Neighborhood Analysis: Central Shiqiao Wenfei Luo
INTRODUCTION With the western suburb, southern suburb, eastern villages and sprawl, and Northern Shiqiao surrounding it, Central Shiqiao is the commercial, political, cultural center of Shiqiao Town, Panyu District, located in Guangzhou City, Guang Dong Province in South China. It is northerly bounded by Shi Lian Avenue (Ping Kang Road), easterly by Guang Hua Avenue, Southerly bounded by Chang Ti Avenue, and westerly bounded by Xi Li Road (San Tang Street). West End is the cultural and historical center of the neighborhood. Qing He Ave, the main path in the map, which runs from east to northwest of the neighborhood, is the most important transport junction and the most frequently used street in the neighborhood; the most east section of the neighborhood is lately developed, being less occupied than the central and west region of the neighborhood, while it contains residential area, Panyu Square and Panyu District Government. The mid-east of the neighborhood is occupied by residential dwellings, and less commercial buildings. The middle and mid-west of the neighborhood is the densest area with multiple uses including famous schools located in its south, the busiest commercial area in its north, and residential buildings in the east. Qing He Ave, being the central avenue of the neighborhood, connects the main administrations, the main transportation junction as the entrance to Central Shiqiao that locates in the east end, to the most developed and densest area in the west end. Panyu District was once an independent city and benefited from its location— being the geological center among Macao, Hong Kong, and Guang Zhou, before it was annexed to Guang Zhou City and became one of the 10 districts in 2002.
The Boundary of the Neighborhood
Central Shiqiao is a lively neighborhood with a long history of food culture and trading culture, as it is called “the home of fish and rice,” and it was further urbanized and expanded owing to the Reform and Opening-up policy which was carried out in 1978. Urbanization enabled more primary uses to occur in the neighborhood—schools, commerce, cultural center, and dwellings. However, following the urbanization, the later mass produced housing projects and the unstopping immigrant waves imply the sprawling of the urban environment, featured by the severe pollution problem and traffic crowds that affect the west end, and the semi-slumming community taking over the East End. We should be warned by the history of American urban development history and devote our effort to preserving our precious built environment before it is wiped out by the dead cold structures and replaced by an empty heart of “downtown.” However, the probability of this “dark” future is minimal, firstly because Panyu District contains many small and introverted villages within it that would not allow suburban environment to take over. Secondly, the cultural bonding of Shiqiao is much stronger than it seems to be, and most of the local people will still treasure the sense of home that they can find in the Central Shiqiao. Thus Central Shiqiao will predictably continue its role as the district center, while the surrounding mixture of old villages and suburban built environment might be threatened and therefore might reduce the effective supports from the radiating minor focuses for the center of the district.
1984 Qing He Ave
HISTORY Panyu County, with the history of 2215 years, was found in Qin Dynasty--214 BCE. In Ancient times Panyu County included most of the current cities in south Guang Dong Province. At that time, Guang Zhou was also included in Panyu County. Panyu had always been a significant treaty port of China in the many Dynasties. It’s the famous “Home of Fish and Rice” because it’s easy to get seafood and to plant grain in the area. In 1921, Guang Zhou was found as a City, and surrounding rural towns have been annexed to the City of Guang Zhou one after another. By then Panyu was no longer a county, since it was annexed to Guang Zhou City as Panyu District. Shiqiao has been the political center of Panyu since 1945. As a coastal city, Guangzhou was the first city in china that encounterd modernism. It has been more than one thousand years since Shiqiao was found in North Song (960 CE to 1127 CE). At the beginning of Shiqiao’s history, a stone gate scripted Shiqiao Shi was located at the intersection of Da Bei Road, Dong Chong Road, Da Dong Road and Qiao Dong Road. Therefore people used to name the place Shiqiao. During late Qing Dynasty, township was defined and thus the town Hall which was located on Shui Bian Wu Down Street, Guang Ming Nan Road, in Tian Xin Community, was named Shiqiao Town Hall. Tian Xin Community is located at the west end of the neighborhood, to the northeast of Zhong Yuan High School. Shi Qiao Town Hall was demolished in 1992 and streets have been built.
During the Republic of China Era (1912-1949), Shiqiao was renamed as Shiqiao Village, which was the First Class District Environ. Shiqiao has been the political center of Panyu since the founding of People’s Republic of China (1949-).
In 1950, Shiqiao was
annexed to Panyu District and became one of the towns in Panyu District. During the People’s Commune Era (1958-1964), Shiqiao was named “Shiqiao’s People’s Commune” temporarily. The old Shiqiao Town was surrounded by Shiqiao’s four rivers--Shiqiao River, Dong Chong (East River), Xi Chong (West River), Bei Chong (North River). Among them East River was taken over by roads in Republic Era, and North River was altered to underground channel in 1984. The West River and Shiqiao River (South end) define the edges of the neighborhood. In 1995’s urban development, 200 residential houses which were built above West River were demolished, and Chang Ti Xi Road was built around the edge of Shiqiao. Therefore, from Ming and Qing Dynasty to mid-20th century, Shiqiao historically developed along Shiqiao River, which is a branch of Pearl River. In the early 20th Century, local stores with upper residential rooms (Qi Lou) were built along Shiqiao River. In the Mid-20th Century, big landlord like Li Lang Ji built his palace, Qun Yuan in the west end, facing the River. Since 1978, Shiqiao was opened to global trading and was modernized. In late 20th century, urban planning emerged in the central Shiqiao, featured by the development radiating from Qing He Ave.
