy between residents and others (decision-makers, experts or authorities) in relation to the traditional landscape might be the core of what causes the current problems and conflicts on traditional landscape preservation. One example is the so-called nail household which uncompromisingly refuses to move when the land or a road is requisitioned for a construction project (Dict.cn). The decision-makers make new construction plans without consulting the affected residents, which results in their rejection of these plans. Of course, sometimes, financial issues have to be regarded; however, the emotional and spiritual cognition of the residents should also be understood so as to avoid conflicts.

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Research question 2: Have the locals observed or experienced landscape changes in recent years? What do they think about these changes?

The traditional landscape is another important topic to discuss, as well as its driving forces. Understanding the dynamics of landscape change and the related perceptions by residents, potential conflicts in the future might be anticipated and thus avoided. Through field observation and literature review, landscape changes could also be anticipated.

The interviews reflect the personal experiences of the residents with landscape changes based on their daily interaction with it. However, during the interviews, they rarely mentioned the word ‘change’ directly, but useful information could still be drawn from them. For example, one resident said with regard to water:

…The water was part of our daily life, we could not make a day without it. I used to wash all the dishes and clothes in the canals down there. Today, we do not need to do that anymore. Of course, one reason is that we now have a convenient water system; the other reason is that the water in the canals is too dirty for use anymore. It does not flow as fast as it did in the past…

She mentioned a very significant aspect here: that she used to wash her dishes and clothes with the water in the canal, but cannot do so anymore due to decreased water quality and quantity. The water body used to play an important part in people’s daily lives, but has ceased to do so. She expressed feelings of misfortune, sadness and being sorry. The reasons behind the decrease of the water quality and quantity are also the driving forces of the water landscape changes.

Interestingly, these landscape changes are also reflected in other changes of landscape elements, and according to some interviews, they bring with them more benefits to some extent. Taking water as an example again, the modern water supply and drainage system prevents the residents from using canal water by providing better and more convenient opportunities. Still, these ‘seemingly good changes’ also bring up feelings of loss and emotional disconnection. The question of how to create a trade-off is still on the table.

6.2.2 The tourists’ perspective

Research question 3: Why is tourism important for Suzhou in connection with traditional landscape preservation?

Three different types of tourism impacts on Suzhou have been recognized: economic, social and cultural as well as environmental ones. They exist and act in an inextricable fashion, in which one impact would induce another one. In the consequence of understanding the tourism impacts in Suzhou comprehensively, this indicates that these three aspects should be discussed

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6 Discussion in conjunction. For example, let’s take one interviewed resident’s depiction of the transformation of his house due to tourism, since he converted his private house into a pension. Hoping to meet the needs of tourists so that his income could increase, he had to reconstruct his ancient house with modern elements and materials. This process might end up in a disharmony of the house with traditional elements. Being the owner and host, in order to make sure his pension is running well, he had to adapt his language (by speaking Mandarin instead of the local dialect), his behaviour (since local habits might be irritating for outsiders), reduce his hobby as a craftsman so as to have more time and so on (figure 6-1).

Economic impacts

Increased domestic income due to pension business

Social & cultural impacts Environmental impacts

Adapted behaviour, language and habits Transformation of the house in order to ensure the progression of the affects both the cultural and pension business natural environment

Figure 6-1 Scheme of interactions among three types of tourism impacts in the course of transforming a traditional house into tourist accommodation.

Since tourism could influence a destination so dramatically and the concurrent impacts are interrelated, it is essential to investigate tourism for better traditional landscape preservation management.

The stakeholders of tourism are demonstrated below in accordance with UNWTO (2005) (figure 6-2). There are our main categories in relation to stakeholders of tourism management; however, in China, the categories of tourists and the local population have so far been quite overlooked by decision-makers. Yet in many cases, they are at the forefront of the tourism industry and have a direct view of and experiences with the interaction between tourism and the landscape.

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Stakeholders of tourism management

 National governments Tourists  Tourism establishments and Local populations and  Local governments with enterprises, including their host communities

special competence in associations

tourism matters  Tourism employees,  Institutions engaged in professionals and financing tourism projects consultants  Tourism education and

training centres

Figure 6-2 Stakeholders of tourism management (UNWTO, 2005)

The tourists’ needs at a tourism destination, in this case the traditional urban landscape in Suzhou, could alter the landscape (figure 6-3), especially in areas where economic benefits are a priority for locals and the local government. Like in many cases in China, even though higher- level policies intend to diminish harm by tourism to tourism destinations, local executing agencies and populations would still tolerate the actions of tourists. In this context, an early understanding of the attitudes of tourists towards the landscape could avoid undesirable damages to it.

Reaction: - insiders adopt outsiders’ views - insiders try to satisfy outsiders’ views - arrangement of landscape according to outsiders’ expectations

Input Outsiders Landscape & insiders Output

Influences on landscape: - emphasizing positive aspects - ignoring negative aspects - leaving marks - expectations

Figure 6-3 Demonstration of how the outsiders’ perception influences a landscape (Solymosi, 2011).

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On the other hand, different people can have different perceptions of the very same piece of land (Antrop, 1997). And obviously, the perceptions and knowledge of the observers might influence their behaviour as well. From this point of view, in many cases, if the residents’ or tourists’ behaviour needs to be controlled or altered, the only way to solve the problem could actually be to work on the perceptions and knowledge of the residents.

Research question 4: How do the visitors of Suzhou perceive their destination with respect to tradition? What are their expectations for the future?

Derived from 76 interviews with tourists, nine landscape elements have been identified as being representative of and traditional for Suzhou: plants, local buildings, the locals themselves, their lifestyle, bridges, alleys, flowers, aquatic plants and the urban fauna. Thus, the locals themselves and their lifestyle are also considered by the tourists to be essential parts of the traditional ‘scenery’. Furthermore, other appreciations related to the traditional landscape were also expressed, for example the smell of certain elements, the taste of the local cuisine, the sounds of the plants and the feeling when touching local specialities. Even though the theme of Suzhou tourism is its traditional urban landscape and Chinese water-town scenery, the perceptions tourists get from the old town are rather multiple. Like in the case of the residents, the elements tourists consider as being representative and attractive are not equally valued by the decision- makers or local tourism managers.

The leading feature of tourism in Suzhou is its traditional and Jiangnan water-town scenery. In recent years, Suzhou has started to get rid of its image as being only traditional and ancient, since it also wanted to be perceived as modern and diverse. Resulting from this consideration, imitations of its classical gardens and small-scaled water townscape have been built outside Suzhou so as to relieve tourism-related congestion in the old town. However, during the interviews, several tourists uttered irritated feelings caused by these fake antiquities. The old architecture, especially with its weathered appearances, turns out to be more attractive, for its historical value and abundance of stories.

Among the landscape elements preferred by tourists, only some sections with plants (such as ancient trees), local buildings (such as former residences of celebrities) and bridges (such as famous historical bridges) are demonstrably mentioned in current preservation policies or regional regulations (see table 6-2), whilst others are below the average preservation standard. The locals themselves, for example, are seen by tourists as the soul of the water town which would be unthinkable without them. However, none of the current policies are dealing with the role the locals are playing in the traditional landscape, i.e. tourist attraction. The same situation can be found in the residents’ lifestyle. Actually, in recent years, the local government has tried 133

6 Discussion to persuade the locals to live more modern and advanced lives, owing to considerations such as ensuring hygiene, reducing pollution, improving the management level and so on. Quite a few traditional lifestyles have thus already been abandoned, and others are in the course of disappearing. This is a serious problem that should not be neglected anymore if we want to maintain the cultural identification as well as the traditional landscape in a holistic manner (figure 6-4).

