2007—Using the Lishui Landscape Belt as the Main Battlefield to Build the "Core" of Urban Tourism (Part 1)
Using the Lishui Landscape Belt as the Main Battlefield to Build the "Core" of Urban Tourism. I. Text Section. (1) Urban tourism must have a "core." Looking at tourism cities at home and abroad, any city that serves as a tourism destination must have a "core." Take East China domestically as an example: Shanghai's "core" is the Bund, where the classic architecture and the Huangpu...
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Taking the Lishui Landscape Belt as the main battlefield, devoting every effort to creating the 'core' of urban tourism
I. Text Section.
(1) Urban tourism must have a 'core'.
Surveying tourist cities at home and abroad, any city that serves as a tourist destination must have a 'core'. Take East China domestically as an example: Shanghai's 'core' is the Bund—the classic architectural ensemble of the Bund, the metropolitan scenery on both banks of the Huangpu River, as well as Nanjing Road and Yu Garden, are things visitors to Shanghai must see; Hangzhou's 'core' is West Lake, radiating from West Lake as its center and pervaded by a happiness index full of leisure sentiment; Nanjing's 'core' is the Qinhuai River and Confucius Temple area; Suzhou's 'core' is its gardens listed as World Cultural Heritage; Hohhot's 'core' is the Jokhang Temple Square and the adjoining landscape streets in Islamic architectural style and Mongolian-Yuan architectural style. That is why they can attract people to come and keep them staying. Abroad, take Western Europe as an example: Paris, France's 'core' is the Seine, with the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame de Paris, the Louvre, the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Élysées and other famous sights standing on both banks of the river, and many people go to Paris precisely for these places; Italy's Venice has its 'core' in the water-city landscape belt on the Adriatic coast—the distinctive architectural ensemble lining the shore, plus the crisscrossing water alleys and St. Mark's Basilica, hailed as 'Europe's most beautiful drawing room', are enough to make the 12 million tourists each year linger and forget to return; Italy's Rome has its 'core' in the historic remains of the old city: the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, all of which make visitors marvel and pause. All this confirms an iron law: a city with such a 'core' is a sign of mature urban tourism; otherwise, it cannot become a must-visit tourist destination.
(2) The prominent position of the 'Lishui Landscape Belt' in the building of a tourist city.
In the 'April 1st' speech at the Zhangjiajie City World Tourism Masterpiece Construction Progress Report Meeting, Comrade Zhang Chunxian, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, gave very important instructions on urban positioning and planning, establishing the main architectural style and main color tone, focusing on key construction, and accelerating the pace of construction. He said: 'When we build a city, it must not only have basic urban functions, but also serve as the support and carrier for a world tourism masterpiece, meeting tourism needs.' 'However, there are indeed still many restrictive factors in urban construction, and it cannot adapt to the needs of building a world tourism masterpiece.' Therefore, Secretary Zhang required our city to have 'visible changes in three years, major transformations in five years,' 'focus on key constructions around satisfying tourists' needs for food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment,' 'so that after tourists arrive in this city, they know they have entered the scenic area, that they have entered Zhangjiajie. The city is also the support and carrier for tourism.'
The key reason Zhangjiajie currently cannot offer urban tourism is the lack of such a 'core'. As a regional central city, Zhangjiajie, because it has not yet formed the 'core' of urban tourism, is facing a severe challenge of marginalization in its status as a central city. The Lishui Landscape Belt, yet to be built, is the only place in our city that can be expected to become the 'core'. The Municipal Committee of the China Democratic League has repeatedly expounded this view: in creating the external image of the city of Zhangjiajie, one must by no means neglect Tianmen Mountain and the Lishui River, the soul of the mountains and the spirit of the waters. Looking around at cities under heaven, it is hard to find within a city's urban area a mountain mass as majestic and magnificent as Tianmen Mountain. The Lishui River, passing through the city and linking the new and old urban districts, mirrors the majestic posture of Tianmen; both banks of the Lishui are not only the necessary route for tourists entering and leaving the airport, railway station and bus station, but also a gathering place for residents' leisure. Therefore, taking the construction of the Lishui Landscape Belt as the breakthrough point and entry point for the city's 'change in three years and transformation in five' is an objective choice and compliance with the locational and resource advantages this section possesses, and is of great strategic and tactical significance. If this place, like the 'Bund' and the 'Seine', becomes the 'core' of urban tourism, with culture to see and savor, and places that are fun, with good food and good leisure and vacation spots, then tourists would have no need to bypass the near for the far and run to Fenghuang or Changde; after seeing the city they go up the mountain, and after seeing the mountain they come back to the city—'the city' and 'the mountain' joining like paired jades, complementing each other as a tourist destination, will become a reality.
