In 2020, the "Land Space Master Plan of the Demonstration Zone" proposed that at the junction of two provinces and one city, the three places should work together to build a water town living room, focusing on practicing and demonstrating the development concept of city-water symbiosis, vitality and regional sharing. The water town living room is centered on the origin of the Yangtze River Delta, including Jinze Town in Qingpu District, Lili Town in Wujiang District, Xitang Town and Yaozhuang Town in Jiashan County, with an area of about 35.8 square kilometers, which is exactly 1/10,000 of the total area of the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta.
From an archival point of view, Kanazawa has deep historical roots as an important part of the "water town living room".
Qing Guangxu published "Qingpu County Chronicles" Qingpu County southwest waterway map
According to local chronicles, Kanazawa was the most prosperous in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, and was the economic center of the Dianshan Lake basin, as well as the location where the imperial court set up inspection and taxation agencies at that time. After Jinze opened up shipping in the Yuan Dynasty, due to the dense water network and developed water transportation, goods from Taicang seaport had to pass through Jinze to enter and exit the hinterland of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. According to historians, Kanazawa entered the global trading system by the middle of the Qing Dynasty. Until the late Republic of China, the waterway transportation network of Jinze still shared the cargo shipping between Shanghai and Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the "foreign goods" from Shanghai were transported to Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, and Hangzhou through here; Cotton, silk, tea, handmade products, manpower and various raw materials from southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang are transported to Shanghai and then to other parts of the world. Therefore, from the perspective of water transportation, Kanazawa has been a "water town living room" that has gathered to and from the Yangtze River Delta region in ancient times.
A busy scene of water transportation in Kanazawa
If we look at the folk customs of the famous temple fairs in the Kanazawa area, we will once again confirm Kanazawa's deep historical roots as a "living room of the water town". Kanazawa is known as the "Bridge Township" because of its dense water network, and in ancient times, Kanazawa presented a unique cultural landscape of "bridges and temples, temples and temples leading to bridges", and temple fairs and folk customs also arose. There is a record in "Kanazawa Xiaozhi": "Dongyue Race God Association, every year on March 28 and September 9. Farmers from near and far villages have been a one-day trip for a long time. It can be seen that the temple fair in Kanazawa at that time was mainly composed of two major incense festivals: the "Twenty-eighth Flood" on the 28th day of the third lunar month and the "Chongyang Flood" on the ninth day of the ninth month of September. Each "incense" lasts about 10 days. "Twenty-eight Xun" originated from the birthday sacrifice of Emperor Dongyue, and "Chongyang Xun" originated from the birthday sacrifice of Yang Zhen, the old man of Yang. During the Xiangxun period, thanks to the developed water transportation network in the Kanazawa area, pilgrims spread throughout Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, incense boats were parked in large and small rivers, and the incense of the Yang Laoye Temple was vigorous, and the incense entered from all directions, and the crowds were packed.
The incense in front of Yang Zhen Temple is prosperous
In addition to the worship of believers and the outing of the gods, the temple fair in Kanazawa also brings together various folk entertainment activities such as acting, announcing scrolls, singing sacred songs, playing lotus xiang, jacquard baskets, dragon dances, lion dances, etc., and believers and small merchants and vendors from all over the world who come to the temple fair are all over the streets and alleys, forming a grand "water town living room" that integrates faith, entertainment, and commerce by the waterside temple.
Kanazawa temple will enter the incense boat
Nowadays, in Jinze, the "water town living room" of the demonstration area is jointly built in the demonstration area, which is the core area of the Yangtze River Delta with water as the vein, and the common "living room" of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces and one city, which can be said to be not only the exploration and innovation of regional coordinated development, but also the inheritance and continuation of regional history and culture.
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The core of the core, the demonstration of the demonstration
The demonstration area spans two provinces and one city, and is composed of Qingpu in Shanghai, Wujiang in Jiangsu and Jiashan in Zhejiang. As the "one hall" in the "one hall and three pieces", the water town living room is the core of the core of the demonstration area and the demonstration of the demonstration.
Spatial structure planning map of the pilot start-up area of the demonstration area (picture from the Internet)
"Jiangnan courtyard, water town living room". The water town living room is centered on the origin of the Yangtze River Delta, covering Jinze Town, Qingpu District, Shanghai, Lili Town, Wujiang District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, Xitang Town and Yaozhuang Town, Jiashan County, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, with a total area of about 35.8 square kilometers. The living room of the water town will build a spatial structure of "one point, one heart, three parks, three districts, three roads, and multiple villages", and shape the new Jiangnan style of Jiangnan rhyme, small town flavor and modern style. After completion, the water town living room will become a practice place for ecological, green and high-quality development, a display area led by cross-border integration and innovation, a leading area for a world-class water town habitat model, and a centralized display area for the integrated development achievements of the Yangtze River Delta.