Landscape versus tourism Tourism versus landscape

The landscape is one of the key factors that Tourists as catalysers of the system determine the touristic potential of a (congestion, pollution, spatial paling and destination tourism infrastructure)

Tourism as a tool of experiencing and living Tourists as ‘progress-makers’ the beauty of the landscape

Landscape management and tourism policy

 The pressing need for preserving natural and cultural resources and combating the congestion of touristic areas;  On the one hand, there is a need for preserving the landscape via a management system that is respectful of the natural heritage;  On the other hand, an approach devoted to sustainable tourism is also a priority;  Integrating tourism into landscape policies and management – and vice versa.

Figure 6-4 Landscape and tourism (adapted from Izzo, 2010).

6.2.3 The application of a new concept on traditional landscape management

Research question 5: How is the traditional landscape interacting with humans?

In order to understand how the traditional landscape interacts with humans, the essential part is to find out what it delivers for human life as well as what human beings receive from the landscape. That is where the new concept of cultural ecosystem services (CES) has been applied in order to answer the research question, which also means to perceive the traditional landscape as an urban ecosystem.

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Based on the literature study and the interviews, a total of 27 cultural ecosystem services from various beneficiaries have been identified. These 27 services have been ordered into eight groups classified by the MEA (2005). From table 6-3, it becomes clear that the most-recognized service category is recreation and ecotourism, including relaxation, inner serenity, being close to nature, mental well-being, recreation, peaceful respite and the awe of nature. The result fits the orientation of Suzhou as a tourism city, offering opportunities for both residents and tourists. Both groups hold positive attitudes towards the traditional urban landscape by expressing the above feelings, which actually all represent something that contrasts the fast pace of modern urban life. Interestingly, even though this is an urban area, people still feel that they are close to nature or express their awe of nature. This might be attributed to the intelligent design of the classical gardens for harmonizing biotic and abiotic elements, the well-preserved water townscape and the strictly implemented building style regulations in the old town, the relatively high density of urban afforestation or to other reasons. For sure, this phenomenon could provide valuable information and application opportunities for other Chinese cities.

The second-most-cited category is ‘others’, i.e. not fitting the MEA-defined CES categories. If considering these services thoroughly, a reinforcement of the human character, culture carriers, positive energy flows, longevity as well as nature and humanity ideology could be drawn, i.e. the conclusion that they are all quite place-person-oriented. In particular, the premise must be fulfilled for receiving a (people-oriented) reinforcement of the human character as a cultural service: fully acknowledging the landscape and the meaning of related landscape elements. In the past, many distinguished scholars used this strategy to identify the fellows who shared the same life ambitions and purposes. It is also one of the services that are facing the risk of vanishing. During literature study, numerous examples were found in ancient Chinese literature that pinpointed the ecosystem as reinforcement for the human character. In current articles on landscape research, though, this only still exists in textbooks as example for the cultural elite, without application anymore in modern landscape design. A culture carrier such as the CES has a similar meaning but covers a rather wide range. Although it could also be found and identified in ancient Chinese literature, in current landscape management, some experts are still operating this service in order to exhibit the specifications of certain cultural aspects. The CES that results exclusively from the interviewer’s domestic background has not been identified. A large sample size also includes foreigners who might contribute more satisfying results. Energy flowing positively, longevity as well as nature and humanity ideology are rather place-oriented, which means that it is important to define the scale of the study in the first place.

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Table 6-3 Cultural ecosystem services received by the public – both local residents and tourists – in the Suzhou traditional urban landscape

CES categorized by CES identified in the present study in the urban landscape of Suzhou The number of MEA CES in each group

Religious and spiritual Buddhist mood; Connection with ancestors 2 value

Social relations Social intercourse; Community connection-building; Social network 3

Inspiration Inspiration by art; Inspiration by poems and paintings 2

Educational value Education; Knowledge of history and heritage; Historical lessons 3

Aesthetic value Aesthetic beauty; Poetry ambience 2

Sense of place Proudness; Cultural identity; 2

Cultural heritage value History, knowledge and character preservation 2

Recreation and Relaxation; Inner serenity; Being close to nature; Mental well-being; Recreation; 6 ecotourism Peaceful respite

Others Reinforcement of the human character; Cultural carrier; Energy flowing 5 positively; Longevity; Nature and humanity ideology

The next cultural service category that is easy to recognize is educational value, with four aspects, to be precise. Among them, capacity-building benefits the local residents most. According to UNISDR (2016), capacity-building means ‘the process by which people systematically stimulate and develop their capability over time to achieve social and economic goals, including improvement of knowledge, skills, systems and institutions – which a wider social and cultural enabling environment.’ In this case, though, the residents do not develop physical specialities, but rather a kind of knowledge, a conception of the world and attitudes towards life, education and so on (see 5.3.3). This is also a benefit only to be experienced by those who have constant and long-term interactions with the landscape. ‘Old Suzhouer’ is the nickname the outside world has given the people who originate in Suzhou. It even becomes a special label with the connotation of intelligence, rich culture and knowledge possession. Obviously, this cultural service provides people with useful and necessary knowledge to fully realize the significance of traditional culture, landscape, architecture, lifestyle and a life in harmony with nature. Nowadays, modernization and urbanization are abundant all over China, threatening the preservation of historic heritage sites. Not only the ‘Old Suzhouer’ should be consulted but also the residents in the other cities like Suzhou. Then their capacity-building as CES might be edited systematically and utilized by decision-makers and managers. The other 136

6 Discussion three educational values of the urban landscape in Suzhou have long been agreed on locally as well as nationally. In particular, the educational value manifests itself not only in respect of history, but also in aesthetics, poetry, design and other elements. In reality, there are quite a lot of educational institutions that organize regular tours to Suzhou’s old town for different purposes or subjects.

According to the MEA, social relations are established in particular cultures that are deeply influenced by ecosystems. In different societies, these social relations differ. Accordingly, the Wu culture is actually a consequence of the impacts by the regional ecosystem. Both literature study and interviews exhibited that social relations have been gained and applied as cultural services in sociality for a long time. From the results in chapter 5.3, the special social relations in Suzhou manifest themselves in activities that relate to various landscape elements, such as the fishing tradition due to the vast water body, appreciating flowers at regular urban events due to the climate being suitable for various plant species, the exquisite Suzhou embroidery, which is interwoven with the silkworm culture in suitable natural conditions, taking a stroll with pet birds and, last but not least, social gatherings for cultural interaction. This social intercourse among the citizens becomes an inseparable part of their lives. Not surprisingly, these social relations as cultural services were not mentioned by the interviewed tourists (see 5.3.4); they are thus also people-oriented. Social relations might be one of the most important and oldest cultural services for the locals. Due to ecosystem degradation from urban development, some social gatherings had to be reduced. For example, one of the local daily activities was to wash one’s clothes along the shores (picture 5-14) during which people could exchange information and maintain their social connectedness. Nowadays, however, this scene is seen rather rarely in the urban area and survives only in memories. Several reasons apply here: 1. modern urban design brought structural changes for the canals so that canal water lost in quantity as well as its self- purification ability, so it became unsuitable for such activities; 2. the new regulation about water canal preservation restricted the domestic use of the canals; 3. a modern water supply and drainage system has started to be established in the households. Since modernization is still continuing, other cultural services might be in danger of disappearing, resulting in more changes of local residents’ lifestyles. CES is a promising concept to capture and analyze the potential changes.

One thing necessary to be highlighted is the absence of ecotourism in this study. Ecotourism is defined as responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people and involves interpretation and education with the specification that education is to staff and guests (TIES, 2015). The three pillars of ecotourism are conservation, community and interpretation (TIES,

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2015). In fact, together with local authorities, some travel agencies of Suzhou are trying to promote ecotourism in order to catch up with new trends.14 However, these ecotourism services in Suzhou are just pioneers at the frontier of exploration in China, because the awareness of most domestic tourists is not yet strong enough to meet the principles of ecotourism15 (TIES, 2015), especially in respect of reducing the physical, social, environmental and behavioural impacts on their travel destinations (Chen et al., 2001). During the field interviews in this study, no one mentioned anything that could be related to ecotourism. There is indeed much potential in the Suzhou landscape that could promote this kind of sustainable tourism that benefits historical heritage preservation.