(3) Recommendations on building the Lishui Landscape Belt into the 'core' of urban tourism.
Since the Fourth Municipal Party Congress in 2003 determined to shift the focus of work to the city, our city has done much foundational work around urban construction, such as the Changde-Zhangjiajie Expressway, the new railway station, airport renovation, the urban flood-control embankment, the Hongbiyan Dam, the Zhangjiajie-Luoyixi Highway, the Zhangjiajie-Sangzhi Highway, as well as launching the compilation of the Lishui Landscape Belt plan and the revision of the city's Master Plan. This year, after the 'April 1st' speeches by Secretary Zhang Chunxian and Governor Zhou Qiang, the high-profile 'Four Roads Renovation' was launched in quick succession. Overall, whether in terms of ideological understanding or hardware preparation, our city has basically laid the foundation for large-scale quality upgrading. The whole city has poured great enthusiasm into the 'Four Roads Renovation', and places even greater expectations on the next goal after the 'Four Roads'—the construction of the Lishui Landscape Belt. The Municipal Committee of the China Democratic League, as the first advocate of 'creating the Lishui Landscape Belt', feels greatly gratified and encouraged that the city's decision-making level has followed good advice and actively adopted our suggestions and proposals. Now, the compilation of the Lishui Landscape Belt plan is about to emerge, and the groundbreaking of the Lishui Landscape Belt is imminent. Here, we solemnly recommend:
1. Establish the Lishui Landscape Belt's status as the main battlefield of urban construction.
Urban construction involves a myriad of tasks. To achieve 'change in three years and transformation in five', we must implement the spirit of Secretary Zhang Chunxian's 'April 1st' speech: 'Do well in key construction.' Building the Lishui Landscape Belt is the best breakthrough point and entry point for the urban appearance to 'change in three years and transform in five'; it is the only place in our city that can be built into the 'core' of urban tourism; at the same time, it is also a livelihood project for residents in the relevant sections and the broad citizenry to improve their living conditions, raise their quality of life, and share the fruits of reform and opening up and urban development. Therefore, from whatever angle, it can be called the most crucial move on the chessboard, and is naturally the 'key point' to be built well with all urgency. Thus, establishing the Lishui Landscape Belt's status as the main battlefield of urban construction is an inevitable trend.
2. Take creating the 'core' of urban tourism as the construction goal.
Make building the Lishui Landscape Belt into the 'core' of urban tourism an unswerving construction goal. If so, one reaps what one sows; otherwise it is a botched effort, sowing dragon's seeds and harvesting fleas. To create the 'core' of urban tourism, we recommend:
(1) Position it as leisure-oriented tourism and take the path of distinctive features with Tujia culture as the main body.
a. Position it as leisure-oriented tourism.
First, it is an objective requirement to form complementarity with the core scenic area. Since the 'mountain' core scenic area is world-class natural scenery and belongs to sightseeing tourism, then 'the city' should not repeat the path of 'natural scenery' and the model of 'sightseeing tourism', but should, drawing on the mountain soul and water spirit of Tianmen Mountain and the Lishui River, explore local culture, highlight humanistic atmosphere, and position itself as leisure-oriented tourism. Because only by forming complementarity through difference can 'the city' have things worth seeing and selling points, and be able to keep people staying.
