On May 25th, under the guidance of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, and hosted by the People’s Government of Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province, the 2019 China Yangtze River Delta Integrated Ancient Town Cultural and Tourism Innovation Conference was held in Xitang, Zhejiang, jointly organized by the Jiashan County Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports, Xitang Town People’s Government, Zhejiang News Group Tourism All Media Center, and Zhejiang Xitang Tourism and Cultural Development Co., Ltd. Fifteen ancient towns from Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang provinces, as well as more than ten media outlets from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, gathered together to discuss development.
Feng Bin, Secretary of the Party Committee of Xitang Town, said in his speech that he hopes that the ancient towns within the integrated Yangtze River Delta region can share opportunities and truly “connect points into lines and beads into chains”. He hopes that the culture, resources, folk customs, intangible cultural heritage, cultural creativity and other contents of the regional ancient towns can be displayed in a centralized manner, promoted in a coordinated manner, and achieve a deeper level of cultural and tourism integration.
The integration of the Yangtze River Delta has become a national strategy
The trend of interconnecting and integrating ancient towns within the region
In 2019, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta has become a national strategy, and the Yangtze River Delta demonstration zone is about to emerge, ushering in new opportunities for regional development. Most of the ancient towns in Jiangnan, China, are located in this land full of opportunities, and they come down in one continuous line, with one river running through them; They inherit culture and innovate and develop. With the development of regional integration, the intercommunication of transport infrastructure, and the improvement of high-quality coordinated development system and mechanism, the close geographical location and dating culture will certainly drive the prosperity of cultural and tourism market in ancient towns in the region.
At present, Xitang Ancient Town in Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province has opened a bus dedicated line with Lili Ancient Town in Wujiang District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, forming a good interaction and exchange of tourists; In order to attract tourists from the integrated Yangtze River Delta region, Zhouzhuang in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province has actively launched characteristic tourism products such as “Night Zhouzhuang”, showcasing unique, differentiated, and refined tourism projects in the water town; The future of Jinze Town, Qingpu District, Shanghai will build a Huawei R&D base with a total investment of approximately 10 billion yuan and a total land area of approximately 108 hectares
The Yangtze River Delta Integrated Ancient Town Cultural and Tourism Innovation Conference held in Xitang Ancient Town aims to provide a platform for communication and exchange among the ancient towns in the region, and to conduct in-depth communication and discussion on cultural and tourism innovation in Jiangnan Ancient Town, jointly building and sharing. At the meeting, representatives from Jinze Ancient Town in Shanghai, Zhouzhuang Ancient Town in Jiangsu Province, and Xitang Ancient Town in Zhejiang Province gave speeches, discussing their “bitterness and sweetness” in development, and sharing the different development trajectories and unlimited prospects for the future of each ancient town.
At the beginning of tourism development, Xitang proposed to preserve over 2600 indigenous households and inherit up to 250000 square meters of ancient Ming and Qing architecture. At present, Xitang is taking culture as its core and cultural creativity as its driving force, linking traditional folk customs, trends and fashion to cultivate a unique IP. Xitang Hanfu Culture Week, “Xiyuan Ji” comics, and other activities are injecting vitality into the ancient town.Destiny. Lu Feng, Deputy Director of the Management Committee of Xitang Tourism and Leisure Resort, believes that many tourists come to the ancient town of Jiangnan water town to see not ancient buildings, but more to experience the life and intangible cultural heritage of the town. Xitang is precisely the “living specimen” of Jiangnan ancient town. The most important issue at this conference. Moving towards cultural ancient towns, moving from objective existence to subjective perception At the same time, he proposed the concepts of “living town” and “tourist town”, combining the two can not only meet the aspirations of small town residents for a better life, but also meet the expectations of foreign tourists for the intended ancient town.
Professor Liu Shilin, Dean and Chief Expert of the Urban Science Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, is a research fan of “Jiangnan Culture”. He believes that Jiangnan Culture is essentially a poetic culture, representing the highest level of aesthetic and artistic expression in China’s regional culture. It is the ideological and cultural lineage that best aligns with Marx’s “comprehensive human development” and “building according to the laws of beauty” in China. Jiangnan is actually a “one song, three stacks”, where the history, culture, and towns of Jiangnan intersect and merge, giving rise to various “new voices” and “new states”. Standing in the current opportunities for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, ancient towns have become an important carrier for the construction and inheritance of the Yangtze River Delta, fully tapping into people’s cultural aesthetics of production, life experience, sightseeing, and seeking cultural memory and nostalgia.
On site, the major ancient towns attending the meeting brought special gifts, including a series of intangible cultural heritage products such as farmer paintings, bamboo lyrics, and buckles, which helped to establish a cultural connection between the ancient towns. The next step is for everyone to join hands and jointly create a new pattern of cultural and tourism development.