SHIQIAO South Shiqiao is the densest area in Shiqiao town; it is occupied by nearly 80,000 residents and transients. While most of the people living in the area are residents who were born in here, rooted in the Cantonese culture, nearly half of them were immigrants from other cities of the Guang Dong Province decades ago or their parents were immigrants from those cities speaking in different dialects. The minority in the neighborhood are the people who came from different provinces and rarely use Cantonese during their stay. Among the minor people, some of them are middle class who have stable and decent jobs in the area, and they are also capable of providing their children with the best education in the neighborhood—which is in the central and west region. The rest of the minor people came from the rural areas outside of Guang Dong Province; they work as the lower class labors in factories, therefore can’t afford to live in the
central region. Some of them rent apartments in the east end of the neighborhood. Usually only original Cantonese and those middle class Guang Dong fellows who immigrated for decades can offer to own properties by themselves since Real Estate became a main industry in china. Private owned properties include houses and apartment units; most of the apartments in the central area are purchased instead of being rented, while some of the apartment owners may rent their units to transients for money. Since the neighborhood is the critical cultural and economic center of the town culture and the district, the land has been urbanized and planned for decades, therefore it has been densely occupied since 1990s. There are some early planned small housing projects in the center of the neighborhood, but most planned housing projects were executed in the East End, or outside of the neighborhood in Southern Suburb. Most of the local residents in the neighborhood keep static social economic status as the local middle class. Due to the trading culture, most of the local Cantonese people prefer starting their own businesses than working in a company. Since Panyu is a significan treaty port, great opportunities for trading, investigation in real estate, and opening small enterprises were offered in between 1980s and 1990s since China has been open to global trading in 1978 for the first time, thus part of the local people have successfully earned a fortune during 1990s and 1980s. There are people who earned a fortune by evading taxes and smuggling because of the leak of law in the beginning of Opening. These people have transformed from lower class to middle class and upper class. Locals who didn’t earn a fortune during that time became middle class as they began to own their own property (apartment units or houses). One local family that we know for years first rented a 60 square meters apartment unit outside of the neighborhood in 1990s, moved to a 90 square meters apartment unit inner neighborhood in 2000, and several years later they purchased a 180 square meters unit in a mass produced project for middle class in Southern Suburb. During 1970s and 1980s, official jobs were distributed to people who owned bachelor degree according to the policy—the first generation of bachelors since Opening-Up have been offered the positions of school teachers, institutional or municipal officers, mariners, and engineers in nationalized company, etc. This job distributing policy ended in 1990s since expansion of university education began.
Job distribution policy was the biggest reason of the first wave of Guang Dong immigrants launched in Shiqiao because many properly-educated citizens from other cities were offered jobs and apartments in Shiqiao. Since Job Distribution policy came to an end, free job market appeals more less-educated labors to work in Shiqiao. The second wave of immigrants was driven by money and the higher living quality in the city. For the 1960s generation, owning a home was made possible for the first time due to Job Distribution and apartment distribution policy. The main wave of urbanization was fostered by this policy as well. Since 2000, more and more factories appeared in Shiqiao, thus tons of immigrant labors arrived. Those factories were run by those people who earned their first fortune during Job Distribution Era, including local owners and immigrant owners who are mostly from the same province of Guang Dong (I prefer to call them Guang Dong fellows instead of immigrants. By immigrants I mean those who came from the other provinces in china.) Therefore, the second wave of urbanization was fostered by Guang Dong fellows, local entrepreneurs and the mass of immigrant labors since 2000. As more and more immigrant labors from undeveloped rural areas came to the city, local people gradually feel the unsafety in the public area, since crimes happen more frequently in the area. To local residents, the transient immigrant labors are slum people; people do not feel safe in the neighborhood because the transients are wandering among us. The immigrant labors also earn a bad reputation for ruining the environment of the neighborhood; without higher education and suffering from poverty, they do ruin to the public sanitation of the public realm by throwing garbage on the streets, spitting on the street and buses, etc. Those immigrants have been transforming the neighborhood from a local based cantonese neighborhood to a neighborhood where people tend to reduce using Cantonese in official teaching and when store owners sell their products, by using mandarin instead. Many residents may consider the past two decades as a downward for our living environment. Nowadays the water of the river that goes around our neighborhood is in the worst condition ever because of pollution—the horrible smell and the darkened color of the liquid below the bridge never failed to catch my attention when I went to high school. In the past decade, the neighborhood went through a change of less opportunity in local business, while more and more undefined immigrant labors surround. Average income remains likely still for
years while price gets increasingly higher on living goods and housing per year. Thus being a middle class no longer means well-being due to the severe pollution and unsafe food. The environment of Central Shiqiao is highly threatened by automobiles, because it is a very dense area with high density of pedestrian users, while the traffic regulation is not effectively ruling the drivers. Traffic is crowded in the day, and has been worsened in recent years because drivers often go wild on street. They change lanes unnecessarily and don’t yield passengers. As passengers walking on the street, we must look around and listen carefully to the noise caused by the engine of cars before crossing streets because a car may rush into our face in a sudden. Motorcycles have been forced out the other districts in the city for several years; in Guang Zhou, motor bikers used to earn money by carrying passengers around, and they rushed through the traffic sea being unconscious of the possible danger and accidents. In our district, motorcycles are not prohibited, so our streets are even more dangerous to pedestrians; we can always hear the noise of rushing motorcycles. In some conjunctions of roads, there are also motor bikers who occupy the sidewalks, yell at passengers to ask if they need a ride. In the evening when you walk to the end of a road and a motor biker who stay in the shadow for hours can suddenly yell at you.