Second, developing the leisure economy is the general trend. In 2003 China's gross domestic product (GDP) was about over 1.4 trillion US dollars, with a per capita figure of 1,090 US dollars—the first time China's per capita GDP broke through 1,000 US dollars. According to traditional economic theory, a per capita GDP breaking through 1,000 US dollars means that the region's economic development has entered a new stage, and the social consumption structure will upgrade from subsistence-oriented to development-oriented and enjoyment-oriented. This is indeed the case: with China's rapid economic development and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, people's leisure needs are rising rapidly, and the leisure industry, including tourism, is advancing in great strides.
Third, Zhangjiajie has considerable leisure tourism clientele. Sightseeing tourism has created a market of more than 16 million person-times annually, reserving extremely considerable clientele potential for Zhangjiajie to develop leisure tourism. At the same time, thanks to the opening of the Changde-Zhangjiajie Expressway, the Provincial Tourism Bureau has made Zhangjiajie one of the main recommended routes for self-driving tourism, marking that Zhangjiajie has entered the leisure tourism region of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan metropolitan circle. At present, the Zhangjiajie-Huayuan Expressway is under construction; the Qianjiang-Zhangjiajie-Changde Railway and the Ankang-Zhangjiajie-Hengyang Railway are also awaiting construction. It can be expected that Zhangjiajie, which will become the transportation hub of greater Xiangxi and even the border area of the four provinces and municipalities of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Chongqing, and which possesses a first-class scenic area for China's mountain-and-water sightseeing tourism, will undoubtedly be one of the preferred destinations for self-driving tourism in the southwest region and the central-south (central China) region. With this huge clientele platform, our urban tourism can absolutely be done with great vigor and success.
b. Take Tujia culture as the main distinctive feature. If one studies similar tourist cities at home and abroad, one can find that Lijiang, while highlighting its old town and snow mountains, is committed to exploring and displaying Naxi culture; Dali, while highlighting Cangshan and Erhai, is committed to exploring and displaying Bai culture; Jiuzhaigou, while highlighting natural scenery, is committed to exploring and displaying Tibetan and Qiang culture. The same is true abroad: an important promotional theme of the Federal Republic of Germany is 'folk customs full of romantic sentiment'; Thailand prominently writes such a title on its brochures: 'Exotic Thailand.' Tourists from the five main source countries of the United States, Japan, Britain, France and Germany who travel to China are most interested in people's lives and local customs. The richer a country's or region's ethnic culture, the stronger and more unique the flavor of its folk customs, and the more solemn its historical atmosphere, the stronger its appeal to tourists.
Although the Tujia ethnic group is not unique to Zhangjiajie, Zhangjiajie is a city with a large Tujia population, accounting for one-seventh of the national Tujia population. The Tujia are the main ethnic group here, with a long history and a gathering of talents and culture. In fields such as clothing, food, housing and transportation, farming and warfare, marriage, childbirth and funerals, festivals and etiquette, beliefs and taboos, ethics and morality, witchcraft and Nuo qigong, Tujia medicine and remedies, cultural relics and historic sites, arts and crafts, and folk art, their ethnic cultural resources are especially rich. If sandstone peak forest is the soul of 'mountain-and-water Zhangjiajie', then Tujia culture is the root of 'humanistic Zhangjiajie'. Therefore, for the Lishui Landscape Belt to highlight leisure-oriented tourism, it must persist in being practical and pragmatic, weeding through the old to bring forth the new, and take the path of distinctive features with Tujia culture as the main body.
(2) Establish the principle of landscaping and create distinctive 'stilted-house style' architecture with bold vision.
a. The prominent position of distinctive architectural ensembles in the 'core' of urban tourism. In a broad sense, a city is a commodity. If it is a commodity, it must have selling points and needs packaging. The packaging of a tourist city lies crucially in embodying the 'principle of landscaping', that is, from the macro to the micro, from the whole to the details, all must be based on making it into one landscape after another.