Spatial structure of the living room of the water town (picture from the WeChat public account of "Shanghai Release")
It is worth mentioning that in the planning and construction, the water town living room will run the "double carbon" concept throughout the project. In accordance with the overall deployment of the implementation plan for carbon peaking in two provinces and one city and the demonstration zone, and guided by the "Near-zero Carbon Transformation Plan for the Water Township Living Room of the Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone", the Water Town Living Room vigorously promotes the construction of low-carbon, energy-saving and high-quality buildings, promotes the prefabricated construction of new buildings, optimizes the energy consumption structure of buildings, realizes demand-side throttling, system-side efficiency, and supply-side open source, promotes the integrated application of renewable energy such as buildings and shallow geothermal energy and solar photovoltaics, and focuses on building a number of three-star green buildings and near-zero energy buildings. Strive to become a world-class new benchmark for near-zero carbon planning and construction.
Bird's-eye view renderings of the living room of the water town (picture from the WeChat public account of "Green Qingpu")
In recent years, according to the construction plan of the water town living room, various projects within the scope of the water town living room have been carried out in an orderly manner. In October 2021, the key projects of interconnection, ecological green, industrial innovation, and stock revitalization involved in the water town living room officially started; In May 2023, the water town living room hall water courtyard project will start; In May 2024, six key projects, including the "One Heart" of the Water Town Living Room - Science and Technology Innovation School Park and Zhichuang Engine, will break ground and start construction.
On May 30, 2024, the groundbreaking ceremony of key projects in the Yangtze River Delta Integration Demonstration Zone in 2024 (picture from the WeChat public account of "Green Qingpu")
As the top priority of the construction project of the demonstration area, the water town living room includes many projects such as the Fangting Water Courtyard, the Blue Ring, the Jiangnan Polder, and the Ring Road, which are the display windows of the interconnection of the demonstration area and the experimental field of integrated system innovation, which will explore the path and provide samples for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.
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Connectivity
Fangting Water Courtyard is an important symbol of the interconnection of the water town living room, connecting the three places in the demonstration area, including three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta. Fangting Water Courtyard is located in the "one point" of the water town living room space planning, which is the "core" part of the water town living room, which is not only the core landmark place of the water town living room, but also the integrated landmark functional place, and has the finishing touch in the construction of the water town living room.
The construction site of Fangting Water Courtyard (picture from the WeChat public account of "Green Qingpu")
In August 2024, the construction site of the Fangting Water Courtyard
The whole building of Fangting Water Courtyard adopts the shape of a courtyard, and the four corners of the building are set up with theme pavilions of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, implying the centripetal convergence and integrated development of the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta. On the south bank of the Taipu River, the main hall is set up along the central axis with the origin of the Yangtze River Delta as the center, and the four theme pavilions are connected by a pedestrian bridge across the Taipu River and the water system connected to the Yuandangyang, which is in line with the development concept of urban and water symbiosis, vitality and regional sharing in the Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone.
The overall rendering of the water courtyard of the square hall
In addition to the Fangting Water Institute project, the Blue Ring Project and the inter-provincial guillotine road connection project are also important parts of achieving the goal of interconnection between the three places in the demonstration area, and will be a good demonstration for the interconnection of the Yangtze River Delta region in the future.
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Renderings of the water courtyard of the square hall
The "Blue Ring" project of the water town living room relies on the waterway to connect the three places, which is the core vein of the "one point, one heart, three parks, and three districts" functional group of the water town living room. The total length of the ring road is about 26.4 kilometers, and the construction content includes a cross-regional ecological landscape system of blue road, greenway and scenic road. Among them, the Qingpu section of the "Blue Ring" will create 10 natural landscapes.
Schematic diagram of the Blue Ring Project (picture from the WeChat public account of "Green Qingpu")
In accordance with the principle of "cross-domain integration, fast and slow travel", the inter-provincial dead-end road breakthrough project of the water town living room will build a green, convenient and efficient cross-domain transportation system of the water town living room. The project mainly includes "Fenhu Avenue-Xingshan Highway", "Jinshang Highway-Jiashan Avenue", "Pugang Road East Extension" and other projects. The implementation of these projects will further connect the infrastructure of the demonstration area and connect the transportation blood of the demonstration area.
Schematic diagram of cross-regional traffic in the demonstration area (photo taken in the planning exhibition hall of the demonstration area)
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Explore innovation
The living room of the water town is an integrated consultation, co-construction, co-governance, sharing and win-win