FOOD CULTURE AND NIGHT CULTURE Night culture and food culture are the distinct and instinct characteristics of the neighborhood; the early developed centers like Chang Ti Road along the River and Da Bei Road have maintained their historical features and old buildings which contribute to their night culture and food culture. Chang Ti has released its role of major concentration in the neighborhood because of the later development of Qing He Ave and the severe pollution of the River, but Chang Ti Road is still a subordinate concentration of night clubs in the neighborhood. Da Bei Road is still a concentration of shopping among youngsters, although a more popular shopping mall has been built to the northwest of Da Bei Road. Da Bei Road is the most walkable center for middle school and high school students, because several schools--Zhong Yuan High School, Qiao Dong Primary School, are located near it. Later developed concentration --Qing He Ave is also active at night time--bars and restaurants are built along the west half of Qing He Ave,
featured by Mei Li Hua Hotel. Further east of Qing He Ave, Panyu Square is a newer concentration of the neighborhood in terms of leisure center and event center. Qing He Ave extends itself northwest to Da Bei Road. Therefore, Da Bei Road and Guang Ming Nan Road are influenced by both historical south end and modern Qing He Ave. The small blocks, alleyways and walk ways that contribute to the circulation of between Dong Chong Road and Guang Ming Road make the northwest a pedestrian friendly shopping center; this shopping center has been a concentration of students and youngsters because of its walkability and popularity. Most of the Shiqiaoers are night persons. From 8 to 10 pm, Da Bei Road is fully occupied by young people who come to shop and look around. Night snacks on the street are young people’s favorite part. Around 10 o’clock in the evening, barbeques, food carts, and big row blocks start their businesses on the most popular walking paths; they occupy the whole Da Nan Street, the path connecting Da Nan Street and Dong Chong Street, and the south edge. Around 8 o’clock in the evening, with warm light casting on the ground, different kinds of activities take place in Panyu Square; square dance has become the most popular event among middle aged women. They dance uniformly following the leader, with a music box put in front of the rows. Many other passengers gather to watch the square dance. Roller skating and board skating are always kids’ favorite. Color fountains located on both sides of the square are played. The smell of snacks spread from the food carts that stand in front of the entrance of Panyu Subway station. People sell toys lying on the floor. The older centers like Chang Ti and Da Bei Road are featured with community memory and history; they have small blocks and pedestrian friendly circulations. They have longer history in Shiqiaoers’ memory than other regions. Shiqiaoers can gain the sense of identity from their community atmosphere. Panyu Square is newer, surrounded by apartment’s plans, with longer blocks which are not pedestrian friendly but automobile friendly instead. Panyu Square is rarely occupied in normal day time because it is mainly used by families with children after school and work at nighttime, while Da Bei Road is occupied all day and night, used by different people of the neighborhood--store keepers, restaurants, shoppers, school students who go the school nearby, old people who live in the nearby old houses, and parents
who keep their children company. The community around Da Bei Road has buildings of different ages--older houses, schools and several newer built shopping malls. Therefore, Panyu Square is only a night time concentration while Da Bei is an alltime concentration of the neighborhood. Da Bei, with a longer history, is closer to the identity of Shiqiaoer. The comparison between Panyu Square and Da Bei Road indicates the similar roles played by the East End and the West End of the neighborhood. Planned in the second half of 20th century, Customs is also surrounded by several schools and 20th century apartments and buildings, with small blocks. Customs is older than Panyu Square, but younger than Da Bei and Chang Ti. Customs is the educational and residential center. It is busy during the day and peaceful at night. The community can be called the Central Shiqiao community. Compared with Da Bei, the Central community feels more like home to me, since I had lived in Central Community for over 10 years. It is a peaceful neighborhood; it’s a joy to see the school students, parents who buy breakfast before school and work, customs officers with their uniforms on, men and women who shop food and goods in the Market beside Customs, and the nurses and doctors who work in He Xian Hospital across the street from the Market to the west. Among the communities of Shiqiao, the Central community keeps the best private interest in its public realm. Its residents feel calm and peaceful living in it.