One feature that makes CES interesting as well as hard to generalize is that people do not realize that they gain so much benefit from the landscape – or they get so used to these benefits that they are not aware of them anymore. In the interviews, questions were asked carefully so as to guide the interviewees towards having positive feelings about the landscape. Furthermore, these feelings should adhere to a certain landscape set or element specifically. Of course, some tourists expressed feelings like ‘pleasant’, but wouldn’t have an idea what exactly that feeling is and what causes it. This is not a rare case. Probably, the unawareness of beneficiaries also contributes to the understudied status of CES in China.

Approaches towards cultural ecosystem services in traditional urban areas in China

Even though the CES concept has been around for many years, its application in China in the context of urban area is non-existent. The reasons for CES being hard to study in comparison with other ES mainly lie in its general dependence on an individual’s value systems (La Rosa et al., 2016), whilst other ecosystem services could be assessed and quantified independently from the presence of humans (Nahuelhual et al., 2014). The second issue concerns the different uses of spatial geographical scales for CES assessment (Abson & Termansen, 2011; Burkhard et al., 2012). Scale matters because the relations between environmental, economic and social processes that underlie environmental systems are too complex to unravel at any scale beyond the rather local one (NAS/NRC, 1996). Besides, when talking about measurements and operationalizations with CES through specific indicators, there is lack of conceptual clarity (La Rosa et al., 2016). In an urban context, research about CES is poorly developed (La Rosa et al.,

14 Report in 2015: http://news.2500sz.com/news/szxw/xsxw/xq/xwsd/2015/3/26/2613962.shtml (in Chinese). Accessed 30.10.2016 15 Principles of Ecotourism (TIES, 2015): Minimize physical, social, behavioural and psychological impacts; build environmental and cultural awareness and respect; provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts; provide direct financial benefits for conservation; generate financial benefits for both local people and the private industry; deliver memorable interpretative experiences to visitors that help raise sensitivity to host countries’ political, environmental and social climates; design, construct and operate low-impact facilities; recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of the indigenous people in your community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment. 138

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2016), and its implementation is still only a promise (Hasse et al., 2014). There are two reasons to point out here: 1. cultural services flow from production sites to consumption sites (Costanza, 2008), which this creates mismatches and differences for assessment. 2. the concentration of CES beneficiaries is usually higher in urban areas and might result in frequent overlaps (that are also difficult to interpret) between the spatial extent of research and the spatial scale of its applications (La Rosa et al., 2016).

The most authoritative governmental report on CES research in China is the one published in the annual report of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) in 2010. For the first time, a governmental report and proposal focused on ecosystem services in China. However, in this report, Ecosystem Service and Management Strategy in China, the authors listed three major ecosystems of significance to the nation: forests, grassland and wetlands (CCICED, 2010) – without mentioning urban systems, despite the fact that large numbers of urban ecosystems exist nowadays in China and that their degradation is mainly due to the fast sprawl of urban areas.

It is acknowledged by Chinese scholars and the authorities themselves that ecosystem services are still on a threshold in China. According to the literature review for this study, quite a few documents deal with managing and applying ecosystem services. CCICED (2010) has defined ecosystem management as ‘the combination of management activities and all the laws, regulations, other institutions, education and public behaviour that contribute to a sustainable provision of ecosystem service’. From this definition, the active partners in managing ecosystem services could be identified: decision-makers, law-makers, educational institutions and the public. The equally important role of non-authority bodies (i.e. public and educational institutes), whose indispensability has been proven in numerous studies outside China (Wang et al., 2013), has also been noticed. In the fieldwork, all participants confirmed that they had never been consulted about the purpose of the landscape or urban ecosystem management.

Linking cultural ecosystem services with the traditional landscape

Schaich et al. (2010) concluded that CES have only been assessed marginally, hence they proposed to link ecosystem services with the cultural landscape in order to fill the gap. Actually, linking CES with landscape research benefits not only the ecosystem research agenda but also landscape studies in some ways. In the present study, traditional landscape elements do have valuable meanings for the society and country, but when talking about their values to the public, the CES concept opens another perspective. For example, the traditional garden design offers the public a vivid lesson for the cultural quintessence that the gardens express feelings of proudness as well as connecting people with their ancestors. By identifying which traditional 139

6 Discussion landscape elements are mostly associated with which cultural services, more reasonable landscape management plans might be developed (figure 6-5). In practice, the value and function (such as delivering cultural services) of a certain landscape element are not always symmetrical. Once a landscape element has been evaluated to be worthless for preservation by experts, it is facing the destiny of dereliction – despite the fact that it might deliver invaluable cultural services. As has happened and still is happening in China, many traditional landscape units have been destroyed for the greater good or for economic development. An intensive investigation into traditional landscape elements from the perspective of ecosystem service should be conducted as soon as possible, before even more elements are being destroyed; thus, their value to the public could be understood and appreciated for future management. People who gain positive experiences and feelings from a landscape are more likely to support or to protect it from degradation or loss (Gobster et al., 2007). Furthermore, by identifying the cultural services of a traditional landscape, their changes and dynamics could also be clarified.

Cultural ecosystem services Traditional cultural landscape (element)

 Identity  Architecture  Proudness  Garden  Heritage values  Vegetation  Other services  Other elements

Assessment of CES in the landscape Landscape management

 Classification of ecosystem services according to  Implementation of MEA MEA  Implementation e.g. of the World  Detailed characterization of CES; Heritage Convention;  Integration of CES and other types of ecosystem  Implementation of other services at the landscape scale regulations etc.

Figure 6- 5 Conceptual model of the linkages between cultural ecosystem services and landscape management (Tengberg et al., 2012).

Spatial distribution of cultural ecosystem services

Once cultural services and related traditional landscape elements have been identified, the mapping of their spatial distribution could also be tackled. It is both the location and the extent of natural features within a defined system area that have a significant influence on the type and degree of the services supplied (Morse-Jones et al., 2011). Actually, mapping cultural services is

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6 Discussion a particularly important step from theoretical discussions to operational planning and real-world problem-solving (Boumans & Costanza, 2007; Fisher et al., 2009). According to Ambrose-Oji and Pagella (2012), mapping the spatial distribution of CES could support landscape decision- making by providing tools which

 improve the inter-institutional understanding and inform both strategic and operational decision-making (de Groot et al., 2010; Pettit et al., 2011); and  communicate information intuitively and simply amongst resource managers and members of the public about complex interactions between ecosystem services across spatial and temporal scales (Cowling et al., 2008).

However, some studies do analyze the spatial distribution of CES based on the survey of public perceptions and preferences (Brown & Raymond, 2007; Klain & Chan, 2012; Plieninger et al., 2013). The problem is that these studies were conducted on a local scale; thus, mapping this distribution on a regional or even larger scale is still unrealized (Martínez Pastur et al., 2016). The majority of scientific CES researches have been carried out in Europe and North America, whilst in Asia, the topic remains understudied (Hernandez Morcillo et al., 2013; Martínez Pastur et al., 2016; Milcu et al., 2013). The interesting issue is that even though some researchers have suggested that a global platform of geo-tagged digital images such as Google Earth and Flickr could be of much use for mapping cultural services (Nahuelhual et al., 2013; Wood et al., 2013), most of those tools are not accessible in China – which, not surprisingly, widen the gap even more.

The spatial distribution of identified CES has not been measured in this study in consequence of the limited number of participants and the relatively limited interview spots. It is senseless to map CES unless the majority of the population and the whole of the old town are covered. This being a private project with narrow funding, workforce and a tight timeframe determines this shortcoming.

