scholarly journals Research on the Distribution and Scale Evolution of Suzhou Gardens under the Urbanization Process from the Tang to the Qing Dynasty

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 281
Author(s):  
Tiantian Zhang ◽  
Zefeng Lian
Keyword(s):  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Suzhou City ◽  
World Cultural Heritage ◽  
Urban Pattern ◽  
The City ◽  
Historical Periods

Suzhou city was the cultural centre of ancient south China. It continues the urban pattern of more than 800 years ago. Suzhou gardens are the essence of Chinese gardening art, as well as the valuable world cultural heritage site. This paper compared the evolution in the distribution and scale of Suzhou gardens among five historical periods, and discussed the influence of urbanization on gardening. It revealed that: (1) The distribution of Suzhou gardens was affected by the layout and changes of the political centre and commercial centre of Suzhou city; (2) The scale of Suzhou gardens was mainly affected by the available land scale within the city and the wealth of its owner; (3) The cityscape of ‘half city occupied by gardens’ was largely resulted from the rapidly increasing number of small courtyard gardens in the Qing Dynasty; (4) The evolution of Suzhou gardens’ distribution and scale affected interior layouts. The evolution and social development of ancient cities can affect the distribution and scale of gardens. At the same time, the popularization of gardening art also optimizes the cityscape.

The City in a Glass of Water: Circulating Water, Circulating Power

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Swyngedouw
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Ecological Criteria ◽  
The City

In recent years, an impressive body of work has emerged in the wake of the resurgence of the environmental question on the political agenda, addressing the environmental implications of urban change or issues related to urban sustainability (Haughton and Hunter 1994; Satterthwaite 1999). In many, if not all, of these cases, the environment is defined in terms of a set of ecological criteria pertaining to the physical milieu. Both urban sustainability and the environmental impacts of the urban process are primarily understood in terms of physical environmental conditions and characteristics. We start from a different position. As explored in Chapter 1, urban water circulation and the urban hydrosocial cycle are the vantage points from which the urbanization process will be analysed in this book. In this Chapter, a glass of water will be my symbolic and material entry point into an—admittedly somewhat sketchy—attempt to excavate the political ecology of the urbanization process. If I were to capture some urban water in a glass, retrace the networks that brought it there and follow Ariadne’s thread through the water, ‘I would pass with continuity from the local to the global, from the human to the nonhuman’ (Latour 1993: 121). These flows would narrate many interrelated tales: of social and political actors and the powerful socio-ecological processes that produce urban and regional spaces; of participation and exclusion; of rats and bankers; of water-borne disease and speculation in water industry related futures and options; of chemical, physical, and biological reactions and transformations; of the global hydrological cycle and global warming; of uneven geographical development; of the political lobbying and investment strategies of dam builders; of urban land developers; of the knowledge of engineers; of the passage from river to urban reservoir. In sum, my glass of water embodies multiple tales of the ‘city as a hybrid’. The rhizome of underground and surface water flows, of streams, pipes and networks is a powerful metaphor for processes that are both social and ecological (Kaïka and Swyngedouw 2000). Water is a ‘hybrid’ thing that captures and embodies processes that are simultaneously material, discursive, and symbolic.

The Conflict and Development between Resource, Environment and Tourism: A Case of the Ruins of Koguryo as the World Cultural Heritage Site in Ji'an, China

2012 ◽  
Vol 524-527 ◽  
pp. 2452-2459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling Ling Chen ◽  
Jian Hua Sun ◽  
Ke Qin Sun
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Development Strategies ◽  
City Image ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Site Development ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Scenic Spot ◽  
World Cultural Heritage ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The City

The fairly-well preserved ruins of the royal cities of the ancient kingdom of Koguryo, together with imperial tombs and nobles’ tombs all bear witnesses testifying the existence of a lost civilization. Archaeological findings include the remains of three cities used as capitals where 14 mausoleums of kings of different dynasties and 26 tombs of the royal family members stand to this day. With the exception of the Wunu Mountain city lying outside Ji'an in nearby Huanren County, the other two cities, Wandu mountain city and Guonei city, together with all the mausoleums and tombs are all located within Ji'an City, Jilin Province. The present paper attempts to carry on a comprehensive yet profound analysis on the development strategies as an overall tourism program in order to display the great advantages and potentials to turn the site into a tourist attraction while attaching great importance to a detailed analysis of the disadvantages including a warning of treat facing the historical relics worthy of the name of a world cultural heritage site. Development strategies are put forth as to the steps in the orientation for the establishment of Koguryo as a great scenic spot with historic and cultural significance. Promotional programs are also offered which include improvement on the city image of the whole area of Ji'an, together with the uplifting of its urban infrastructure especially its traffic amenities, namely, a whole road network leading in all directions. Suggestions are also put forward to set up a whole chain of tourist products linking with the construction of the cultural relics as well as cooperation programs for regional development.

scholarly journals Power, Nature, and the City. The Conquest of Water and the Political Ecology of Urbanization in Guayaquil, Ecuador: 1880–1990

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Swyngedouw
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Water Control ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
Supply Condition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
The City

In this paper, I seek to explore how the circulation of water is embedded in the political ecology of power, through which the urbanization process unfolds. I attempt to reconstruct the urbanization process as simultaneously a political-economic and ecological process. This will be discussed through the exploration of the history of the urbanization of water in Guayaquil, Ecuador. As approximately 36% of its two million inhabitants has no access to piped potable water, water becomes subject to an intense social struggle for control and/or access. Mechanisms of exclusion from and access to water, particularly in cities which have a problematic water-supply condition, lay bare how both the transformation of nature and the urbanization process are organized in and through mechanisms of social power. In order to unravel the relations of power that are inscribed in the way the urbanization of nature unfolded I document and analyze the historical geography of water control in the context of the political ecology of Guayaquil's urbanization. In short, Guayaquil's urbanization process is written from the perspective of the drive to urbanize and domesticate nature's water and the parallel necessity to push the ecological frontier outward as the city expands. I show how this political ecology of urbanization takes place through deeply exclusive and marginalizing processes that structure relations of access to and exclusion from access to nature's water.

