Between the Past and the Future: Creativity as a Bridge of the River City - Wuhan
RELEASE: September-15 2017  03:54:56 CHECK: LIKE: 0
Built in 1950s and acclaimed as “the No.1 Bridge over the Changjiang River of Ten Thousand Miles”, the Wuhan Changjiang River Bridge is one of the symbols of this historic industrial-commercial city that itself bridges the north and south, west and east of the whole China.
Dubbed “the River City”, Wuhan straddles the confluence of two great rivers, the Changjiang River which is the longest in China and its longest tributary, Han River. Over 3500 years, these two rivers have not only molded Wuhan’s landscape but also irrigated its unique civilization. Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankou, the three towns of Wuhan on different banks of these two rivers composed one of the earliest urban agglomerations in China. Commodities, people and information from all points of the compass converged into a melting pot of cultures, forming a distinctive cultural landscape.
Standing out especially in modern times of China, Wuhan epitomizes China’s struggle to keep pace with the modernizing world in its recent history. Governor Zhang Zhidong, one of the foremost reformers in late Qing Dynasty, initiated vigorously the local Modernization Movement, establishing school and academies to spread modern knowledge and ideas as well as founding the framework of modern industries and commerce. Surpassing Tianjin and Guangzhou, Wuhan was once dubbed as “the Oriental Chicago” and became the second largest treaty port next only to Shanghai as well as one of the four financial centers in China in the early 20th Century.
The outbreak of the 1911 Revolution in Wuhan terminated the feudal monarchy of China of more than two thousand years, convoying the nation into a brand-new era. After 1949, Wuhan continued its national importance as an industrial base and accelerated its development since the reform and opening-up era began in 1978. Nowadays it’s the largest city in central China with a population of over 10 million on its land of about 8500 square kilometers. While the spirit of being unafraid to pioneer is deeply rooted in this city, lending it the courage in facing and the initiative in creating what’s new, its people cherish every bit of its cultural and natural heritage, regarding them as the resources and inspirations for the city’s creativity towards a sustainable future.
Making good use of renovated old heritage buildings and blocks that help create public space enhance the local cultural identity, the “ISOCARP Awards for Excellence” winner Zhongshan Avenue District Renewal Planning and the ensuing transformation project contributed to the attempt to build Wuhan into a sustainable and “people-oriented” city that is socially inclusive, better integrated, climate resilient and that conserve and reuse its cultural heritage creatively. Boulevards with varied characteristics, large leisure squares, historic streets and community gardens formed the public space of 10 thousand square meters which was high-lightened by heritage buildings and historic streetscapes.
Presented in Habitat III in Quito and chosen as the first demonstration project for the new program launched by UN-Habitat to promote urban public space in China, the East Lake Greenway with a length of 28.7km turned the picturesque resort into the ecological focal point of the city in which the hundred-mile greenway provides the citizen a large public space which combines the function of sport and recreation as a track for jogging and cycling, the function of ecological restoration as the “sponge” of the city’s ecosystem as well as the function of smart services for the enjoyment of citizens including disadvantaged, vulnerable and children.
With an initiative to make creative use of the old and the useless, people in Wuhan converted a solid waste landfill into a parkland in the preparation for the 10th China International Garden Expo. In this massive ecological restoration project, a 128.5-acre landfill was transformed in three years into a park as the green lung of the city. This project earned the city a C40 Cities Award in the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference.
An old city with a “young heart”, Wuhan boasts the largest population of college students in the world. Out of these over 10 million college students, more and more choose to launch their careers here in Wuhan after graduation, which is making Wuhan a city of youth, a city of dream, a city of innovation as well as a city of vitality. Miracles is about occur here from day to day. One of them is the legend of the mobile APP, Wechat which was designed by a young graduate from the Huanzhong University of Science & Technology and which have attracted nearly 700 million users within three years.
To a certain extent, it was great rivers made Wuhan a vibrant and resilient city which has showed great natural and cultural flexibility and tolerance in the vicissitudes along the Chinese history. Every time when the flood retreated or the flames of war died out, the city made its revival as a younger, and even stronger self out of its nurturing past.
In the 1st Great Rivers Forum themed “the Evolution and Sustainable Development of Civilization of the Great Rivers” in the Autumn of 2016, Wuhan invited 120 representatives from 12 major river basins worldwide for dialogues on economic, cultural and ecological sustainable development. Wuhan signed with its international counterparts a memorandum on cultural heritage preservation and environmental protection. In order to realize its commitments for a sustainable future, Wuhan is laying much stress on creativity, which is echoed by the city’s effort in joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
The year of 2017 saw Wuhan’s great ambition of develop the Changjiang Axis which will focus on the main urban area along the Changjiang River. An ideal axis integrating the functions of urban transportation, development, culture, ecology and landscape, the Changjiang Axis was creatively designed to mold the river-oriented urban spaces for the city’s sustainable development. Also in 2017, Wuhan’s eleventh bridge over the Yangtze River is going to be put into use. Altogether, Wuhan has today 1300 bridges over its rivers and lakes. Nevertheless, Wuhan, the city of rivers has always one more bridge that links its profound history and a promising future. This bridge is, CREATIVITY.
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