Application of indigenous knowledge to a concept of cultural ecosystem services

In a traditional community, a wealth of knowledge transfers from generation to generation has been accumulated, indicating the meaning of plants, ecosystems (even though this terminology may not be generated yet) and special products (both material and intangible) as well as technologies for using them in balanced ways (Schmithüsen, 1998). Local people’s knowledge about their own surroundings represents a particular culture they have developed over centuries of life experiences. In many cases, local knowledge and experiences are not taken into consideration, but are instead opposed through scientific resource concepts and governmental

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6 Discussion management regulations (Schmithüsen, 1998). The fact that these are determined by outsiders without daily contact and familiarities with a landscape (but intending to manage it for the insiders) could result in unwanted conflicts.

Chambers (1979) has made ‘indigenous knowledge’ an important topic in terms of an economic and culturally sound development of Third World countries. Although the term ‘indigenous knowledge’ was originally applied to forest management, to date, it has been widely referred to for sustainable development in many fields. It describes human life experiences in a distinct natural and social compound, within a unique local and contemporary setting (Seeland, 1998). The word ‘indigenous’ emerges as the local or regional people’s perception and experience in an environment at a given time as a continuous process of observation and interpretation in relation to the locally acknowledged everyday rationalities and transcendental powers (Seeland, 1998). These people share a common habitat, language and knowledge, be it exoteric or esoteric. Indigenous knowledge – or local knowledge, as many researchers also call it –, encompasses everything that has been revealed to human perception in a particular place or region. Seeland (1998) has further discussed that in traditional regions, indigenous knowledge will always be guiding the minds despite the intrusion of modern science and technology. Of course, new knowledge and ideas are being integrated into local minds all the time, but in their own way of ‘digesting’ and interpreting them. Sooner or later, this knowledge would also become a part of indigenous knowledge, yet may be altered to some extent. The vast majority of natural and social scientists is convinced that indigenous knowledge is a significant component to be safeguarded in order to manage the environment or landscape in a local manner, as has been done in the past (Seeland, 1998). CBD has appealed to each working party that “as far as possible and as appropriate, subject to national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge innovations and practice” (CBD, 2016). CBD considers indigenous knowledge not only as pure knowledge but also practically as science and valuable resources, especially in light of the environment (which is thought of as the whole ‘world’ by many traditional tribes) and historical heritage.

Indigenous (i.e. local or traditional) knowledge is not only information but rather a system of lifestyles, the environment, vegetation and so on. Manifold indigenous knowledge forms various systems which share a number of objectives and characteristics which distinguish them from most modern information and practices, including the following (Parrotta et al., 2016):

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 Sustainability. In traditional tribes, people intensively depend on their surroundings. Thus, maintaining and ensuring the land’s productive ability for the next generations is an unwritten primary goal.  Relationships. Connections between people and with their territory are not severed by the use of new knowledge, ideas or techniques.  Identity. People’s distinct cultural identity is called ‘indigenous’.  Reciprocity. People maintain their system of benefit-sharing among each other.  Limits on exchange. While people may engage in market exchange with the flow of farming or fishing products, the fundamental productivity of the system itself is not viewed as an exchange of capital.

These characteristics help explain how indigenous knowledge could be a potential solution for preservation projects and how it has helped local and indigenous communities survive, evolve and sustain themselves across generations as well as changing environmental and socio-political conditions (Parrotta & Trosper, 2012).

What the interviews with local residents reveal in the present study is also part of their indigenous knowledge database. They have been living in balance with and in the traditional landscape for generations before the incursion of modern civilization. How they perceive and understand the landscape is quite valuable for preservation work. Unfortunately, in China, the importance and the property rights of indigenous knowledge are strongly disregarded (Yuan et al., 2012). Suzhou has always been the centre of the Wu culture, which is the dominant culture in the southern Yangtze River Delta. Before the incursion of modern civilization, the Wu culture had been very successful in terms of a harmonious nature-human relationship. Concerning ecosystem services, the indigenous knowledge of the Wu culture could be of a great use. It has its own cognitive system, including the comprehension of species of the local flora and fauna as well as their traditional medicinal application and habits; practical technology application in daily life that is beneficial for the environment as well as for human well-being; knowledge on environmental and biodiversity protection through folk art, literature, handicraft, religious rituals and folk regulation; knowledge about the quality of land, soil and the best timing of rainfall. For example, water plays a significant role in people’s lives in Suzhou so that it is assigned not only a physical existence but also a kind of spiritual guidance and ballast. The water serves daily necessities of living and transportation and inspires people to create their brilliant fine art, poetry and music, so they respect and protect the water as something sacred. That is one of the reasons why the water canals have been flowing smoothly for over a thousand years without being destroyed or contaminated. Local people’s knowledge about the

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6 Discussion water (canals, rivers, rain and so on) offers valuable references for projects focusing on urban canal preservation, landscape planning and so on. Another major example is the historic vegetation in Suzhou. Based on the interviews, among the plants of the urban landscape, some species possess a religious or spiritual significance for the community. The residents have even voted a city tree (Cinnamomum camphora) and a city flower (Osmanthus fragrans) to exhibit the spiritual pursuit and character of the city as well as of its people. Interviewees responded positively to the protection of plants by indicating that they would not allow any damaging actions against these species. This is a brilliant idea for decision-makers and experts to draw lessons from, not only for protection projects but also as a warning system for any possibly negative changes to the urban landscape. As Bharara (1997) has declared, indigenous knowledge systems are adapted to local cultures and environmental conditions and are often superior to modern techniques brought in from outside.

Kumar (2001) has published a study that investigated the indigenous knowledge of ecosystem services in forests, which turned out to be the first step to incorporating indigenous knowledge into forest management. He concluded that such extensive local-ecological knowledge could be a useful tool not only for forest management and development programmes, but also for improving a local community’s economic situation and ensuring the long-term sustainability of forest management (Kumar, 2001). In another step, a study conducted by Ouédraogo et al. (2014) in Western Africa tried to identify the ecosystem services derived from plant communities based on indigenous knowledge. Only informants from local tribes had been interviewed to find out about ecosystem services outsiders or experts could not anticipate or experience. The result exposed approximately 20 ecosystem services specifically received by the local population, and over 70 woody species that mostly related to these services had been quoted by the informants. This is a brilliant case for applying indigenous knowledge on ecosystem services assessment for conservation purposes. If the identified woody species and related forests – ecosystem service providers – were damaged, the well-being of local communities would decrease (Ouédraogo et al., 2014). With this background, indigenous knowledge furnishes the conservation project with real insider views and is thus priceless.

In China, research about or application of indigenous knowledge is totally blank. Quite a lot of indigenous knowledge has been orally passed down from generation to generation, often in the form of stories, songs, folklore and proverbs (Parrotta et al., 2016) and without any written documents. This could end up with two negative consequences: that the knowledge could get lost easily; and by sparking conflicts between indigenous people and project staff from outside, because there are no references to refer to before launching new projects. Xu & Guo (2009)

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6 Discussion have published the only journal article in Chinese to discuss the situation and the value of indigenous knowledge in light of environment protection, yet the discussion was rather brief, without case studies and literature reviews. As yet, no article has been published in China concerning the application of indigenous knowledge for ecosystem service research at all.

