Study On The Conservation Of The Ancient Town Gongtan After The Ex Situ Conservation

The ancient town Gongtan ranks first in the famous historical and cultural towns ofChongqing City. Gongtan belongs to Youyang County, which is in the Southeast ofChongqing. It locates in the transition region of Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou andHunan provinces, and on the east of the junction of Wujiang and Apengjiang.1700years of history dated from Shu, primitive natural and steep geographical environment,economic boom by water transportation, and culture of Tujia inhabited in Wulingmountainous region, unique architectural style of traditional form and space, all of thesemake Gongtan has an outstanding historical status in the urban construction history ofsouthwest region.However, due to economic development and construction, the ancient townGongtan became another thousand-years-old town in Chongqing that disappeared intothe river for the construction of hydropower station. The whole town was forced tomove for ex situ conservation. After the relocation, Gongtan town although preserved,the historical feature loss, cultural loss and economic recession are very serious,From the perspective of history and culture circumstances, this thesis firstly studiesthe historic environment and cultural roots. After that, it summarizes the overall shapechange of Gongtan and the situation of preservation after the relocation. Secondly, fromthe macro to the micro system, this thesis summarizes the characteristics of thetraditional style of the ancient town. Then, it analyzes the law and the causes thatgenerate the characteristics, to prepare for the conservation afterward. Finally, this thesisdialectical proposes the ideas, strategies and measures of conservation of the ancienttown, according to the situations and contradictions.This thesis is divided into the following three parts:The first part (Chapter2) is about the introduction of changes of ancient town indevelopment and analysis of cultural historical background. This chapter brieflydescribes the history of the development and analyzes the impact to the development ofthe town of the water transportation and water conservancy facilities construction. Inaddition, the thesis explores the features of the town’s history and culture, including Baculture and the culture of salt transportation, which are reflected by the feature of theancient town.The second part (Chapter3) is about summarization of the current situation and problems of Gongtan after the relocation. The ex situ conservation resulted in thegreatest change in thousands of years of history. Although the town is retained, thetown’s history style is not fully recovered. This chapter mainly analyzes the town’srelocation method as well as the current situation, summed up the gain and loss in therelocation, in order to lay a good solid foundation for conservation afterwards.The third part (Chapter4) is about summarization of the features of ancient townafter relocation. This chapter analyzes the impact to town’s characteristic style of theunique natural landscape and the mountainous environment, which are also essentialand fundamental parts of the town feature. The town’s characteristic style is summarizedin three aspects: town, streets and architecture.The fourth part (Chapter5) is about research of the conservation and rehabilitationof Gongtan ancient town, according to the preservation condition and maincontradiction. Firstly, adhering to the principle of overall protection, this chapter studieshow to conserve human and natural environment of the ancient town, how to restoretown’s characteristic style. Secondly, adhering to sustainable development importantprinciple, this chapter studies how to make use of historic environment as resources, todevelop tourism industry and improve people’s living environment.