THE THREE REGIONS The history, recent policies, food and night culture all have significant impact on forming the living environment in our neighborhood. I lived in my first home in the West End since I was born, then I moved to the Central Neighborhood before 5 years old. I had lived in the Central District until 10 years old when I moved to my third home in the East End. The West End was an older neighborhood developed in early 1900s, but I lived in a small planned housing project that was developed in 1980s. The Central District was the center of Shiqiao which developed since Reform and Opening-up in 1978, with the great Customs and the best-off schools around it. The East End was the latest developed neighborhood which is occupied by several mass produced poor-quality housing projects. Among these three neighborhoods, West End and Central District were more successful while East End is a failure.
The Central District is a successful neighborhood under Jane Jacob’s criteria for successful cities. Customs, schools, hospital, dwellings create the mixed primary uses of the Center. The city streets in a successful city are equipped to handle strangers and maintain the safety of the neighborhood.1 The basic requisite for surveillance is a substantial quantity of stores and other public places sprinkled along the sidewalks of a district.2 Take Panyu Customs as the center, there are two main walking paths intersecting with Qing He Ave—De Sheng Road and De Xiang Road. Standing at the intersection between Qing He Ave and De Sheng Road, heading to the east, are clothe shops, comic book and fashion magazine store on the left, and finally Dong Feng Middle School. Behind the front stores of the left side is a residential community called Dong Hui Yuan. On the right side of the road, there’s breakfast restaurant, balloon toy store, clothe shops, tutoring center, and finally across Dong Feng Middle School is a 24-hour bakery and Dong Cheng Kindergarten School. Therefore, these shopkeepers were effective eyes on the street, especially for the balloon toy storekeeper who lives inside the building and run her business in front of the building, the 24-hour bakery that welcomes students and parents and other clients even late in the evening. Since Chinese middle school students are all required to attend a night self-study class, those students can get hungry when they left school at 9pm and get to buy some bread, cakes and hotdogs from the bakery. For late night loitering, the bakery is also a possible termination for teenagers. An example might be my own story—two classmates and I decided to watch a shooting star that was predicted to occur at that night, therefore we kept loitering around the neighborhood since 9pm. We didn’t see the shooting star until 3am the other morning, and we eventually arrived at the bakery which was the only lighted store at the moment, so we stopped and took a nap there, until we left the bakery around 5:30am. Therefore, parents, students, shopkeepers keep the street watched during the day, while the bakery and middle school students as well as their parents can keep an eye on the street during nighttime. Therefore, schools and dwellings are primary uses that bring secondary diversity of stores and shops to the street. De Xiang Road is also occupied by different kinds of stores—clothes shops, stationery stores, flower stores, snack stores, newspaper and magazine store, and sewing shop. 1 2
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961. Jacobs
De Xiang Road has several public acquaintances; the couple owners of the magazine store we firstly encounter have run their business for decades, therefore they surely know what students are recommended by their teachers to read and what newspaper sell best in the region. They know all the familiar faces who like to buy their magazines. Further down the road is the sewing shop owner, who is spotted to be sitting there each time I crossed by, who would say hi to me and keep her smile when she sew the school uniforms or try to make the trousers shorter for her clients. She also has been in the area for decades. I was happy to see her still sewing when I returned to china last summer break. Residents in the region must feel calm and peaceful when they see her face. Further down the street, across from Dong Cheng Primary School, stands a stationery store that has been there for decades as well. I never bought my stationery elsewhere for years. They just know what brand of water pens I like to use. The other clothes shops settled on the street later, probably attracted by the residents and students in the region. Therefore the casual public sidewalk life remains well in the central region. The feeling of the public identity of people is kept by the public sidewalk contacts.3 Residents are aware of the public respect and trust among people.4 Central District consists of offices, schools, dwellings, and Dong Cheng Market as its mixed primary uses.5 Dong Cheng Market attracts people to shop foods and goods in the day, and it also contains many relative small enterprises and retails within the market as well. Although the Central District is not equipped with night clubs, bars for nighttime uses, it is still a very safe region. We have saying that thieves are all sleeping when Central District is dark. In fact, besides middle school students and their parents, other residents of dwellings in the region compensate the hole of bars and clubs for nighttime users of the streets. My third home in East End was an apartment unit in a small planned housing project of government officers dwellings built with public money. The other mass produced housing projects around us were built later, therefore we didn’t know how the surroundings would be formed when we moved in. The later development of the East End proved that it became a semislum because of the homogenous primary use of the neighborhood as dwellings and therefore the immigrant transients who rent in the mass produced apartments were to blame. 3 4 5
Jacobs Jacobs Jacobs