The premise for the application of indigenous knowledge to practical projects is the availability and existence of such knowledge. As fieldwork was taken up, special local learning was necessary, for example the meanings and symbols of various landscape elements to the local community. For the promotion of the status of indigenous knowledge in Suzhou traditional landscape management (or even nationally), four aspects could be relied on. The first is to investigate, to unscramble and then to categorize the collected local knowledge. This requires a well-designed project that approaches the locals and gathers valuable information. Such a project needs cooperation by the authorities, scientific staff as well as community leaders. Local knowledge is a system and is comprised of a wide array of subjects. Investigative work should thus be comprehensive. Once information collection has been finished, the second stage of pinpointing effective and eliminating useless knowledge starts. Based on local knowledge being a result of accumulating years of life experiences, some details are rather incorrect or not suitable anymore. This kind of information should be treated carefully. Furthermore, as one of the objects of CBD (Carrizosa et al., 2004), indigenous knowledge encompasses property rights just like other documents; hence, it should be protected as a copyright so as to avoid perversions and theft. This can also protect the rights of local communities and people. At the end, particular laws and regulations should be launched so as to ensure the constitution and preservation of indigenous knowledge for future work.

Implementation of cultural ecosystem services in traditional landscape management

In China, ecosystem services have been studied as a theory; but how to put them it into practice is still being discussed and requires solid experiments, especially in terms of the implementation of CES in landscape management. The above discussion expressed the importance and possibility to apply the CES concept to solving real-life problems. However, is there a way to link the CES concept and landscape management strategies or so-called decision-making? Rawcliffe (2015) has summarized interdependencies between human well-being, landscape management and related policies (figure 6-6). Figure 6-6 shows that efficient policies in terms of CES derived from the landscape, human life and the landscape itself are inextricably commingled. In order to achieve the goal of a more sustainable landscape and better human

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6 Discussion well-being, multi-disciplinary studies, the participation of various stakeholders, the cooperation of ecologists and social scientists and, most importantly, the public should be ensured.

Unfortunately, only few papers have explicitly tackled the challenges of involving socio-cultural values in ecosystem service assessments (Milcu et al., 2013; Raudsepp-Hearne et al., 2010; Tzoulas & James, 2010). And even fewer have acknowledged the need to adapt institutional arrangements to a non-utilitarian perspective (Daily et al., 2009; Holt et al., 2011; Milcu et al., 2013). There is long way to go indeed before cultural ecosystem services will be integrated into policy agendas.

Landscape quality maintained or improved

Special qualities of places maintained or enriched and capable of better supporting human activities and the related CES that provided

Policy aspiration: Increased numbers of people who are more strongly involved across a Better landscape preservation broader range of activities, including CES Better human well-being

More benefits and experiences with them deepened and enriched

CES increased: healthier and happier people;

Quality of preserved places: better places

Figure 6-6 Policy outcomes for landscapes and human well-being (Rawcliffe, 2015).

International experiences show many useful strategies for effectively managing ecosystems, especially those that are normally excluded, such as urban systems. Prerequisites for successful management could include the following (CCICED, 2010):

 The services should be made specific and quantifiable. The present study tries to identify the CES that can be derived from an urban landscape. Because of labour force limitations, the sample size was not big enough for further analysis, let alone for a quantification which would require a vast dataset.  Decision-makers should recognize the full spectrum of human impacts and consider actions ranging from preserving intact ecosystems to restoring damaged ones and allowing the appropriate use of less threatened ones.

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 Active partners should include local communities, the industry and research institutions.  Establishing ecosystem services-based management requires investments, restoration, monitoring and stakeholders who benefit most from the ecosystem services.  Demonstrating the benefits for people (clean water, flood protection, hydropower etc.) is important in the early stages of innovation and promotion of ecosystem services and management. Vice versa, it is important to enquire with people about the intangible benefits they have experienced at the beginning of decision-making processes.  The funding to promote ecosystem services and management should be commensurate with the scale of the problem. Under-investment can fail to protect ecosystems, whereas over-investment could retard economic growth. The present study has only touched the surface of a potentially great project. Such a project needs long-running funding and abundant working groups for cooperation.

6.2.4 The variable

As chapter 5 has shown, the variable of the public did not show much difference in the results. Age, gender, educational background and occupation (i.e. the social status) do not necessarily impact their perceptions of the traditional landscape. Instead, their personal stories and former experiences do, which is surprising. Numerous Chinese documents suggest that education features prominently in terms of landscape preservation, as well as people with a higher educational background who would have more appreciation of the landscape (Jia & Peng, 2009). This, however, cannot be concluded empirically from this study.

As yet, there are indeed differences between residents and tourists towards the traditional landscape (table 6-4). With respect to their perceptions, the residents are the ones who have daily contact with and rely on the landscape whilst tourists come briefly and are looking for its special characteristics. As descried above, residents and tourists are both significant parties for landscape preservation, yet the current preservation trend often ignores both groups, especially the residents. The decision-makers are trying to work up the more modern tourism destinations outside of Suzhou for the sake of tourists based on the concepts of the tourism industry. During this process, though, the interests of residents are affected or harmed. Here, a significant point comes into play of comparing the perceptions between these two parties and identifying the trade-offs; simultaneously, the interests of the authorities also have to be met (figure 6-7).

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Table 6-4 Differences between residents and tourists on account of their perceptions towards the traditional landscape

Traditional landscape Residents Tourists

Water The most representative and traditional Hardly mentioned; element; Water and boats as beautiful scenery Daily usage; Childhood memories; Social activities

Vegetation The second-most representative and traditional Most representative; element; Aesthetic beauty Beautiful and functional; Cultural meaning

Architecture Life memories; Second-most representative; Willingness to have modern and convenient Full of authentic atmosphere, especially the architecture very old buildings

Classical gardens Very representative Very representative

Traffic infrastructure Willingness to have modern transportation The small and narrow alleys are appreciated means instead of narrow alleys on behalf of and considered to be representative human well-being, such as fire engines and ambulances

Intangible elements Very important and representative; Not mentioned Daily activities; Recreation

Others - Tourists enjoy the landscape as a holistic pleasure, including hearing, touching, smelling different traditional landscape elements

The ideal scenario is that the needs of every party affected by the traditional landscape could be met. In reality, though, this can be really tricky. The decision-makers should consider all aspects and make decisions about the priorities in traditional landscape preservation. When putting the interest of tourists first, the residents and other parties might have to suffer from the consequences, as has already happened in Suzhou several years ago. However, if putting the priorities on residents and their demands, tourism incomes might be reduced. On the other hand, if strictly preserving the traditional landscape by eliminating as many human impacts as possible, it might lose its identity sooner or later due to surviving without human coexistence (Brown, 2011).

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Special tourist sights Street trees as a part of life routines Positive experiences and feelings Local Tourists Residents

Convenient facilities Comfortable circumstances

Clear, suitable living Superb and attractive circumstances cityscape

Related Authorities

Motivated and satisfied residents Enhanced tourism infrastructure for higher revenues

Figure 6-7 Different demands for the Suzhou landscape from different interested parties.

6.3 The premise for traditional landscape preservation in China for a promising future

Research question 6: Are there new perspectives from the results that differ from the normal or so-called official epistemology?

The results from chapter 5 have shown interestingly, yet not surprisingly that the perceptions towards the Suzhou traditional landscape by residents and tourists are not necessarily matching the current official preservation points as discussed in chapter 6.2. Actually, the current preservation strategies in Suzhou, both national and regional, were launched by decision-makers based on the cooperation of government-chartered heritage experts. These experts would evaluate the cultural and economic value of the heritage elements, including the traditional landscape itself and the individual elements within it. The detailed criteria of the evaluation are not available for the general public; however, the results already indicate the disjoint of the evaluation with the public. Again, whatever the consideration might be, ‘valuable’ should not only apply on a national level but also to the people as they are the most important part of a 149

6 Discussion nation and culture. Many landscape elements are emotionally and spiritually essential for people, even though they might not be regarded as being ‘valuable’ by the experts. If we let this happen again, losses (such as identity) would be inevitable and irreversible.

For a promising future concerning preservation in Suzhou and China, or for any kind of conservation work, in the involvement of the public is a must. Its most critical part is raising awareness, not only on the part of the authorities, but also of the public itself.

