Study On The Modernization Process Of Urban Space In Suzhou

As foreign urban construction technologies and methods passively implanted into Chinese concession cities,and advanced urban management systems,technologies and ideas introduced in during the spontaneously learning process from the West,the transformation of ancient cities into modern cities was promoted in the form of reconstruction.Suzhou,in the modern era,has been passively opened up as a commercial port and actively introduced advanced Western experience.It still retains a relatively integral old city form.So the modernization process of urban space is worth exploring.Based on the background of urban development and spatial evolution in Suzhou before late Qing Dynasty,nine historical maps from 1860 to 1949 have been re-drawed.The overall process of transformation is sorted out cooperating with the corresponding historical documents and modern newspaper records.Through layer-by-layer investigation and analysis,the development characteristics of the spatial modernization process of Suzhou are focused on the four spatial elements that have changed most significantly in modern era,including buildings,city walls(gates),roads,and railways.Combining the evolution of the above-mentioned four spatial elements,the improvement and continuation of urban road network,the establishment and consolidation of the urban center are further discussed.The inner cause of the stable urban space can be concluded.It provides a reference for the continuation of the structure in protecting the Suzhou old city in the future,and also provides a reference for the protection of the space texture of other historical and cultural cities in China,especially the cities in the south of the Yangtze River.