According to Jane Jacobs, transients are ignorant of the safety of the sidewalks in a neighborhood.6 They don’t consider Shiqiao as their home because they frequently move and don’t own their own property in the city. We can’t keep track of their face. These transients are commonly seen in the East End. Those housing projects make the streets dead and boring; take our project for example; it contains two high residential buildings, a grass plaza, and a recreation building. The project is bounded by one story walls; stores were built along the boundaries, facing outward. The cheaper mass produced housing project to the east of us is also bounded by this kind of “store walls”. Therefore, the only “public realm” for residence of our project is the grass plaza and the recreation center in the project. Residents rarely loiter out of the boundary at night. They are afraid of the surrounding environment beyond the boundary. The reason why people do not dare to walk outside the project is that although there are stores surrounding the project, they are not built along sidewalks like traditional city sidewalks. These stores are facing the super wide Qing He Ave with nothing more than automobiles crossing by. There are no potential users for sidewalks in the evening because of the homogenous primary use of dwellings. Thus the sidewalks are not equipped to handle strangers; in around 2008, a sister of a resident in the project was reported to be robbed and one of her arms were chopped off right in front of the entrance to the project around 11pm, the stores on the sidewalk were mostly closed at the moment, so there’s no effective eyes on the street. The public space—grass plaza and the recreation center—cannot maintain a normal public life of a city, because people feel cannot keep their privacy—they jog around the grass plaza every day and encounter their coworkers. They don’t have a public contact to have a casual conversation with, thus gossip never ends. The project sounds like a private realm for the officers and their families, but lacks normal public life in a city. The public life of the project is not bad only because the owners have the similar social background, and they can also enjoy their public life elsewhere by driving to the nearby Panyu Square or the other neighborhoods. As Jane Jacobs presumes, the sense of togetherness in this kind of housing project is very selective; residents are choosy as to who their neighbors area and with whom they associate with. Our project, which is aimed at the government officers’ housing, houses the selected middle class people in the society,
6
Jacobs
while the surrounding low rent projects house lower class people and probably immigrants from other regions of the country, thus we consciously avoid friendliness or casual offers of help outside our project. Segregation and discrimination is not resolved in these housing projects. No new people were met outside our “private” social circle, but our privacy is kind of violated. Furthermore, when some of the apartment owners try to sell their units to someone “outside” when they have enough money to afford a property in a better neighborhood with better surrounding environment or a bigger house, residents who choose to stay would complain how their neighbors in the same building are going to be unknown strangers, therefore the social network which was once “stationary” has been destroyed by property transfer. The West End, the earliest developed region in the neighborhood, is the most successful region in terms of city diversity. For West End, commerce has formed a primary use because it attracts users all day including nighttime. Schools and offices, and dwellings and Panyu Library are also its primary uses. Movie Theater, Panyu Shiqiao Cultural Center, and New Plaza are the secondary uses that bring diversity to the neighborhood. The West End simply shows what a walkable traditional town should be like. Schools draw students and parents to the region early as 6 am in the morning. New Plaza attracts many seniors who like to play Chinese chess and do stretch exercise in this garden-like recreation square as early as 6:00am. Office buildings have worker that got to work at 8:00am. The stores in Da Nan Road open at 10:00 am and start to attract people who come to shop. Noon sees students leaving schools and office workers heading for surrounding restaurants for lunch. After 6:00pm the shops, the stores and restaurants get a lot of consumers including young people from other neighborhood who come to shop. As mentioned, small blocks and walkable alleyways between streets are featured in the West End. Therefore snacks also attract many visitors from other neighborhoods. West End has great density of users at any time of the day, thus it satisfies the need for concentration of people as the condition for city diversity. West End has some older buildings when compared with the Central District and East End, so it owns the many alleyways between the old buildings that contribute to the convenience of walking through small blocks and fosters the small barbeque enterprises that occupy the alleyways during nighttime; for sure those snack carts and barbeque cart owners won’t be able to afford the rent of a store that on a wide street that is occupied by automobiles. This confirms how aged buildings are needed in a city for generating diversity.
Thus the East End is lacking mixed primary uses, small blocks, and aged buildings which are vital conditions for city diversity, while Central District has mixed primary uses, small blocks, but lacks aged buildings for generating diverse uses during nighttime. Lastly, West End has the longest history and memories, has the densest concentration of people in the region yet not overcrowded, has mixed primary uses which have evolved in the region for decades. The small blocks, aged buildings, alleyways, and the lack of housing projects make it a lively and diverse city neighborhood.
SYMBOLISM According to Venturi, the communication between architecture, landscape and people is significant. 7Architecture with symbols associated with meaning and history can better communicate with people. On Qing He Ave, white concrete 8 stories high dwellings with storefronts on the first floor are commonly seen. These dwellings were built in 1980s and 1990s to house the increasing population in the neighborhood, while they also symbolize the first wave of urbanization and the beginning of property. Most of these dwellings do not exceed 8 stories because stories are limited for buildings without elevators. The storefronts on the first floor of the buildings form a commerce wall along the sidewalk. The faรงade of a house is never seen on the street because they are all bounded in the specific housing projects inward of each block, hidden behind the exposed commerce. Therefore, the uniformed storefronts with apartments above them form the basic image on the street when one is driving. This uniformed background makes it easy to notice when a modern building like a glass walled building or a skyscraper stand out. When such modern buildings occur, they usually keep a greater setback from the street, or are surrounded by plantation and grass. The surrounding plantation and grass form a different background for contrast with the rest of the street view. Thus the identity of the glass buildings is strengthened as landmarks. The dense dwellings and stores also make a contrast with the relief of space of these landmarks. Panyu Government, Zhong Yin Building, and Customs are all clearly identified landmarks when they are observed externally in this way. The layout of their plans hints the significance of them as civic power and financial power from far away. They communicate well with both drivers and pedestrians by their changing proximity to the street. 7
Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steve Izenour, Learning From Las Vegas. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972.