Waterfront architecture is a major principal element of landscape belts along rivers, streams and coasts. If the Seine in Paris did not have the vast expanse of magnificent European classical architectural ensembles standing on both banks, if it did not have Notre-Dame de Paris, the Louvre, the Place de la Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Élysées, and the 26 dense bridges spanning the Seine, each constituting a tremendous visual impact and aesthetic pleasure, then apart from a river, one does not know what else there would be to see! Take the Shanghai Bund as another example: if the Bund did not have the vast expanse of classic architecture hailed as the 'Exhibition of Architecture from All Nations', and if the opposite bank did not have the international metropolitan scene formed by a vast expanse of skyscrapers with highly distinctive shapes such as the Oriental Pearl, one also does not know what else there would be to see! Another example: Florence, Italy, has its 'core' in the area of Piazzale Michelangelo; Vienna, Austria, has its 'core' in the area of the State Opera and Maria Square; Frankfurt, France, has its 'core' in the area of Römerberg Square, and so on. And the squares and streets that constitute the 'core' of these cities have as their main attractions none other than those magnificent classic buildings! Since the era of ancient Greece and Rome, Europeans have treated each building as a carrier for displaying culture and art, sparing no expense to create and polish them, so that they became tourism resources that later generations can sustainably use. This shows how prominent a position distinctive architecture holds in the 'core' of urban tourism.
b. The Lishui River Scenic Belt should take distinctive architectural complexes as its main content. The banks of the Lishui River, which runs through the city, form a narrow and long river valley landform. The Lishui River divides the new and old urban districts into several major sections surrounded by mountains on all sides, forming several major clusters of the urban area. "A small mountain town in northwestern Hunan" is the basic perception of the city's appearance. Therefore, it will not do to simply copy the usual practice of other regions by creating a green belt along both banks: first, demolishing large tracts of houses in densely built areas to create a green belt is something the government cannot afford, and it is not operationally feasible; second, it is not worth spending money in vain, because merely planting a stretch of trees and grass along both banks absolutely cannot attract visitors' attention. Looking at riverside scenic belts across the world, those that have become the "core" of urban tourism basically do not rely on green belts as the main means. For example, the Adriatic seaside scenic belt of Venice, the Huangpu River scenic belt of Shanghai, and the Qinhuai River scenic belt of Nanjing have no green belts at all! Several small pocket tourism cities such as Lijiang, Yangshuo, and Fenghuang have also basically formed their "cores." Lijiang's "core" is at Sifang Street, Yangshuo's "core" is at West Street, and Fenghuang's "core" is along the Tuo River. None of these places has a green belt at all! Just think: if Fenghuang demolished the stilted houses and old city walls along the Tuo River to create a green belt, would it still be possible for Fenghuang to develop tourism? The Seine River scenic belt in Paris does plant a row of street trees along the riverside avenue, but that is all. Conversely, let us look for examples: which cities' riverside scenic belts have achieved the status of the "core" of urban tourism by relying on green belts? None can be found. We are absolutely not opposed to greening in the Lishui River Scenic Belt; we are only opposed to the concept of "mass-produced" green belts and to the lazy practice of making green belts the main body under the notion that "all riverside roads under heaven are copied from one another." Since our locked goal is to build the Lishui River Scenic Belt into the "core" of urban tourism, then we should adapt to local conditions and position it as a landscape belt with distinctive architecture as its main content, a "sightseeing and leisure belt" that fully displays the charm of local culture. Only in this way can it become what Comrade Chunxian called "a place where tourists have something to see," and only then can it become a tourism destination that attracts visitors' attention.
c. Distinctive architecture means "modern architecture in the style of Tujia stilted houses." Regarding the main architectural style and main color tone of Zhangjiajie's urban buildings, Secretary Zhang Chunxian pointed out incisively in his "April 1" speech: the element symbols of Tujia stilted houses should be taken as the main architectural style, and the gray tiles and white walls of Xiangxi dwellings should be taken as the main architectural color tone. Comrade Chunxian put forward this idea from the height of building an international tourism city, through comparison with and reference to many tourism cities at home and abroad. Just as Huangshan highlights Huizhou-style architecture, Jiuzhaigou highlights Tibetan-style architecture, Dali highlights Bai-style architecture, and Inner Mongolia highlights yurt architecture, we should unswervingly follow the spirit of Comrade Zhang Chunxian's "April 1" speech and establish "modern architecture in the style of Tujia stilted houses" as the main architectural tone of our city, so that, as Comrade Chunxian hoped, "after tourists come, they can feel the soul of this city." Those comrades who once held prejudices against the "stilted-house style" and who fundamentally did not intend to build "modern architecture in the stilted-house style" in our city, including those who intended only to build a few stilted houses in a certain section of the scenic belt as decoration, should, I believe, have gained a new understanding after earnestly studying and comprehending the spirit of Comrade Chunxian's speech. As secretary of the provincial party committee, Comrade Chunxian's speech on Zhangjiajie's urban construction is strategically lofty yet effortless, both macroscopic and specific, and is a concentrated embodiment of the scientific outlook on development in guiding Zhangjiajie's urban construction. His guiding opinions on establishing the main style of urban architecture are extremely strategically farsighted, and we should deeply comprehend them and implement them fully and without compromise.
