Necessity or Waste of Space?

Recently, Tongguanyao historical park held its openingceremony in Changsha. Back in 2009, the People's Governmentof Hunan invested 280 million yuan ($40 million) on building and restoring Tongguanyao historicalpark.Historical parks are usually constructed based on areas of significant historical heritage, such as atomb of a Chinese emperor or an old palace in ancient times. According to official doctrines, theseparks should be public spaces that provide educational and entertainment value to the public.Many historical parks are in construction in China now. In Luoyang, Henan Province, 5 billion yuanwill be invested in rebuilding a historical park, while in Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, 500 millionyuan has been invested in Niuheliang historical park.

But some of these more established parks, like Daming Palace Park in Xi'an, the capital of ShaanxiProvince, are suffering from financial difficulties and a lack of visitors. Pei Yu, a cultural tourism researcher, finds the problem is not just the lack of tourists but also thebusiness aspects of the park. Both Western and Japanese models have proven that delegatingresponsibilities is the most efficient way to manage these projects. Pei encourages the governmentto consider handing over the operation and management of the surrounding areas to privateenterprises. "Not everything in the park is of historical heritage," Pei said, suggesting that the governmentshould focus on historical heritages and leave the rest to private companies.To generate ways to attract visitors, the park in Luoyang plans to offer discounts tickets andprovide benefits to local residents. Niuheliang historical park plans to protect the cultural heritagewhile maintaining the surrounding areas and residential environment. This will hopefully develop atourism industry while cultivating the area's agriculture. New problems may arise, but the priority should remain on the protection of historical heritage, asit is the reason for the existence of such parks.

文化鏈接：長沙銅官窯，始于初唐，盛于中晚唐，衰于五代。開創世界釉下多彩先河，獨步一時，刻下陶瓷史上里程碑。2000年，在印尼發現的千年沉船“黑石號”，沉船中有長沙銅官窯器物5.8萬余件，震驚世界。長沙銅官窯產品，開辟了一條往南亞、通北非的“海上陶瓷之路”。 長沙銅官窯遺址將再造一個“唐城”，通過此窯城，折射出大唐文化的燦爛與輝煌，讓人領略一個昌盛的時代，一個國內國外多民族友好交往交融的時代，一個善于借鑒吸收并創新發展的時代，一個色彩斑斕充滿激情的浪漫時代。