The Investigation of Chinese Ancient City Walls

This research attempts to make a better understanding of the ancient city wall and to study the Chinese walls protection theory. Then, based on the research of status quo, practical experience and lessons of walls protection in China, the thesis tries to establish a series of principles, methods ,strategies and a better system for Chinese ancient city wall’s protection, which has realistic meaning for guiding and promoting city wall protection work of China in future. China’s city wall construction has a very long history. There are thousands of different sizes city walls of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, which is unique in world’s history. With increasing urbanization and enhanced awareness of historic preservation, the protection of ancient city wall is getting more attention, but the specific conservation practice in China also has a lot of problems, such as how to graft these ancient elements onto the modern society through city walls conservation. Present research focus on the contradictions between city walls protection and urban construction. The research firstly combed the origins and the development process of the ancient city wall in China, analyzed and summarized the type, the composition system, construction materials, technologies and the affective factors of walls, established research platform of the background systematically. Then the research studied the theoretical basis of the walls conservation of China and Europe from the relevant laws, regulations and cultural relic preservation concepts. The review of Chinese ancient city wall protection history which is from the remove to protection of the walls was based on the specific historic background of China. The research classified today’s existing ancient city walls into two main types: Relatively complete walls which includes relatively complete city walls exist in metropolis, relatively complete city walls exist in medium and small-sized cities and partially preserved walls. According to the types, the research selected seven Chinese cities to investigate the status quo of the city walls protection, which are Nanjing and Xi’an relatively complete city walls exist in metropolis; Pingyao, Jingzhou, Shouxian and Xingcheng which are relatively complete city walls exist in medium and small cities; Beijing which is partially preserved walls. Then, the research also studied the city wall protection system in China from the laws and regulations, protection mechanisms and urban planning system. Through analyzing the status quo of the main types of walls and the city wall protection system in China, existing problems in the walls protection can be summarized. Meanwhile the reasons causing these issues can also be found. According to the problems of city walls protection in China, this thesis proposed general protection principles which should be emphasized in the city wall protection of China. They are authenticity principle, systematic principle and sustainability principle. Based on the tree principles, the research introduced the concept of dynamic integrated conservation which includes the walls protection planning, body maintenance and environmental renovation and explored the specific conservation methods. The research also summarizes the strategies to support the walls protection all over China, proposed a sound legal system, pluralistic financing mechanism and flexible incentives. However, without an effective city wall protection system the above outcomes cannot be implemented in the protection process. So the thesis established a suggested system which was composed by two parts: First is the supporting mechanism which is directly under the administration of central government through formulating the protection legislation, developing financing policies and controlling anthropogenic factors to support the city wall protection work all over China. Second part is the core of the system, the implementation mechanism. An Authoritative Institution composed of multi - disciplinary experts who were selected by the central government should be established to guide and manage the protection work under the local levels’ support. According to the central level’s requirements combined with the local situation the Authoritative Institution make an integrated plan of the city wall protection and take charge of implementing the plan of the walls body preservation and surrounding setting renovation. The research found the main problems of Chinese city wall protection and attempted to solve these problems by proposing protection principles and establishing a suggested protection system. However, city wall protection is a long term work the outcomes of the research need long time test to identify its feasibility and new problems in order to draw better wall protection system in future.