The Beijing Charter adopted at the 20th World Congress of Architects in 1999 predicted: "The regionalization of modern architecture and the modernization of vernacular architecture will reach the same destination by different routes." "Modern architecture in the stilted-house style" is both vernacular and modern, precisely embodying this trend. Calling it vernacular: it retains the main element symbols of Tujia stilted houses such as stilted supports, upturned eaves, sloped roofs, dark tiles, whitewashed walls, and orange-colored wood; at a glance, its appearance is clearly in the stilted-house style. Calling it modern: building materials are no longer a single type of wood, the number of floors is not limited to one or two, and the internal spatial arrangement is determined entirely according to objective needs; the residential facilities and conditions possessed by modern architecture are equally present here. This is what is called discarding the old to bring forth the new and advancing with the times.
In fact, applying the stilted-house style to modern architecture has had quite successful practices both elsewhere and in this city. Elsewhere, take Shanghai's Yuyuan, which covers tens of thousands of square meters, as an example: it makes extensive use of stilted-house elements, and most of it is six or seven stories high, finely carved and exquisitely beautiful. Within this city, the Pipa Xi Hotel, built in the 1980s, is a typical modern architectural complex in the stilted-house style and has always been regarded as a landscape-style hotel, one of the preferred places for important Chinese and foreign guests to stay. The Wulingyuan District Center for Disease Control, a few years ago, completed a courtyard-style architectural complex in the stilted-house style, also impressive like a scenic spot; the Xiangshui Hotel and Tianzi Grand Hotel in Wulingyuan, and the Yuntai Grand Hotel in the urban area, all adopted the stilted-house style by "putting on clothes and hats," and the effects are all quite good; the recently completed Wulingyuan Jingxi Grand Hotel, as high as nine stories, is a very authentic "modern architecture in the stilted-house style," towering over one area with a beautiful shape, making surrounding buildings pale by comparison. There is also the completed and opened Dayong Fu City. There is also the Cross Street Shopping Mall under construction. It can be seen that "modern architecture in the stilted-house style" is no longer merely a concept, but an operable architectural model and an architectural aesthetics.
Greater Shanghai, known as an international metropolis, nevertheless built such a large area of modern architecture in the stilted-house style at Yuyuan, and every day it is packed with huge crowds, shoulder to shoulder and heel to heel; tiny Fenghuang, apart from two stone-slab streets, has only one Tuo River and a row of old-style stilted houses, yet it has made tourism very popular, and that row of old-style stilted houses has even become a landmark representing Fenghuang's tourism image. Both merely show that the "stilted-house style" indeed possesses extraordinary visual beauty and aesthetic value. The two banks of the Lishui River have a broad field of vision and appear more grand than Fenghuang, fully capable of becoming the best platform for displaying "modern architecture in the stilted-house style."
d. On the creative idea of the "Half-Side Street." In the old urban area of Yongding, there was formerly a "Half-Side Street," uniformly made up of stilted houses, which was demolished only a few years ago when the flood-control embankment was built. The current flood-control embankment, apart from its single flood-control function, has several major drawbacks: first, its regular and monotonous geometric lines are neither ecological nor aesthetically pleasing; second, it artificially separates people from the water and lacks accessibility to the water; third, its sloped structure occupies too much land. Out of the original intention of creating a distinctive landscape, it is suggested that a stilted-house-style "Half-Side Street" be built on the flood-control embankment. This creative idea can eliminate the above three drawbacks and will produce three major effects.