Back to the Roots: The Imperial City of Shenyang as a Symbol of the Manchu Ethnic Identity of the Qing Dynasty

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (01) ◽  
pp. 129-176
Author(s):  
Agostino Sepe
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Value ◽  
Architectural Style ◽  
Single Item ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Qing History ◽  
History Of ◽  
World Cultural Heritage ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Cultures

At the UNESCO meeting held in Suzhou on the 2nd of July 2004, the Imperial City of Shenyang was listed as a World Cultural Heritage Site, so that now it is recorded together with the Forbidden City of Beijing as one single item: Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Ming Qing gongdian 明清宮殿. Nevertheless, the importance of Shenyang Palace is not at all due to its similarity to the one in Beijing. The part of the Shenyang Imperial City built before the Manchu conquest of Beijing in 1644 mirrors the culture of the Manchu people and the institutions of its rulers in its architectural style. The part built during Qianlong’s reign, on the other hand, is evidence of the devotion of Later Qing emperors (from Kangxi to Daoguang) towards their ancestors and their Manchu origins. At the same time, the palace also reflects the sinicization of the Manchus and the merging of the two different cultures and institutional systems, both in some of its buildings and in its whole. These two aspects clearly distinguish the Palace from the Forbidden City and confer it with immense historical and cultural value. It is, therefore, from these points of view that I will deal with Shenyang Imperial City in this paper, whose purpose is to demonstrate how the palace is a symbol of the origins and the history of China’s last dynasty. The most ancient sources I will base my work on are Qing shilu 清實錄 (I will mainly refer to the sections regarding the Qing emperors from Nurhaci to Qianlong) and Manwen laodang 滿文老檔, which is a source of the utmost importance for the study of Qing history before the conquest of Beijing.

The Solon Sable Tribute, Hunters of Inner Asia and Dynastic Elites at the Imperial Centre

Inner Asia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-63
Author(s):  
Ning Chia
Keyword(s):  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Demand ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Inner Asia ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Cultural Importance

Abstract This article discusses the political and cultural importance of the Qing sable tribute for the expression and maintenance of imperial authority by focusing on the Solon, the largest sable-hunting group of the Qing dynasty in Heilongjiang. The political use of fur tribute items at the Qing centre reveals how the privilege of wearing fur defined the boundaries of the ruling hierarchy and, therefore, why sable tribute throughout the dynasty was a mechanism for maintaining relations between the Manchu court and the hunting population. The high demand for sable and other furs by the Qing emperor and other members of the political elite explains why the Qing empire needed the hunting population and their native places in the borderlands.

scholarly journals A Survey of Wild Birds Trading in the Beijing Bird Markets

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoqi Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Trading Volume ◽  
Migratory Birds ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
Ecological Balance ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
The City

Birds are an indispensable part of nature and they play an important role in maintaining an ecological balance. The existence of bird markets undoubtedly poses a threat to the population of wild birds. The geographical location of Beijing is paramount to the migratory birds. The species of birds are rich in variety and its quantity is large in scale. In addition, the bird market in old town Beijing has a long history - since the Qing Dynasty, it has been the main bird market in the city. Therefore, a survey of the major bird markets in the city is highly representative. This study investigated the types, quantities, and prices of wild birds traded in several major bird markets in Beijing from July 16 to July 18, 2019. Data analysis and collation were also conducted in this study. The results of the survey presented 26 kinds of wild birds, with a total trading volume of an estimated 253. They are mainly birds of the order of the passerine, 18 of which are under Beijing’s second-class protection, and one of them is under first-class protection.

The Urban Conquest of Water in Guayaquil, 1880–1945: Cocoa and the Urban Water Dream

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Swyngedouw
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Water System ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The City

The problems outlined in the previous chapter evolve from particular historical political ecological processes. As the urbanization process is predicated upon the mastering and engineering of nature’s water, the ecological conquest of water is an integral part of the expansion and growth of the city. At the same time, the capital required to build and expand the urban landscape is itself, at least in the case of Guayaquil, generated through the political ecological transformation of the city’s hinterland. In this and the following chapters, we shall explore the historical dynamics of the urbanization process through the lens of this double ecological conquest. The city’s growth created the need for water systems, which stretched further and further from the city in order to tap additional water resources. Foreign capital had to be generated to finance the imported technology of these projects. This necessitated a sound export-based economy, initially driven by cocoa (until the early twentieth century), bananas (from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s), and oil (from 1973 onwards). The urban process was consequently embedded in a double ecological conquest: ever greater flows of water became urbanized, while the city’s hinterland was socially and ecologically transformed. The latter conquest, in turn, plugged the Ecuadorean economy into the international division of labour. Guayaquil was the arena and medium through which those circuits of transformed nature and money were organized. The contemporary social struggle around water is evidently the result of the deeply exclusive and marginalizing ways in which political, economic, and ecological power have been worked out. The current water system and water politics exemplify the wider socio-economic and political processes that characterized Guayaquil’s urbanization process. Until the mid-nineteenth century, Guayaquil was just a large port village on Ecuador’s Pacific coast, surviving in the shadow of the political and former colonial centre of Quito and the economically dominant Sierra (Andean highland) hacienderos. In 1780, Quito had a population of 28,500 compared to 6,600 in Guayaquil, and by the mid-nineteenth century these figures had risen to 36,000 and 25,000 respectively.

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