Imperial mountain resort reclaims former glory as a number of buildings undergo renovation, Wang Ru reports in Chengde, Hebei province.
BEIJING, Dec. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from China Daily: It was once common practice for the rulers of China's Central Plains to build defensive walls, many of which later became part of the Great Wall, against nomadic incursions from the north. These structures did not always effectively prevent harassment from the north, but they did draw a line between settled agricultural society and the nomadic way of life, although the mixing between the two never ceased.
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Emperor Kangxi and his grandson Emperor Qianlong, who are credited with ushering in a golden age in Chinese history, appeared disinterested in this approach. Instead, they decided to build a new landmark to encourage the forging of bonds.
This was accomplished through the construction of a mountain resort and surrounding temples in what is now Chengde in Hebei province.
The resort offered the imperial family respite from summer heat and was located strategically on a pass between the capital, present-day Beijing, and nomadic groups to the north. Adopting a strategy of governing through exchange, Qing emperors received political leaders and religious figures at the resort. The 12 adjacent temples were designed in Tibetan and Mongolian styles to forge connections with other ethnic groups, and in this way, promote the unification and stability of the dynasty.
The resort, which took 89 years to complete, became the dynasty's second political center and to serve it, Chengde city gradually took shape. In 1994, the mountain resort and its outlying temples were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Following the end of the Qing Dynasty, Chengde became the scene of great destruction. Renovation began in the 1970s, the work spanning more than four decades, according to Yu Yang, 39, director of the engineering center at Chengde's cultural heritage bureau.
For the first three decades, restoration was carried out within the resort, to reinstate its historical ambience, save buildings from collapse, and improve the overall environment.
Restoring a royal library
Another major round composed of 105 small projects took place between 2010 and 2020, with an investment of about 600 million yuan ($82.3 million).
Yu says that one of the highlights was the restoration of the Wenjin Ge ("pavilion of a ferry transporting cultural knowledge"), a royal library that once stored giant volumes like the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature), one of the largest-scale collections of ancient Chinese literature.
In the early 20th century, the pavilion's books, boxes containing the books, and bookshelves were taken to Beijing, and are now stored at the National Library of China. Losing its function, the Wenjin Ge gradually fell into obscurity and was turned into a guesthouse in the 1950s.
In 2013, as part of the second round of restoration, Yu and his team worked on the main hall for storing books, its interior decoration, and bookshelves.
Records show the hall originally had a roof of black-glazed tiles. Yu says that in traditional Chinese culture, black symbolizes water, which can extinguish fire, the biggest threat to a library. But in the late Qing period, the black glazed tiles were exchanged for clay as the government faced financial constraints.
"During renovation, we discovered they only replaced the top layer with clay tiles, and that the under-tiles had not been changed. Since the combination does not comply with building standards, we made all the tiles glazed, helping the building recover its original grandeur," Yu says.
The interiors posed a bigger challenge for restorers. Although some pictures taken by Japanese photographers in the 1930s remained, offering clues about the detailed inner finishes, they were not able to determine the exact sizes of windows, doors or the details of decoration.
"In the restoration of ancient buildings, we have to be especially cautious. I could not ascertain the sizes of windows by myself, so I looked for historical clues," Yu says.
The team discovered traces of paper hangings — patterns pasted on walls and ceilings to protect and decorate them. Since these patterns were not pasted on windows or doors, by identifying where they were not present, they were able to determine the location and size of openings.
The team then restored the bookshelves and the boxes used to contain the books. Yu says that during the Qing Dynasty, the books, boxes and the bookshelves made up a retrieval system. Through classification marks on the shelves, people could locate the boxes containing the books they were looking for, and through the marks on boxes they could find the book they wanted. As a result, when the books were relocated, the boxes and shelves had to be moved with them.
Restorers visited the National Library of China in 2015 and measured the original bookshelves and boxes so they could properly reproduce them. After two major rounds of restoration, the resort's ancient buildings and temples have been secured. In 2021, protection efforts entered a new stage of prevention, and several projects are ongoing, among them a pagoda at the Yongyou Temple, which is having its stone cultural relics and murals restored.
Recent efforts
One highlight of Chengde's efforts to better present its history is the digital restoration of its mountain complexes.
"There are mountain, lake, plain, and palace areas, of which the mountain area occupies about 75 percent, with more than 40 complexes. But for historical reasons, almost none of the wooden structures have been preserved, leaving only their foundations," says Chen Dong, the general engineer of Chengde's cultural heritage bureau.
Since about 2005, Chen has been taking students majoring in architecture at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts to the site to create digital re-creations of these complexes.
They begin with three-dimensional animation of each complex, from which they make 3D printed miniatures and also write academic theses on the restoration.
Guo Feng, a member of the engineering center at Chengde's cultural heritage bureau, says that they usually try to find the bases of pillars to develop a clear idea of the size and shape of buildings and to collect data. Then, they design a 3D model based on the data and print it.
Technology used in the process includes 3D modeling, virtual reality, and digital twinning.
"Although some of what we use have existed for about 20 years, they have not been widely used to study and restore ancient Ming (1368-1644) and Qing buildings," Chen says.
"By applying digital technology, we can re-create the resort's landscapes. This transformation of cultural resources into digital assets not only facilitates preservation of cultural heritage but also promotes development and use of cultural resources," he adds.
The team has digitally restored 17 complexes, some of which have been on exhibition in Chengde since 2022.
Tao Wenying, 39, a guard, has been protecting Falin Temple for over 20 years. She monitors the condition of the buildings and reports any problems she finds to the cultural protection department.
This summer, she found that the prayer flags in the main hall of the temple seemed to be darker on one side. After receiving her report, heritage professionals came to inspect the ceiling and found water leakage, which was repaired.
"Our work may not seem important, but without prompt detection, other efforts to protect cultural heritage are hampered," Tao says. "The resort and the temples are the legacy of our ancestors. I want to fulfill my duty and look after them properly."
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Bringing history back to life
