Fenghuang City Gate Towers
The East Gate Tower is the oldest gate tower in Fenghuang . At 11m high , it has eight gun holes above the gate for defence purpose during ancient times . The North Gate Tower was first built in the Ming Dynasty . In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties , it was the office site of the leader of five villages . Going downstairs from the gate , one will reach the bank of Tuojiang River .
Tentative UNESCO listing
Photo 6 : City gate tower
Fenghuang has all the attributes on Overall Universal Value for listing as a UNESCO cultural heritage site and is one of the 61 sites submitted by PR China to apply for UNESCO Heritage Listing .
The justification of Outstanding Universal Value covers the following :
Criterion 1 Ancient Fenghuang Town is situated at the foot of mountains and beside waters . Its construction has proved to be a very practical and scientific exploration in terms of the town site selection as well as layout design and city planning . Following the undulation of the mountainous landscape , the town walls encircle the ridges and span over the ranges while rivers wind along the corridors before flowing out through the town . It is thus by absorbing the artistic philosophy of traditional Chinese garden design and making best of the limited space of the mountain area that the town achieves well-structured layout . Such distinctive building clusters displays the intelligence , talents and enthusiasm of the architects , and can be called a creative and genius masterpiece .
Criterion 2 Ancient Fenghuang Town is a well-preserved integral and authentic historical site . The plentiful historical and cultural information has evoked great interest among litterateurs , artists , historians as well as architects . The unique cultural information carried by the ancient town may well serve as an outstanding example for human settlement construction and promote the development of architecture , environment protection and technical design .
Photo 7 : Local Tujia girl posing at the river bank of Tuojiang river bank
Criterion 3 With the advancement of society , ancient civilization and traditional culture are more or less vulnerable to the encroachment of modernisation . This is especially true in small towns . In Ancient Fenghuang Town , ethnic languages , custom , arts as well as distinctive architectural remains of Ming and Qing styles all carry a large amount of historical information of the rich culture in the ancient State of Chu . Therefore , to enlist Ancient Fenghuang town into the World Heritage List will provide effective protection of the profound influences and development of Chinese culture .
Criterion 4 The town site selection , layout planning and construction of Ancient Fenghuang Town has made wonderful use of the mountain landscape and the water flows to create a harmonious relationship between human residence and nature , thus making it an outstanding example in this respect . It has been the most distinctive architectural clusters in the remote frontier mountainous area of South China ( where different ethnic groups merge with each other ).
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