Their architectural forms also indicate their significance; the clock tower of Customs building symbolizes the civic power of Customs carries as well as the significance of time in trading. Since Chinese people are not familiar with Western architecture, bare glass wall and absolute symmetry symbolize importance or money. Therefore, glass wall is the most obvious symbolic decoration of these buildings, while the signage on the storefronts becomes the explicit symbols of the vernacular buildings. In this way the vernacular buildings become decorated sheds defined by Venturi8. Customs is a decorated shed with associated social meanings as well.
QUALITY OF THE IMAGE
Significant Paths, edges, nodes, and landmarks chosen by subjects
According to Lynch, the image of a city consists of 5 physical elements including paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks.9 Paths: “paths are the channels along which the observer customarily moves.�10 According to subjects, the parallel East-West paths, Qing He Ave, Shi Lian Ave (Ping Kang Road), are two main paths in the neighborhood. Besides these two paths, the subjects tend to
8
Venturi Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960. 10 Lynch 9
move South-North, and chose their potential paths according to their uses; most of them chose Huan Cheng Dong Road and Dong Chong Road as their main paths. Edges: “Edges are the boundries between two phases, linear breaks in continuity.”11 All the subjects chose Chang Ti Road (along river) and Xi Li Road (west arm of the river) as their boundaries. Nodes: “Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is traveling.”12 Subjects chose the intersection between Dong Huan Road and Qing He Road, the intersection between Ping Kang Road and Huan Cheng Dong Road, the intersection between Yu Shan Da Dao and Da Bei Road, and the intersection between Dong Chong Road and Ping Kang Road as the main nodes in the neighborhood. Landmarks: landmarks are a type of external point-reference where the observer does not enter within them.13 Panyu Government, Panyu Square, and You Dian Building (the post and telecommunications building) are chosen by all the subjects. Subjects chose their other landmarks based on their daily use and knowledge of the neighborhood. To create a vivid image, the elements should be able to strengthen their clarity and singularity. Paths should be continuous, with clarity of direction and hierarchy among themselves so that people can be oriented, and travel through the neighborhood can be scaled. Qing He Ave and Shi Lian Ave (Ping Kang Road) intersect with the other South-North paths perpendicularly, therefore the orientation of East-West and South-North is clear. Qing He Ave and Shi Lian Ave (Ping Kang Road) are continuous within the neighborhood. Qing He Road grooves upward at the West End and continues to the North, while Ping Kang Road continues to west. In Shiqiao, there are three main bridges that lead to the southern suburb, including De Xing Bridge on De Xing Road, Nan Jiao Bridge on Gong Ye Road, and Xi Li Bridge on Xi Li Road. Therefore the orientation of South-North is clear. The width of Qing He Ave gets narrower when it goes from East to West—6 lanes at East End gradually become two lanes at West End. Ping Kang Road remains 2 lanes from east to west, while the setbacks of the buildings along the street get smaller as it travels from east to west. The different uses of the different parts of the 11 12 13
Lynch Lynch Lynch
neighborhood strengthen the orientation of the paths and motivate the change of mindset as one travels from south to north and from east to west. The subjects can sense the newer settled, clearly laid out east end, the clearly laid-out public spaces in the central region, and the diverse and lively activities happening in the west end. The presences of other city elements also strengthen the image. Nodes, as the introverted point reference, should have sharp and closed boundaries, or it is break in transportation. One should be clear of how to enter and go outward of the node, thus a node should be visible from the outside. Nodes can be strengthened by high landmarks. The nodes chosen by subjects are all intersections between paths and intensive focal points.14 The intersection between Yu Shan Da Dao and Da Bei Road has sharp and closed boundaries. It is enclosed by commercial districts with buildings in different heights from four directions. There’s an overpass for pedestrians to cross the streets since the traffic is so busy in this node. Automobiles can take a break in this node to decide whether to go to the north Shiqiao or back to the old town, whether to go to the western suburb or the East End. Therefore this node is an intense focal point for automobiles and pedestrians. The intersection between Dong Huan Road and Qing He Ave is a node because it is where automobiles enter the town. Panyu Square is also a node for transportation—beneath it is a subway station, which is the termination of the main city line. The intersection is the corner and exit of highway, and is strengthened by landmarks of Panyu Government, Panyu Square and a skyscraper of Zhong Yin Building. The northeast boundary of this node is not sharp because the Luo Community in that area is pretty closed and introverted, leaving a blank between the East End and it. The flow of traffic can lead people to the right direction, but the boundary is a little confusing as for the image. As Lynch suggests, landmarks are strengthened when they are grouped, and when nodes are joint with them, more attention is driven.15 Panyu Government and Panyu Square are grouped. Panyu Government plays the role of civic power while Panyu Square creates a more leisure and relief feeling; orientation is more clarified when people see the two landmarks reacting to each other. Transportation break is also acting to strengthen the image; the overpass 14 15
Lynch Lynch
highway to the east of these two landmarks convinces that one is entering Shiqiao Town. When one drives down the highway and enter the intersection, one can spot the skyscraper standing beside Panyu Square, and the realm of Panyu Government during the break of traffic light. Turning right, one would enter the wide street of Qing He Ave. One is getting closer to the great Government building and Panyu Square. Therefore it is clear how to enter and exit the node. Lynch’s argument that the users who are more familiar with the city would orient themselves with landmarks rather than paths16 is true; the subjects all come up with different landmarks in their mind, depending on the frequency of them using the related paths. The quality of the five physical elements shows that South Shiqiao has a vivid image that is identifiable because of the contrast of the built environment between the south and the north, and between the west and the east. The East End of the neighborhood has a boring image because it only contains mass produced housing projects that are so introverted. The three of the North-South oriented paths that lead to the southern suburb are not so vivid because they don’t have the unified view along the path, hence people don’t recognize them as potential paths.
