Some thoughts on the tourism of ancient towns around Chengdu

Abstract: There are many ancient towns around Chengdu. In recent years, these ancient towns have embarked on the road of tourism development, and the greater development intensity and inappropriate development methods have had a great impact on them. Based on the personal experience of some ancient towns, this paper summarizes the problems existing in the tourism culture of ancient towns around Chengdu.

Keywords: ancient town tourism; Around Chengdu

1 Tourism resources of ancient towns around Chengdu

Chengdu has complex and diverse landforms, such as mountains, plains and hills, with a mild climate. With a history of more than 4000 years, it is the center of ancient Shu culture; Coupled with developed commerce and convenient regional transportation, ancient village settlements appeared around Chengdu and evolved into modern ancient towns. Modern people live in the cement forest, and people are becoming more and more indifferent, and they are always full of yearning for the lifestyle of their ancestors. So now the ancient town tourism is becoming more and more popular, and the love of Chengdu people and foreigners for ancient towns can also be seen from the development of ancient towns.

There are many ancient towns around Chengdu. Media, internet and entertainment always say "Top Ten Most Beautiful Ancient Towns in Chengdu" and "Several Most Interesting Ancient Towns in Chengdu". According to incomplete statistics, there are Huanglongxi, Huaiyuan, Shangli, Anren, Tong Yuan, Yuelai, Jiezichang, Pingle, Xilai, Luodai and Huoluo ancient towns around Chengdu. The undeveloped ancient towns include Luoquan Ancient Town and Baihe Ancient Town. The material remains and spiritual connotations of these ancient towns are different.

2 represents the attraction analysis of the ancient town

2. 1 natural landscape Usually, the natural landscape of an ancient town consists of three elements: rural pastoral landscape, landscape and ancient tree landscape. Rural pastoral landscape is the ecological matrix on which the ancient town depends, and it also constitutes the visual background of the ancient town. Water landscape is the core area of some ancient towns, such as the water landscape of the same name in Huanglongxi; The Jiangwei River system in Jiezi Ancient Town and the characteristic water landscape of Baimo River in Pingle Ancient Town, which is characterized by "one river divides into three waters", both take the wide water system as an important landscape, and set up leisure beaches and cruise activities along the river. In addition, the long history of the ancient town has left many ancient banyan and cypress trees, which are full of aura and breathtaking.

2.2 Cultural Heritage The cultural heritage of the ancient town mainly includes streets, ancient buildings and residential buildings. Ancient streets are generally fishbone-shaped, and there are several small streets on both sides of a main street. Traditional houses are arranged in the second order along the street, with intimate scale and continuous space. Occasionally, important historical sites will become the core nodes of the street.

2.3 Cultural ancient towns are rich in cultural heritage, generally including historical culture, characteristic culture and life culture. For example, the ancient town of Luodai in Longquanyi is a combination of Hakka culture and Central Plains culture, and the' aborigines' living here also have a different lifestyle from the city, thus giving birth to a slow-paced, harmonious and leisurely life culture.

3 ancient town tourism status issues

3. 1 Authenticity and indigenous issues

The number of indigenous people in this ancient town is decreasing. Under the modern development mode, some owners of ancient streets transfer their houses and shops to foreigners to open stores, collect rents and obtain commercial benefits. Many young people have moved out of the ancient town, and the aging structure of the residents in the ancient town is becoming more and more obvious. With the increase of the age of the left-behind residents, more descendants will settle abroad, which will eventually lead to the loss of indigenous people. The noisy environment of modern tourism has brought troubles to the lives of some indigenous people. According to the survey, the quality of life of the aborigines is not very high, which also gave birth to their idea of leaving the ancient town. Aboriginal culture is an important part of ancient town culture. With their loss, the cultural connotation of the ancient town will also be destroyed and the ancient town will lose its vitality.

3.2 Problems of the development model of ancient towns

At present, the development of ancient towns around Chengdu is mainly oriented by tourism. Historical blocks are usually regarded as tourism resources, while protection is regarded as a means to obtain economic benefits. But in the long run, the purpose of protection is to obtain the continuation of historical and cultural heritage, and it is necessary to protect the original value of the object, not to meet the immediate economic interests. In order to adapt the historical and cultural resources to the living environment of modern life and realize the sustainable development of economy and society, we should properly handle the relationship between protection and development, and scientifically determine the development mode and intensity. As Dan Jixiang, director of National Cultural Heritage Administration, pointed out in the third "Famous Historical and Cultural Streets in China" selection, historical blocks should be "protected" rather than "built".

3.3 the lack of characteristics of the problem

There are many ancient towns around Chengdu, but the regional characteristics are not very different. In the process of tourism development, ancient towns may imitate each other or successful cases, but they don't know that imitating the appearance can't get the spirit, but imitating the appearance loses the connotation. Not only did it fail to achieve the expected results, but it also produced similar phenomena in amusement projects, souvenirs and cultural content. Some people even say that the goods sold in these ancient towns can be bought at the wholesale market of lotus pond in Chengdu North Station. One-day tour of the ancient town has also seen the routine tourist process of shopping in the morning, drinking tea in the afternoon and lighting river lanterns in the evening, which are all disadvantages brought by not digging deep into the cultural connotation of the ancient town.

3.4 The problem of quick success and instant benefit

The pressure of tourism development has led to serious utilitarianism in the protection of many ancient towns. The government values short-term effects, developers pursue economic interests, and aborigines are also driven by short-term interests. In fact, it is very unfavorable to protect the ancient town to adopt a rapid maintenance method for the building and a rapid creation method for the environment. At the same time, the commercial invasion has also changed the original flavor of the ancient town, and the protection of the ancient town should be carried out step by step.

3.5 the problem of blind imitation

In the process of protection and reconstruction, some designs misinterpret the historical environment and use architectural forms regardless of regional style, forming a batch of "fake antiques", which is a destruction of the historical and cultural features of the ancient town and a waste of construction.

3.6 The problem of imperfect intangible cultural protection system

At present, the development model only pays attention to the material dependence and the creation of the material space environment of the ancient town, but ignores the inheritance of the intangible culture of the ancient town. Due to the lack of perfect protection strategies for intangible culture, such as some folk culture and folk crafts, no one passed on and eventually lost.

References:

[1] Zhu Dagang, Fu Yeqin. Study on Chengdu's urban tourism competitiveness.

[2] Chengdu Tourism Bureau. The 11th Five-Year Plan of Chengdu Tourism Development.

[3] Bai Ligang. Characteristics of ancient towns around Chengdu and problems in the development of ancient towns, 2007.

About the author: Zhou (1988-), female, from Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, majoring in urban planning.