Raising awareness

Most Chinese, including people in high positions, do not realize the indivisible interrelations between landscape and society, resulting in a disjoint between preservation and societal development (CHINA.com, 2003)16. Even though elucidated people in China have called on activities by the public to pay more attention to urban landscapes and have gained positive responses from the young generation and scholars, their mission is far beyond one man’s power. When talking about awareness, we refer to understanding the fragility of our landscape and the significance of and approach to protecting it (Pachamama Alliance, 2016). Education and information are doubtlessly the most powerful and useful tool that can be inculcated into the psyche of humans.

1. Education should encompass educating children as much as adults. In contrast to children, adults are rather difficult to inculcate, for their moral views have already been formed, especially of those who come from less-developed, peripheral or tribal areas where the ecosystems are extremely significant and/or vulnerable and require urgent protection measures. In such a context, reaching out to the communities and traditional leaders or venerable elders is essential. These people may not possess a political status but have great prestige in their local community; their words and actions have great power and influence in the public. For example, in many lagging and secluded Chinese areas, there are the so- called ‘fortune tellers’ who are living outside the authoritative world but gain respect from the public due to their ability to predict auspices. They are mostly also among the few people in their area to be educated or at least literate. Persuading them to understand the importance of being involved in landscape management and then relying on them for distributing this knowledge to the masses is theoretically and technically feasible. In addition, because it is rather harsh for outsiders to intensively communicate with the locals, they could assist to bridge the gap between the communities and the outside world. 2. Religion might have a significant assisting role for promoting landscape preservation. Actually, back in 1929, Wilson remarked in his classic ‘China, mother of gardens’:

16 See the internet report on CHINA.com: http://www.china.com.cn/chinese/huanjing/464686.htm. Accessed 06.01.2016 150

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“The world at large does not realize how deeply it is indebted to religious communities for the preservation of many trees. In Europe, for example, most of the best varieties of pears originated in the gardens attached to religious establishments in France and Belgium and were introduced into England and other countries after the battle of Waterloo.”

He specified the Chinese case by writing that

“in China, where every available bit of land is devoted to agriculture, quite a number of trees must long ago have become extinct but for the timely intervention of Buddhist and Taoist priests. The most noteworthy example of this benevolent preservation is the Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba). This strikingly beautiful tree is associated with temples, shrines, courtyards of palaces, and mansions of the wealthy throughout the length and breadth of China (…) Geological evidence shows that it is the last survivor of an ancient family (…) and can even be traced back to the Primary rocks.”

As a notable plant collector, Wilson noticed the common presence of normally rare tree species in precincts of religious sanctuaries in China. Based on his cautious observation and investigation, he acknowledged the magnificent work religion had done for plant preservation. Generally speaking, China is an infidel nation religion playing no important role in either national issues or individual life. Yet there is quite a number of religious believers17 and temples all over the country, and even the non-religious population has respect for the temples and the information delivered from the monks. Successful research have been conducted into applying religion or belief as tool for nature conservation (such as Eneji et al., 2012; Hope et al., 2014; Rim-Rukeh et al., 2013). This could also be a good approach in the Chinese case.

3. The mass media, such as newspapers, TV and especially the internet, could play an effective role in raising awareness. For example, WeChat (in Chinese: Wexin) has over a billion accounts and 700 million active users (May, 2016), and according to estimations, the market penetration index of WeChat in China reached 93 % in 2013 (Sina Buz & Tech, 2013). WeChat is already social media sensation due to its capability of reaching out to a majority of all classes. If the WeChat platform was used reasonably and wisely, vast groups of people could be properly contacted and informed. The other advantage of WeChat is that it is open for everyone. A well-organized information team who has accessibility to accurate information is a path to success. Additionally, the way of spreading information is also strongly related to success. For example, for the masses, combining landscape

17 The number of Daoists in China is approximately 50,000, with over 9,000 Daoist temples, whilst Buddhists number approximately 100 million (with 80% not being baptized), with over 35,000 Buddhist temples, according to the State Administration of Religious Affairs See: http://www.sara.gov.cn/zwgk/17839.htm. Accessed 09.05.2016 151

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preservation with stories and then broadcasting them as advertisements could be more useful and attractive than just pure knowledge. 4. Awareness campaigns for target groups have proven to be most successful, according to UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme). Actually, when people do not pay enough attention to one issue, it often means that they do not understand how that particular issue could affect themselves. Landscape and ecosystem issues do not come up overnight; rather, they are cumulative effects of destructive long-term human activities. Unfortunately, many people have either no long-term insight or lack specific knowledge to predict the potential dangers. Such a campaign could bring targeted people together to discuss and share these issues.

These are currently the most-discussed as well as proven effective methods for raising awareness in other countries. Other strategies, like using the celebrity effect, communication with leaders of large enterprises, environmental workshops for politicians and so forth could also offer opportunities. Apart from raising awareness, the premises for better preservation also include capacity-building, trust-building, information disclosure and multiple case studies.

Capacity-building is defined as the development and strengthening of the individual, institutional and societal ability to perform functions, to solve problems and to achieve objectives (UNDP, 2006). Actually, the lack of qualified individuals and institutions also reflects the negligence in involving the public into historical or traditional landscape preservation. For the Suzhou case, the emphasis on capacity-building should at least include the following:

 In order to ensure the feasibility of a project, to avoid overlapping as well as to cover yet untouched issues, the related individuals and institutions should be able to plan and prepare the projects properly – via pilot studies, recognizing the potential obstacles, finding solutions, generating a proper and efficient project plan and so on.  In order to ensure the sound running of a project, qualified researchers are always critical. A lack of highly qualified researchers in a research area poses a great danger of susceptibility to scientific scrutiny as well as for the validity of the project. For example, in order to comprehend the public’s opinions towards landscape preservation, a carefully designed interview or questionnaire is the pacing factor. Furthermore, how to draw useful information from the responses of interviewees who are not holding a scientific background requires a rich knowledge not only about the landscape but also about the human mind.  In order to facilitate recommendations for the implementation of the outcomes, policy- makers, front-line managers and community leaders are on the stage. Their capabilities are

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decisive for utilizing the outcomes, for making decisions based on the results and of taking into consideration the whole picture, for implementing their decisions, for maintaining the implementation and for solving the problems during the whole process.  Among all, individual capacity-building should not be ignored, especially in the local people. They are at the frontline of landscape preservation, and their participation and understanding are of great significance.

There are many approaches to offering capacity-building services, such as workshops, trainings, presentations, community-based methods, education and so on. Indeed, IUCN and WHITRAP have hosted workshops in China aiming at capacity-building towards historical heritage conservation from 2013 to 2015, for the current expertise and management strategies in China do not fit the situation of its heritage anymore. There should be more capacity-building programmes in China, as well as intense cooperation with international institutions.

Trust-building

Lipnack and Stamps (1997) define trust as “the belief or confidence in a person or organisation’s integrity, fairness, and reliability (…) [coming] from past experience, however brief or extensive” and conclude that trust is an essential quality in productive relationships. The duration of the interviews in Suzhou was almost always longer than planned due to the trust issue, for the interviewer had to explain her personal background, the study and the potential use of the interviews. The residents as well as the tourists were suspicious towards the project, thinking the interviews could be misused, but also because they doubted that the results would be implemented efficiently. According to Binder (2007), trust is mainly based on former experiences, which indicates that people are afraid they might get disappointed, made negative experiences with other projects in the past or were just not used to being consulted this way. In any case, if projects on landscape preservation involving the public are expected to succeed in China, trust-building is a necessary precondition.

However, the path to building trust in the public, in decision-makers, project managers, researchers and other stakeholders needs further exploration.