ICONS AND ALIENS Along Qing He Ave, Icons built in late 20th century are seen. These were previous Aliens in the neighborhood, but already transformed into Icons in the neighborhood.17
16 17
Lynch John J. Costonis, Icons and Aliens.
Panyu District Hall, viewing from Panyu Square
Panyu Square, Panyu District Hall and Government, and Panyu Customs are the icons in my neighborhood. Most icons are institutional buildings. Panyu Square is a center for leisure and recreation and events. It shows the excitement of the neighborhood, the hospitality and friendliness of neighborhood residents, as well as the night culture. Many of the big cultural events take place in the Square; in Lunar New Year Festival, New Year’s Eve, beautiful fireworks are played, thus residents can come to the Square to watch the performance. A week before Lunar New Year, Colored Street is settled--the adjacent street to the south of the Square will become a commercial street for temporary stores selling flowers, lucky plants, handicrafts, toys, Chinese traditional handwriting with lucky words, poems, etc. Two intersecting streets will be decorated with colorful lights. Colored Street is a temporary celebration for the coming of Lunar New Year, where people encounter their acquaintances at schools, at work, and in daily life. Familiar faces are likely seen in the yearly event. Besides, on Food Festival, food from different provinces in china is brought to the event held in Square, thus people can taste different style of Chinese food in the Square. Across Qing He Ave is the other Icon in the neighborhood--Panyu District Hall. It’s a master planned site built in the beginning of 21st Century.
Panyu Customs, 1988
Panyu Customs is also facing Qing He Ave. It was built in 1988 after the Opening of China in 1978. It locates in the educational center of the neighborhood, since Dong Cheng Primary School and Kindergarten, Dong Feng Middle School are all located to the south of Panyu Customs across Qing He Ave. Panyu Customs is also a planned site; a spire tower rises
above the glass walled structure sitting on an elevated base, surrounded by grass, preceded by concrete residential apartments for officials and their families, and a basketball field facing the apartment building. Customs is bounded by barriers, but it is commonly seen by pedestrians and drivers along Qing He Ave.
Tian Mu Mall-left, store-apartment buildings -right
Residential apartments were also built in late 20th century and early 21st century. The photo below shows the residential apartments built in late 20th century and part of the Alien across the Qing He Ave which was built several years ago. The Tian Mu Mall, which stands in the corner between Qing He Ave and Gongye Road, suddenly interrupts with the storefronts and vernacular buildings facing the streets. It is a glass walled building in great scale, without any setback from the street. Its entrance faces directly to the corner of the street, beside the surpass bridge extended on Gongye Road. It’s a terrifying burden in terms of its great size and location, because it doen’t fit in the image at all. Storefronts with apartments above them were replaced by this big glass Alien. This kind of building should be placed on a shopping plaza with great setback from the streets, instead of standing in a dense commerce and residence mixed clusters like this. It is not surprising that the mall can’t attract any consumers at all, because the building gets even more annoying in transportation break.
OLDER ICONS Older Icons were built along the river on Chang Ti Road. Qi Lou, built in the early 20th century, is found on Chang Ti Road, which is the south edge of the neighborhood, facing Shiqiao River. Qilou buildings are unique to the southern part of china. The architecture type is popular in 1920s in Guang Zhou. Qilou buildings have been closely related to the city’s booming business economy. “Business” was the concept of the Qilou design, and we can find examples of ancient buildings with similar design elements dated back to Song Dynasty. Since Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), western things have been emerging in China. Greek architecture with corridors had just been introduced to Guangzhou, which eventually became the rudiment of Qilou building type. During the late 19th Century and early 20th century, many Cantonese merchants returned to their hometowns from other Southeast Asian countries to building their own business. They brought some exotic styles of architecture, and soon Qilou building emerged. Most of the Qilou buildings are three or four storied, with a protruding structure, arcade, stretching above from the second story over the sidewalk. These arcades are linked together by the side of the street, forming a shaded corridor, which keeps the shops along the sidewalk as well as the pedestrians safe from the scorching sun and rain. It rains a lot in the spring in Southern China. Therefore, Qilou buildings, which are suitable for sub-tropical climate in Lingnan areas, providing convenience for the local people, were once the main architectural style in Guangzhou.
