How many world cultural heritage sites are there in Guangdong?
In Guangdong, there is only one world cultural heritage, namely Kaiping Diaolou and Village. On June 28, 2007, at the 31st World Cultural Heritage Conference held in Christchurch, New Zealand, Kaiping Diaolou and Villages successfully passed the vote and were officially included in the "World Heritage List", becoming my country's 34th World Heritage Site and Guangdong Province's The first world cultural heritage.
1. Introduction
The Kaiping Diaolou is a unique architectural community that combines Chinese and Western architectural styles as well as China's local natural landscape. Its history can be traced back to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. By the 1920s and 1930s, as a large number of overseas Chinese returned home to buy properties, Kaiping Diaolou experienced an unprecedented heyday. At its peak, there were more than 3,000 Diaolou, and 1,833 of them are still intact today. , scattered in more than 3,000 villages.
Kaiping watchtowers and villages are not only world cultural heritage, but also national key cultural relics protection units. They are outstanding representatives of Guangdong cultural heritage and an important monument of Chinese overseas Chinese culture and immigrant culture. They are the symbol of a large number of overseas Chinese in the late 19th century. The bridge is a special building built to improve the living conditions of the family and defend against bandits. It has an obvious mark of the times. It not only inherits the ancient wisdom of Chinese architecture, but also brings back architectural art from all over the world due to the return of overseas Chinese, including ancient Roman style arches, ancient Greek art colonnades, Baroque style pediments, Islamic domes... …It has a large scale, a wide range of categories, and unique shapes, and is dotted in various villages in Kaiping City.
Among the many Kaiping carved tower groups in Kaiping, the Zili Village Diaolou Group is an outstanding representative. It consists of Anheli (commonly known as Litouzui), He'anli (commonly known as Xincun) and Yonganli (commonly known as Xincun). The village was founded in the 17th year of Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1837). It was named because the terrain resembles a plowshare; there are now 15 relatively well-preserved watchtowers with different styles, exquisite shapes and rich connotations. It was a leader in the heyday of Kaiping Diaolou.
2. Value
(1) Kaiping Diaolou is a rare and important historical and cultural landscape that proactively accepted foreign culture during the period of social transformation in China. The era of large-scale construction of Kaiping Diaolou was the transitional stage from traditional Chinese society to modern society. Foreign culture impacted traditional culture in different ways. The Western-style buildings in some major cities along the coast and rivers in China are mainly imported products that have been passively accepted, while the group of watchtowers centered in Kaiping are the product of Chinese rural people actively accepting Western architectural art and integrating it with local architectural art, which fully reflects their With a confident, open and tolerant mentality when facing advanced foreign culture, they integrated what they saw and heard, plus their own aesthetic taste, into the watchtowers. Different places of residence and different aesthetics have created various forms of Kaiping Diaolou.
Architecture inherently belongs to the category of art. When the overseas Chinese people built these thousands of watchtowers, they consciously or unconsciously created a unique cultural landscape, which has a special history. cultural value.
(2) Kaiping Diaolou is a concentrated display and outstanding representative of the large-scale transplantation of foreign architectural art into rural China. The Kaiping Diaolou architecture brings together foreign architectural art from different periods and styles. Colonnades in ancient Greece, columns, arches and vaults in ancient Rome, Gothic pointed arches and Islamic-style arches in the European Middle Ages, European castle components, arcades in Portuguese architecture, Renaissance and 17th century European Baroque styles Buildings can be seen everywhere in Kaiping.
These architectural elements of different styles, genres, and religions show great inclusiveness in Kaiping. They converge harmoniously in one place, forming a new and highly comprehensive architectural type that expresses Show unique artistic charm. Such foreign architectural art of various styles and types is rooted in the Chinese countryside and has been well preserved. The Kaiping Diaolou is a very special carrier and very precious. It has become a unique landscape in Chinese vernacular architecture and is a first. .