Information disclosure

Information disclosure is one of the prerequisites for trust-building. Too deprived and limited information is one source of the public crisis in China. Insufficient access to environmental information is a major reason for the weakness of public participation in China’s environmental management (Wang et al., 2002). It is not only the task of companies but, most importantly, of the authorities to make information available to the public. For example, concerning historic

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6 Discussion urban landscape preservation, on which evaluation system were the plans based that have been generated? What were the considerations? The author of this thesis has tried to answer these questions via a literature review so that the interviews could be conducted more specifically and effectively. However, neither the public nor the institutional internet (from universities, for example) nor public libraries could offer appropriate material. Actually, for a long time, China has been considered to be an ‘information-poor environment’ where the state is in strong control not only of the economy but also of information (Zhang et al., 2016). For the residents, the lack of information about their own houses, cities and living conditions creates insecurity and distrust.

Information disclosure could also empower the citizens in terms of landscape management. However, this only works if they can trust the information they obtain. Again, this goes back to trust-building. All these approaches are like different sections of a chain in that they are linking with one another and could not function without the coexistence of others.

Multiple studies

In most Chinese mega-cities, the migrants, especially floating labourers, constitute a big proportion of the population (over 50 % on average, like in Suzhou). The unstable living conditions, below-average educational levels, lower social status and insecurities make them vulnerable yet highly relevant to the urban landscape. Their existences and values cannot be ignored; hence, multiple studies in this field are required. They should be designed according to the characteristics of the floating population so as to uncover their roles in landscape preservation and management.

The floating labour population is considered to be a socially vulnerable group in China, yet their great accounts attract a lot of attention nationally. Multiple studies should therefore also be conducted in different areas and on various scales.

6.4 Summary

This chapter analyses the shortcomings of the present study and the results in correspondence with the research questions, as well as the lessons to be drawn from strategies being used in other countries.

As discussed in chapter 6.1, there are flaws in the methodology that might have an impact on the results or create biases. First, there is the advanced study site; just like every coin has two sides, the development of Suzhou determines the success of this research. On the other hand, owing to the development discrepancies between cities in China, the applicability of the results

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6 Discussion is limited. Second, the sample size; ideally, the more numerous and various the interviewees, the more accurate and valid the results could be. But for this case, financial limitations, the timing and workload restrictions posed a great challenge for conducting a large number of interviews with a wider range of interviewees.

However, as presented in chapter 6.2, the results did offer new perspectives for scrutinizing the traditional urban landscape. The most interesting finding is the great difference between public’s perceptions of the traditional landscape and the one of decision-makers. For the residents, for example, the invisible yet significant meanings of the vegetation and the water have not been sufficiently appreciated and recognized in the past; instead, they were ignored by the authorities. These landscape elements are not under proper preservation, which means that if they are destroyed one day due to urban development, the residents will lose important cultural and spiritual treasures. This could also be seen as a form of identity loss. The tourists, for example, expressed negative attitudes towards tourism-oriented imitations of the traditional landscape which have been built outside of Suzhou in order to relieve the tourism pressure for the old town. Without the data collected for this study, there would be no indication of this fact. The efforts by decision-makers in traditional landscape management without involving the public thus turn out to be in vain.

The questions about CES to residents and tourists have provided important insights into the value of the traditional landscape from a natural sciences perspective, too. It is helpful to understand the interactions between humans and the landscape from this angle. There is indeed a difference between the CES residents and tourists receive from the landscape; but still, together, they reveal an appearance of the traditional landscape that has never been viewed before. However, much is still to be done before such research into traditional landscape management can be put into practice. Large-scale projects have already been conducted in other countries to examine the CES derived from different landscape types, and many of them have provided satisfying results. For Suzhou or other Chinese cities, in order to include CES into the urban landscape management agenda, several points have to be discussed and met. The most important one is certainly to raise awareness for the fact that there is indeed a link between the CES concept and traditional urban landscapes. The next point should be the projects designed to identify CES and their spatial distribution within a certain landscape. During the process of the projects, indigenous knowledge could play a critical role for identifying CES. For people’s knowledge of and experiences with the landscape are distinctive due to years of intensive contact and adaptation. After the identification of CES, the means to apply it into traditional landscape policies need to be ascertained.

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An important reference for the future in response to the traditional landscape is the final question of the study. The results presented in the previous chapter have opened up new aspects to look at, yet certain prerequisites must be fulfilled in order to ensure a success of traditional landscape preservation. Raising awareness, capacity-building, trust-building, information disclosure and multiple studies have been identified and discussed as the most essential preconditions for Suzhou as well as other cases in China. Among them, raising awareness is most fundamental for the achievement of the other ones. In other countries, a range of approaches have been proposed and tested as sufficient means for raising awareness, including trainings, school education, the use of religious power, mass media and so on. Not only the awareness of the public should be taken into account, but also the one of decision- makers, institutions, experts, authorities and other stakeholders. The next step is to build the capacity of related individuals or institutions for project preparation, the research design, process management, problem-solving and so forth. For the involvement of the public into landscape preservation, trust-building and information disclosure cannot be overlooked. Confidence in the public, among decision-makers and other stakeholders is elemental for the success of a project and is normally neglected in many landscape preservation projects in China. This negligence has already caused trust issues. Information disclosure has proven to be helpful in other countries to mend these tense issues. With China’s position as geographically and demographically big country, multiple studies are necessary that are conducted in different regions and targeting different traditional landscapes.

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7 Conclusion and recommendations

7.1 Conclusion

According to the above discussion, the main research question ‘How does the public perceive the landscape and why is the landscape important to them?’ could be answered for the case of the old town of Suzhou in China.

On account of the results and discussions in this thesis, it has become clear that local residents and tourists hold perceptions of the traditional landscape that differ from the current understanding of the authorities and thus offer new perspectives. With respect to traditional landscape preservation in the process of urbanization, the public should be treated as the most significant stakeholder, which is currently not yet fully recognized and accepted in China. This creates conflicts between the public and the decision-makers during processes of traditional landscape preservation and urbanization.

This study intends to understand the public’s perceptions towards and interactions with the traditional landscape and thus strives to make future management strategies more efficient, with less conflict. From the residents’ side, their perceptions of the traditional landscape are very experience-related. They have close bonds with the landscape through childhood memories, daily activities, social intercourse, recreation, private emotions and family identity. Such bonds indicate that the residents preserve the traditional landscape and its elements subconsciously. Changes to it not only affect their physical lives but, more importantly, their emotional connections and spiritual beliefs.

Tourists prefer authentic traditional landscape elements, which indicate centuries of history to them. This is in contrast to the current assumption of decision-makers who construct imitations outside the city in order to mimic the appearance of the traditional landscape for attracting tourists. Moreover, the tourists believe that the presence of the residents makes the traditional landscape more representative, traditional and lively. This also differs from the common consideration of local authorities that the existence of humans in the preserved area is not necessary.

The cultural ecosystem service concept opens up a new opportunity to comprehend the interaction between humans and the traditional landscape. The literature study has shown that cultural ecosystem services have been received and described by humans for a long time. These cultural ecosystem services, as delivered by the traditional landscape of Suzhou, have been recognized in the interviews conducted for this study. There are overlaps between residents and 157

7 Conclusion and recommendations tourists in terms of obtaining cultural services, but most of the services have rather different emphases. For residents, the reported cultural services are closer to daily life essentials, whilst for tourists, they are rather oriented towards leisure time or exploration. This diversity stems from the different expectations towards and different relations with the landscape. However, all the cultural ecosystem services received by both groups represent the total cultural value of the landscape. Identifying those services and then preserving them by preserving the landscape is critical. This provides a new perspective on this issue.

7.2 Recommendations

The present study has highlighted a number of aspects for which future research would be beneficial.

