At Nanjing, Zhonghua Road is the north-south trunk road of the city. The road is 1.8 km long and 30m wide. At the southern end of the road, standing the Zhonghua Men Gate, and at the northern is the Neiqiao Bridge. Even though it appears to be normal and common, it does have a history of 1700 years. It was founded in Dongwu Dynasty named as Yuan Road. After Jiankang was established as the capital of Dongjin Dynasty, the road was set as the Royal Road. The Imperial City was situated at the north to the Royal Road. In Nanchao Dynasty the road and the space pattern of the whole city were both continued, which created the first glory in Nanjing’s long history. After establishing its capital at Jinling, Nantang Dynasty rebuilt the Royal Road and the Imperial City according to history. From that on, the location of the road had not ever changed. Even in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, the road became the main trading area at the south of the city. After that, Republic of China established its capital at Nanjing. The road was transformed during the 30s and was finally named as Zhonghua Road. At that time, this road was already 1.8km long and 23m wide. After the foundation of People’s Republic of China, the road was mainly transformed at the south part between the 80s and 90’s. And after 2000, the road was transformed partially at the north.In this essay we try to analyze the long history of the road. In chronological order, scripts, scripts, drawings, photos and designing plans are separately carried out to do the analysis. In that way, we are very able to develop the study on "The Royal Road-Zhonghua Road" and the urban space progressively. Through this analysis, we are trying to rethink the history of Nanjing City.From Dongwu Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty, the analysis of this period time is mostly based on written history. We try to unfold the history of the road by some acient books. The analysis of Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty is based on painterly history. We can get to know the road by several paintings of that time. From the end of Qing Dynasty to Republic of China,photos are the mainly source to acknowledge the war-time history of the road. After the foundation of People’s Republic of China, we can refer to city planning policies. Through the documents of urban planning we can get a deeper understanding of Nanjing in modern time. The whole essay may be not that schematic, but it’s a good try for me any way. The whole thesis contains about 54 000 words,141 pictures and charts. |