(3) The Kaiping Diaolou most typically represents the characteristics of Chinese overseas Chinese culture. Overseas Chinese are the communicators of culture. The blending and collision of various Chinese and foreign cultures is an inevitable product of its development. The culture it brings The conflict will inevitably touch all aspects and all strata of traditional Chinese society. This is also a common law of immigrant culture in the world.
This kind of cultural conflict and integration is extremely externalized in Kaiping. Still maintaining its own tradition, vernacular buildings that integrate Chinese and Western architectural cultures are rare in rural areas and are mainly found in counties and towns. However, they are everywhere in Kaiping. You can see traces of the fusion of Chinese and foreign cultures when you walk to any watchtower or residence. Therefore, it can be said that Kaiping Diaolou embodies the profoundness and universality of Chinese overseas Chinese culture very prominently.
(4) Kaiping Diaolou is a pioneer in the widespread introduction of world advanced construction technology into Chinese rural folk architecture. Modern Chinese urban buildings have adopted a large number of foreign building materials and construction technologies. Kaiping Diaolou, as a kind of vernacular architecture, has also adopted a large number of Imported cement, wood, steel bars, glass and other materials are used. The reinforced concrete structure has changed the traditional building techniques of Qin bricks and Han tiles. This allows for better use of its functions while paying attention to the changes in form and beauty. conditions were created.
Kaiping is both the hometown of overseas Chinese and the hometown of architecture. In the early 20th century, a large number of people were engaged in the construction industry at home and abroad. It already has more than 50 construction companies and more than 80,000 construction practitioners. Overseas Chinese and craftsmen in Kaiping mastered Western building components and architectural art earlier, and they were the introducers of advanced Western building materials and technologies. It is precisely because of them that Kaiping Diaolou has made outstanding contributions to enriching the connotation of Chinese vernacular architecture.
(5) Kaiping Diaolou embodies the traditional environmental awareness and Feng Shui concepts of the overseas Chinese people. It is a beautiful combination of planning, architecture, natural environment, and humanistic concepts. Diaolou, a single building, is mainly distributed behind the village. , together with the surrounding bamboo forest, the pond in front of the village, and the banyan tree at the entrance of the village, form a harmonious environment with deep roots, luxuriant leaves, peace, wealth, and cultural prosperity. The combination of point-shaped watchtowers and clusters of residential buildings acts like a backing for the whole village in the plain area, satisfying the villagers' need for safety and protection. The transition from low to high from residential houses to watchtowers expresses the villagers' desire to "move up step by step." Kaiping Diaolou is an important means for overseas Chinese to build a harmonious living environment.
In addition to a world cultural heritage, Guangdong also has a world natural heritage, China Red Stone Park-Danxia Mountain. China Red Stone Park - Danxia Mountain is introduced as follows:
1. Danxia Mountain (?China Red Stone Park) is located in Renhua County, Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province. With a total area of 292 square kilometers, it is the largest scenic spot in Guangdong Province, a scenic spot dominated by Danxia landforms and a world natural heritage site. ?
2. Danxia Mountain is the world’s “Danxia Landform” named place. It is composed of more than 680 red gravel rocks with flat tops, steep bodies and gentle slopes, and is characterized by red cliffs. According to research by geologists, more than 1,200 Danxia landforms have been discovered in the world, which are the most typical, most complete types and richest shapes of Danxia landforms. The Danxia Mountain Area was once a large inland basin. Affected by the Himalayan orogeny, the earth's crust rose and was gradually eroded and other geological activities formed the current Danxia landform. Danxia Mountain has become a research base for Danxia landforms across the country and even the world, as well as a popular science education and teaching practice base. ?
3. Since its development in 1988, Danxia Mountain has been listed and rated as a national scenic spot, a national nature reserve, a national geological park, a national AAAA tourist attraction, and a national AAAAA tourist attraction. Five national-level brands, it was approved by UNESCO as one of the first global geoparks in the world on February 13, 2004.