Research should be carried out in various cities with different development levels. There are currently over 130 cities in China that have been designated as National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities by the State Council of China, among which Suzhou is just one player. The uneven development and tourism status requires multiple preservation strategies for these cities. Hence, more case studies should be conducted in various cities so as to gain comprehensive insights.

It is recommended that an applicable methodology is developed. The literature study has shown that the preservation of different types of landscapes is becoming a topic in China, yet related efficient methodologies are still missing. Without pertinent and practical scientific methods, however, research into this topic could be hardly fruitful. It should at least include stakeholder engagement, public participation, traditional landscape evaluation, cultural ecosystem service investigation and other measures. In respect of stakeholder engagement and public participation, as defined in chapter 2.4, higher-level engagement and participation should be encouraged by law and by practice. The Western experience could not be simply applied to the China context due to the unique Chinese political system. Rather, suitable and specific methodologies are required. In light of traditional landscape evaluation, not only the experts should be consulted – as is happening so far –, but also other stakeholders and the public; not only traditional landscape research methods have to be stressed but also new concepts like cultural ecosystem services. Actually, all these aspects are interdependent and cannot be dissevered. For an evaluation of the traditional landscape, the cultural ecosystem services concept has to be involved; and during the process of traditional landscape evaluation and cultural ecosystem services investigation, stakeholder engagement and public participation

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7 Conclusion and recommendations concepts are also playing significant roles. An interdisciplinary methodology is thus indispensable.

Qualified researchers are essential for the success of the research. Conducting such research requires well-trained interviewers, not only for the interview design but also for digging up valuable information with interviewees who are not used to being asked their opinion. Besides, qualified researchers could assist in terms of study design and methodology development.

Cooperation among various institutions along with sufficient funding and long-term research is of significance. Staff shortages, limited funding and strict time allowance could result in insufficient research outcomes, particularly if a large sample is required. The cooperation of various institutions is necessary to ensure a systematic and synthetic analysis of the landscape and public voices. For example, when conducting research in remote areas, the local community could be very helpful in terms of language, behaviour interpretation, beliefs and other matters.

If the above requirements can be fulfilled, the following recommendations for traditional landscape preservation could be proposed.

It is recommended that the decision-makers take into account associated research projects. The conventional top-down approach and merely leaning on experts and the authorities could not be maintained in the long run in the context of landscape preservation. The present research provides exceptional information for decision-makers to refer to if new management strategies are to be drawn up. Large-scale research would add even more valuable and valid data for decision-making – but only if the decision-makers take them into account.

Although it is costly and time consuming, it is still more promising to involve all interested parties for landscape preservation. Landscape preservation requires a complex management that affects and is affected by many parties, as discussed in chapter 6. In order to avoid conflicts and cultural loss, it is suggested to consult as many parties as possible before making any new decisions.

In tourism-oriented areas like Suzhou, tourists and the landscape affect each other. Therefore, a well-built database about tourists could be a great help for landscape preservation. Besides containing statistic information about tourists (as has already been done), their opinions, views, expectations and benefits towards and from the landscape might also be included. Without this involvement, landscape preservation could not succeed since tourists might have an impact on the landscape in unexpected ways.

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7 Conclusion and recommendations

Intangible landscape elements are similarly important as part of the traditional landscape. A database about the values and roles of intangible landscape elements should contribute a referential function for future work.

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Appendix І

Residents Interview

1. Background

Age group of the interviewee (Unit: years old)

>70 61-70 51-60 41-50 31-40 21-30 <20

Educational background

University or higher High School Secondary School Primary School Uneducated

Length of residencies (Unit: years)

>20 16-20 11-15 5-10 <5

2. General question

2.1 How do you think the life here in Suzhou?

2.2 Why do you live here for such long?

2.3 Do you like the environment here?

3. Concerning traditional landscape change

3.1 When comparing the environment now with that of years ago (depending on the length of residency), do you notice any changes?

3.2 If yes to the former question, what are the changes?

3.3 Based on the answer to former question, did this/these change/changes impact you, on body or on mind?

3.4 What do you think causes the change?

4. Concerning the traditional landscape

4.1 Do you know that your environment is considered nationally as the traditional? Do you think so as well?

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Appendix І

4.2 If yes to the former questions, what exactly make you feel that your environment is traditional? Can you please give up to 3 examples?

4.3 Could you please give more details about your examples?

4.4 Are these traditional aspects also important to you from a personal aspect?

4.5 If yes, could you give more details about the importance to your life?

5. Concerning cultural ecosystem service

5.1 Are there any special places/spots that you like visiting often or even daily? For those who gave the positive answer, the following question then being offered.

5.2 Could you please describe the place?

5.3 Why do you enjoy visiting there?

5.4 What do you think this place brings to you, mentally or physically?

5.5 How do you feel when you are there?

6. Final questions

Are there anything you want to add or do you have anything to say about your environment?

Place, date

179

Appendix ІІ

Tourists interview

1. Background

Age group of the interviewee (Unit: years old)

>70 61-70 51-60 41-50 31-40 21-30 <20

Educational background

University or higher High School Secondary School Primary School Uneducated

2. General questions

2.1 Could you please tell me why are you visiting Suzhou or what attracts you here?

2.2 Based on the answer to the former question, asking for more details or more descriptions.

3. Concerning traditional landscape change

3.1 Do you now that Suzhou is considered nationally as the traditional? Do you think so as well?

3.2 If yes to the former questions, what exactly make you feel that is traditional? Can you please give up to 3 examples?

3.3 Could you please give more details about your examples?

3.4 Are there traditional aspects that you think important from your personal aspect?

3.5 If yes, could you give more details about the importance to you?

3.6 Would you like to visit Suzhou again in light of its traditional character?

3.7 Do you have any expectations for Suzhou? Please explain why or why not.

4. Concerning cultural ecosystem service

4.1 Which part(s) of the urban area that you enjoy the most?

4.2 If yes to the former question, could you please describe the place?

180

Appendix ІІ

4.3 Why do you enjoy visiting there?

4.4 What do you think this place brings to you, mentally or physically?

4.5 How do you feel when you are there?

5. Final question

Are there anything you want to add or do you have anything to say about Suzhou?

Place, date

181

Appendix ІІІ

Ancient poems about Suzhou for interpreting cultural ecosystem service (24 poems)

Written in Tang Dynasty (618AD-907AD) Written in Song Dynasty (960AD-1279AD)

Author Title of the poem Author Title of the poem

Mu DU Maple Bridge Fu GUO Maple Bridge

Ji ZHANG Anchor by Maple Bridge at You LU Overnight by Maple Bridge night

Yingwu WEI Overnight by Hanshan Temple Chengda FAN 24 rhymes for first visiting Chang Gate

Chengda FAN Maple Bridge

Written in Ming Dynasty (1368AD-1644AD)

Author Title of the poem Author Title of the poem

Qi GAO Welfare to Feng Ding at Jin XIE Farewell to friend to Jinlin at Maple Bridge Bridge

Qi GAO Stop at Maple Bridge on the Zhenming WEN Ten landscapes in Gusu way back to Wu

Qi GAO Overnight by He Gate on the Qi GAO Maple Bridge way to Jinlin

Zhou SHEN Overnight at bridge Jin XIE Welfare to friends from the wester at Maple Bridge

Written in Yuan Dynasty (1271AD-1368AD) Written in Qing Dynasty (1644AD-1912AD)

Author Title of the poem Author Title of the poem

Ying GU Anchor by He Gate Qingyang WANG Visiting Lion Grove Garden

Zhongyou TANG Visiting Hanshan Temple Qian LONG Words for Lion Grove Graden

Hui XIE Collection of Wu Culture Wan WANG Inscription for Yipu

Unknown Farewell to friend Jun ZHAO Poem for bamboo in Wu Gate

Qian LONG Eight landscapes in Huishan Garden

182