First, it thinks what others have not thought: using the 16,000 meters of embankment on the north and south banks that has only a single flood-control function, it boldly builds a scenic belt on both banks with strong regional characteristics and enormous visual impact—a ten-li long street of stilted houses (and at the cliff section on the right side of the north end of the Lishui Bridge, it builds the special masterpiece of the stilted-house style—a suspended street), so that tourists entering and leaving the airport, railway station, bus station, and urban area can remember at a glance Zhangjiajie's "Half-Side Street"—this city's "intuitive image."
Second, by revitalizing the "idle" embankment, it can directly create very considerable economic benefits for the municipal government: if the "Half-Side Street" is built on the embankment, that is, integrating street and embankment, it can provide more than 100,000 square meters of urban construction land, and there is no demolition task at all! With a principle of limiting height to three stories, it can build hundreds of thousands of square meters of commercial premises, and their sales revenue would be several billion yuan. If so, the land revenue and construction taxes and fees generated by this project alone would be a considerable income. And the hundreds of thousands of square meters of commercial premises featuring the leisure industry as their main characteristic will generate even more economic benefits continuously in the future that cannot be underestimated. Once the ten-li "Half-Side Street" becomes lively, it will be Zhangjiajie's "urban economic image."
Third, the "Half-Side Street" consists of two major parts: a distinctive architectural complex in the stilted-house style and a sightseeing and leisure corridor. Designing a 6-meter-wide, 5,000-meter-long sightseeing and leisure corridor on the water-facing side is a major improvement on the traditional stilted-house model and, at the technical level, provides the fullest carrier for what people hope for in "revealing the mountains and exposing the water." Conventionally, the standpoint for "revealing the mountains and exposing the water" is the riverside avenue, but because green belts more or less block part of the line of sight, compared with the completely unobstructed 6-meter-wide sightseeing and leisure corridor, it is obviously somewhat inferior; as for "exposing the water," because the high embankment generally stands above the riverside avenue, when people walk along the riverside avenue, the river water cannot be seen in many sections, whereas with this 6-meter-wide sightseeing and leisure corridor, people are at the place closest to the water surface, and its water-access function is unmatched by the riverside avenue! That is to say, a sightseeing and leisure corridor as long as 5,000 meters not only satisfies people's psychological desire to be near the water, but also allows them to lean on the railing to view the majestic posture of Tianmen Mountain and the lake and mountain scenery, and, like Yangshuo's West Street, Paris's Champs-Élysées, and Shanghai's pedestrian street Nanjing Road, it can also fully develop leisure activities along the corridor. If so, once a beautifully grand giant scroll of a "Along the River During the Qingming Festival of northwestern Hunan" emerges as the peak work of the "core" of urban tourism, just as people are accustomed to linking Sifang Street with Lijiang Ancient City and West Street with Yangshuo, they will also link the "Half-Side Street" with Zhangjiajie, and it will appear with high frequency in the mouths of tourists and residents, becoming a place they delight in talking about.
The Lishui River Scenic Belt includes the riverside avenues and street-facing buildings on the north and south banks of the urban area, green belts, flood-control embankments, waters, and bridges, and also includes scenic spots and attractions scattered on both banks of the urban area and several historic districts in the old urban area. If 20 characters are used to give an image positioning to the "core" of urban tourism—the Lishui River Scenic Belt—then it is: thousand-year stilted houses, ten-li Half-Side Street, a tender land of wealth and honor, a tourism destination.
We firmly believe: as long as, according to the positioning of leisure-oriented tourism and the principle of landscapeization, each project of the Lishui River Scenic Belt is well planned, well built, and well operated, then, like Shanghai's "Bund," Paris's "Seine," and the Adriatic seaside of Venice, the goal of building Zhangjiajie's "core" of urban tourism will certainly be achieved, and the urban appearance will succeed at one stroke in having "a change in three years and a great transformation in five years."