Qun Yuan, built in 1941
Qun Yuan was built in 1941, and was rehabilitated in 2008, now registered as a Cultural Heritage of Guang Zhou City. Qun Yuan is surrounded by summer corridors, supported by red round brick columns and bounded by red brick walls. The main front of Qun Yuan follows the Ru Yi Door building type, featured by Chinese traditional green glazed flying tile on its roof. There are 5 main buildings inside Qun Yuan. Therefore, the older traditional architectures of early 20th century were built along the river. The previous District Hall (20th century) was located beside Qun Yuan. Qun Yuan is now serving as the activity center for seniors in the community. In china, the preservation of old buildings and historic sites are mainly carried out by the different levels of government according to their registered level. A regulation for example, Qun Yuan is designated as the Cultural Heritage of Guang Zhou City, thus it is supposed to be maintained and preserved by the Office of Guang Zhou Cultural Relics, according to the Regulation of Carrying out the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of Cultural Relics, which was passed at the 20th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People’s Congress on June 29, 1991. The administrative department for cultural relics under the State Council shall take charge of the work concerning the protection of cultural relics throughout the country. Article 9 Peoples governments at various levels shall attach importance to the protection of cultural relics and correctly handle the relations between economic and social development and the protection of cultural relics so as to ensure safety of the cultural relics.
The cultural relics are designated by the Office of Cultural Relics; the Office of Cultural Relics has experts on Cultural Relics who would carry out annual survey on subjects that should be designated. According to the Office of Cultural Relics of Panyu District, Qi Lou in Shiqiao is not designated as cultural relics, but significant Qi Lou streets in other districts of Guang Zhou are preserved by the City of Guang Zhou.
Qun Yuan on the right, Old District Hall on the left.
Old Houses adjacent Chang Ti, built in early 20th Century.
It’s not exaggerating to say that most of us who were born in the 1990s were born in the realm of Aliens because not many of us have lived in a house like this. Although we are accustomed to skyscrapers and apartments, we are still familiar with older houses and older neighborhoods, because of food. As we know, Shiqiaoers can’t live without seafood and street
food. Snacks and food carts often like to occupy a place where there’s no Chengguan--City Inspectors who prohibit food carts, therefore the best place for avoiding the inspectors is the alleyway between those older houses. The frequently used alleyways often maintain a sense of “tradition”, “home” and “leisure.” People feel free and relaxed when they enjoy sitting on a plastic chair, eating beef offal in the plate.
CONCLUSION The West End of Central Shiqiao, with mixed primary uses that draw continuous users, small blocks articulated best for pedestrians, alleyways that foster street food culture, concentration of population, and old buildings that enables the diversity of enterprises, becomes the most diverse neighborhood with the longest history to be memorized. Business culture, food culture and night culture, which were fostered historically by the local residents, were dynamically infused to the public realm of the West End, interwoven with the later developed industries, enterprises, local middle class dwellings, educational centers, and cultural center. This distinct culture strengthens the identity and the image of the neighborhood, because most of the local residents maintain their memories associated with the cultural atmosphere of West End, and would like to continue living with it. The continuous users ensure the safety of the densest region of the neighborhood. The West End is equipped well enough to handle strangers and people of different social classes and cultural background. The dynamic circulation of paths in West End also indicates the minimal segregation of social classes and the spirit of inclusiveness. Therefore West End has the best public interest. The Central Region of the neighborhood, which was carefully laid out in the 20th century, with the most reliable educational centers in the neighborhood, the civic buildings that are most relative to the local culture of business—customs, the most popular market, and the middle class dwellings that are infused into the blocks, keeps the best balance between private and public interest, and owns many reliable public characters in the community, thus the community remains good contact among the residents and users, and has the best selfsurveillance in the community. The West and Central regions together form a successful urban center for the district.
The East End of the neighborhood, developed by the money-driven real estate investigators and developers, has a chaotic and confusing built environment that hints urban sprawl, with the cheap mass produced apartment projects spreading over the region. The introverted housing projects and the introverted previous villages nearby strengthen the segregation of different social classes and people from different cultural background. The East End is lacking mixed primary uses, small blocks, and continuous use of the streets, mainly also because of the mass produced projects since they are bounded tightly inward, and are not blending into the image. Therefore, it’s a failed minor focus radiated from the center of the neighborhood. The image of Central Shiqiao is vivid on the west-east paths because of the distinguishable different features in physical plans and atmosphere among the three regions. Therefore, we should protect the precious old buildings in the West End, think carefully before a new development or investigation comes in, in order to maintain the identity of the neighborhood, and to prevent an urban center from becoming an empty heart.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961. Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steve Izenour, Learning From Las Vegas. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972. Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960. John J. Costonis, Icons and Aliens.1991.