Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the next segment on my trip through
Macau and Guangzhou. In this part, I
actually won’t be talking about either of these cities, but rather one of the
areas the class visited while traveling from Macau to Guangzhou called Kai
Ping. Specifically, I will be talking
about two towns in Kai Ping that are at the far ends of the urbanization
process: Chikan and Majianlong.
First,
though, is some brief background about the area. Similar to the Fanling district in Hong Kong,
the Kai Ping region used to be primarily farmland. It is also one of the areas affected by the
manufacturing boom in China. However,
Kai Ping is a much larger region than Fanling and the urbanization processis occurring
at a comparatively slower rate. In fact,
while traveling through Kai Ping I would look out the window from time to time
and witness different stages of development each time I turned my head. One moment, I would see the vast expanses of
farmlands with little villages scattered about the place, and the next I would
be going through a fully developed town (both cases shown below).
 |
| The farming areas of Kai Ping contain little development except for the few isolated areas of residential tenements and the areas where there are signs of planned urbanization. |
 |
| The urbanized areas of Kai Ping are the result of the rapid manufacturing boom and the need for surrounding developed towns. Unfortunately, most of these towns faded just as quickly as they appeared. |
Moving
on, the first town we stopped at was Chikan.
Chikan, like many other towns in China and Hong Kong, used to be a
manufacturing hub until the factories moved out. With its heydays behind it, the town
refocused itself on tourism, restoring the waterfront buildings and creating a riverside
market (shown right) as one of the main flows of income. While touring through the town, I found that
only the front of the town had been restored while the inner area had been left
in a run-down state (shown below).
Furthermore, I also noted several modern buildings
adjacent to the old buildings that stood out because their architecture didn’t fit
the rustic style of Chikan. Although
they look like every other generic housing complex found in China and Hong Kong,
here they stick out because of the rustic architectural nature of the
surrounding historic buildings. A couple
of side-by-side comparisons are below:
Again, this is a similar situation to what was
observed in Fanling: a loss of architectural identity from neglecting
historical buildings and areas while constructing cookie-cutter residential buildings
without regard for site context. If
Chikan wants to become a full-fledged tourist destination, then the town planners
may want to consider at least re-designing the exteriors of these buildings so
that they create a more uniform architectural and cultural identity and give
the town some character that will attract visitors.
At the
other end of the spectrum is the village of Majianlong (shown left). Majianlong is a UNESCO world heritage site, meaning
that the buildings in the village are protected historical landmarks and have
been left untouched since their construction.
The chief reason for the preservation of Majianlong is its
Diaolous. A diaolou is a guard tower
meant to protect the village and its people from bandits and heavy flooding. These towers, like the one in Majianlong (shown below), have existed since the 16th century, making some of
them nearly 500 years old. [1] Majianlong basically represents what rural China
looked like before the urbanization process started.
So other
than the historical aspect of Majianlong and its diaolous, I don’t have anything
else to say about the buildings themselves.
However, while touring through the village’s bamboo forest, I came
across a very interesting sight; a tree filled with pieces of paper hanging
from its branches and the fence at the tree’s base. The nearby sign said that it was called a “Wishing
Tree.” I had never seen anything like
this, so I took a couple photos (shown below) and decided to research it when I
got back.
My research led me to a place called Lam Tsuen in
Hong Kong’s New Territories. Apparently,
Lam Tsuen has the most famous of wishing trees, but the trees themselves can be
found throughout China. The pieces of
paper are called “josses” and have various wishes and prayers written on them
for things like protection, fortune, and so on.
Once the people had written everything down, they would throw the josses
into the tree in the hopes that their wishes and prayers would be heard by the
earth god. The higher the josses landed in the tree, the more likely the
prayers would be heard. [2][3] I think this is a very unique aspect to
spiritual life in China and Hong Kong and I wish that something like this had
been included during our class tours (in addition to some of the temples we
visited).
So those are my thoughts on my trip through Kai
Ping. This was a nice change of pace
from the modern urban areas to the more historic rural areas. It was also nice
since most of the trip was riding on the bus. I was finally able to catch up on lost sleep
due to the late night work sessions for our architecture studio project (at
least in my case – I can’t speak for what the others did). Anyways, my next blog will be on the tour of Guangzhou. I plan on focusing on a few of the buildings
as case studies for what to do and what not to do for construction. Until then, thanks for reading and I hope to
see you back again.
Sources:
- UNESCO Advisory Board. “Kaiping Diaolou and Villages.” Retrieved August 19, 2014. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1112/
- Elaine Tai. “Lam Tsuen ‘Tradition’ – The Wishing Tree.” Retrieved August 19, 2014. http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/varsity/0003/culture2.htm
- Hong Kong Tourism Board. “Wishing Trees and Tin Hau Temple at Lam Tsuen.” Retrieved August 19, 2014. http://www.discoverhongkong.com/us/see-do/culture-heritage/chinese-temples/lam-tsuen-wishing-tree.jsp
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