The Relation between Historical Preservation and Tour Exploitation

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The Relation between Historical Preservation and
Tour Exploitation

The Institute of Architectural History and
Historic Preservation School of
Architecture Tsinghua University Beijing
China Zhang Rong Zhangrong01_at_mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
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The World Heritage of Forbidden City
As we all know, Forbidden City is one of the
earliest members of China in the world heritage
list, for it is the biggest and the most
integrity ancient building group. Forbidden City
is the Imperial Palace in Ming and Qing
Dynasties. It has a history of almost 600 years.
All in Forbidden City are the eyewitnesses of
this history.

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The Tour in Forbidden City
In the last 10 years, there are 6 to 8 million
visitors from all over the world every year. And
the number is larger and larger. On the holidays,
the apex number comes to more than 50 thousand.
The huge number of visitors is a heave burden to
Forbidden City. We can see it from the damage of
the ground bricks, which are abraded by the
visitors shoes. Owing to the lack of bricks, the
square between Tai-he-men Gate(???) and Wu-men
Gate(??)had to fill with cement bricks. Actually,
that disobeyed the principle of preservation of
using the original material.

Although the area of Forbidden City is 780
thousand square meters, yet the open field is
mainly beside the axis. And most of the palaces
in the area are no entry. Visitors are only
allowed looking through the doors and windows.
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The Region of our Project
The Palace Museum planned mapping and researching
the buildings of Forbidden City. Our institute
joined the project and took on the work in the
field of Tai-he-men Gate(???). The buildings
include Hong-yi-ge building(???), Ti-ren-ge
building(???),Chong-lou buildings(??),Zhen-du-men
Gate(???), Zhao-de-men Gate (???),Xi-he-men Gate
(???),Xie-he-men Gate (???),and their accessory
buildings. These buildings are lied among
Tai-he-men Gate(???), and symmetry along the axis
of Forbidden City. They do not allow the visitors
enter to visit. Most of them are storages,
especially, Hong-yi-ge building(???) and
Ti-ren-ge building(???) now keep some valuable
furniture and clothes of Qing Dynasty. In the
history, most of the buildings with their
accessory houses were storages to keep sliver,
tea, cloth, coat, and so on.

Map of our work field
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The View of this Region

View from Wu-men(??)
View from Tai-he-dian(???)
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The Tasks of the Preservation Project
The tasks of our work ? Measure and map the
buildings in the field, and draw the drawings in
computer. These are the document of buildings for
the Palace Museum. ? Research the buildings
damage in the field, and evaluate whether the
buildings are healthy. ? Give the plan of
preservation design. ? In the base of design,
give the plan of opening and exhibiting in the
field.

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The Discovery in Hong-yi-ge Building and
Ti-ren-ge Building
During researching Hong-yi-ge building(???) and
Ti-ren-ge building(???), we found there were many
characters in the frames of structure. One of the
characters in Hong-yi-ge building(???) is
wu-cheng-ge(???). The word was the name of the
building. That name used during the period from
Jia-jing 41year(??????1562) to the end of Ming
Dynasty(1644). We can believe that the frames
with the characters were used in Ming Dynasty. It
can prove that in the alternation of the Ming and
Qing Dynasty(1644) Hong-yi-ge building(???) had
not destroyed in all. At least the main structure
remained. Otherwise in that period most buildings
in Forbidden City destroyed, and then rebuilt in
early Qing Dynasty.

The Characters in the Frames
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The History of this Field(Time Table)

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The Discovery in Chong-lou Buildings
We also got some discover in Chong-lou
buildings(??). There we found some decorative
coating (??) in early Qing Dynasty, and ever
remains of doors and windows on the wall inside
the building. They are both the proof that the
buildings were ever changed and rebuilt. Some of
the frames of structure removed and there is
leakage in the roof.

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The Frames in Zhen-du-men Gate and Zhao-de-men
Gate

But border upon Chong-lou buildings(??), the
health of Zhen-du-men Gate(???) and Zhao-de-men
Gate(???) is much better. Except some craze and
breaking off the decorative coating (??) the
frames of structure are all well, and there is no
leakage in their roofs.
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The Repairing History of the Buildings in the
Region

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The Valuable Historical Information
It is well known that without right maintenance,
the traditional wood building deteriorates in a
short period. Annual maintenance and replacing
damaged frames are necessary. The decorative
coating (??) which protects frames should be
redrawn every tens years. So we can often find
the remains repaired belong to various periods in
an ancient building. There is valuable
historical information in those remains. They are
proves of the incidents in that period. During
our research in Forbidden City, the historical
information that we found is much valuable. How
to protect and exhibit them to visitors is the
key of our preservation design.
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The Structure Frames inside the Roof of Wu-men
Gate
Recently there is an exhibition plan inside the
roof of Wu-men Gate(??). It is a passage made in
glass among the wood frames of the roof
structure. While people go through the glass
tunnel to visit the exhibitions, they also can
enjoy the beauty of the huge structures. You
know the most structures are all upside of the
Chinese ancient buildings.
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The Tasks of the Preservation Project
The ideas of the Preservation Design and
Exhibition ? The exhibition includes building
itself show and special topic show. ? Make a
glass tunnel through the structure and climbing
passages. ? Install special illumination to the
frames with historical information and the boards
of introduction. ? Design show positions for the
special topic exhibitions.

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The EndThanks