10th US/ICOMOS International Symposium

Heritage Tourism in and around the Pacific Rim

Weishan Heritage Valley: Pre-tourism preservation and conservation

planning in Yunnan, China

Vincent L. Michael
John H. Bryan Chair in Historic Preservation
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
37 S. Wabash Ave
Chicago, IL 60603 USA
312-899-5193
vmicha@saic.edu

Introduction

Efforts to preserve our cultural heritage tend to begin when that heritage has been
actively threatened, or sadly in many cases, already diminished. Too often an imminent
threat inspires a last-minute attempt to salvage some significant portion of built heritage,
cultural landscape, or traditional cultural practice. This is especially true in countries
experiencing sudden transformations in economy and society. The Weishan Heritage
Valley in Yunnan province, China, is an attempt to provide a counterexample to this
pattern by planning for the cultural preservation of place in advance of dire threats and
erosion of character.
Planning for the conservation of cultural, architectural and natural resources in the
Weishan Heritage Valley was made possible by the involvement of the Center for United
States-China Cultural Exchange, which began work in 1978 even prior to normalization
of diplomatic relations between the United States and China. Beginning in 1990, the
Center undertook an initiative to conserve the nationalities cultures in Yunnan Province
in concert with local leaders and with support from the Ford Foundation. From the
beginning, the holistic approach sought to protect cultural, historic, economic and
environmental resources while promoting sustainable development. A 1999 conference
brought 180 international experts to Yunnan who developed the Yunnan Initiative with
input from Openlands Project in Chicago, promoting conservation, minority culture,
education, tourism and partnerships throughout the province.
Given the international consensus on cultural preservation achieved in the 1990s
in documents such as the Nara Principles of 1994 and the Burra Charter of 1999, it is
tempting to view the Yunnan Initiative as a direct expression of these concepts and the
emergent expansion of conservation concern from tangible to intangible resources. I
would argue instead for the heritage area model as developed in the United States in the
1980s. My reason for emphasizing the heritage area is the important role of Gerald
Adelmann of Openlands Project in the Yunnan Initiative. Adelmann arguably pioneered
the heritage area in the United States, working with local business leaders and the
National Park Service in the three years leading up to the 1983 legislation creating the
Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor, adopted in 1984. The Corridor
was the first integrated attempt to link historic preservation, natural area conservation,
recreational development and economic development into a single, landscape-pervasive
interpretive management system. The unifying concept was the interaction of people and
landscape over time, preserving the residues of that cultural heritage and encouraging
future growth in harmony with that heritage.
This concept is present in the first demonstration project of the Yunnan Initiative, the
Weishan Heritage Valley. In 2000 the Center for US China Arts Exchange, Openlands
Project and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architects selected Weishan Heritage Valley
and the Gaoligongshan nature preserve to the west as model projects.
The Weishan Heritage Valley was designed to preserve and enhance the historic
buildings of the city of Weishan, the nearby temple mountain Weibaoshan, and the
agricultural river valley. The specific goals were to assess the potential for international
tourism and to protect agriculture in the valley, compatible goals according to the
international experts. The plan thus embraced preservation of landmarks, cultural
practices and working landscapes as well as the conservation of natural landscapes.
Weishan Heritage Valley and Weishan historic town, from 2003 Weishan Heritage Valley report.

Weishan Heritage Valley

At the southwestern corner of China on the borders of Myanmar, Vietnam and

Laos, Yunnan is home to 26 of China’s 55 minority nationalities. Two ancient trade
routes helped forge this region: the Southern Silk Road that connected Southern China to
the Middle East, and the Tea Route north to Tibet. These two routes cross in the historic
town of Dali, a city that has developed a tourist industry through promotion of the natural
attractions of Er Lake, the Three Pagodas monument, and the Bai minority culture.
Weishan is located about 75 km from Dali and was the birthplace of the Nanzhao
Empire, a vassal kingdom that arose during the 7th century under the T’ang Dynasty. The
Nanzhao Empire made it headquarters in Dali, but its origins are in Weishan. Weishan is
located in a dramatic valley and the town is adjacent to a Sacred Mountain hosting more
than twenty significant Taoist and Buddhist temples dating back centuries. The town
itself is organized around the Southern Silk Road, which passes through landmarks such
as the North Gate and the Drum Tower, the second largest historic gatehouse in China
after Tien An Men, built some 13 years earlier than the Beijing landmark. The town is
marked by several historic temple complexes dating back 600 years along with a wealth
of historic courtyard houses dating back a hundred years or more and exhibiting key
elements of both Chinese and regional Bai minority architecture.

Weishan Drum Tower (originally Gate Tower), built 1390. Photo by Felicity Rich.

Weishan’s nationalities include the local Yi people, the Hui people, Muslims
whose presence underscores the fact that Weishan was located on the Southern Silk
Road, as well as Han, Bai and other groups like the Lisu and Miao familiar from other
parts of the Mekong River. The entire Heritage Valley includes some 450 villages and
towns and about 300,000 people. Agricultural products include rice, tobacco, tea and
corn while rural industries includes roof tiles, charcoal, tie dye and eucalyptus oil.
The vision for Weishan was:
Weishan should be a beautiful and distinctive place, made
rich by its history, intimate urban life, Sacred Mountain,
unique nature, diverse peoples and traditions, and
productive agricultural valley. Its sustained economic
vitality, residents’ enhanced quality of life, and attraction to
 tourists must be realized through a balance between culture,
ecology and commerce.
The specific goals in pursuit of this vision were defined as:
1. Preserve and enhance Agriculture and Biodiversity
2. Attract International Tourism
3. Preserve and enhance the Historic District
While tourism and internal growth were anticipated, and new roads promised new
development, it is significant in this case that the tourist influx, infrastructural
improvements and new development had not yet occurred.
One of the first significant and successful results of this process was the
reconstruction of the Southern Silk Road that forms the spine of the historic town of
Weishan and the implementation of design guidelines for the shop fronts along that
stretch of the road, known locally as Bei and Nan Streets. The original plan for the road
involved the repaving and the elimination of traditional commercial uses. Local noodle
shops, tailors and coffin makers were to be moved out.
The Center for US China Arts Exchange convinced local officials to maintain the
current commercial uses for two reasons. First, tourists may not come, and a vital
commercial strip is an asset to the community. Secondly, if high end international
tourists did come, they would prefer to see the real thing, the authentic businesses of the
Southern Silk Road. Local officials listened and changed the plan, keeping the local
merchants.
 Southern Silk Road Weishan, restored pavement and ceremonial gate. Photo by Felicity Rich.

The street was repaved, much with local stone, and utilities were buried. The center
of the historic town was made subject to historic district zoning to preserve its
architectural character. Stone ceremonial gates were reconstructed. Design guidelines
along the historic street prohibited the use of cheap metal doors for the storefronts and
backlit plastic signs, thus supporting the traditional wood carved doors made in the
region. Today Weishan’s main street evokes continuity with the past. This work took
place between 2001 and 2003.
Planning also began for the restoration of several temple complexes, including the
Confucian temple located in the People’s Park and adjacent high school, and another
complex that had been converted into housing for teachers at the middle school. Another
temple. Dong Yue, was envisioned as a Visitors Center. Weishan officials have created a
series of preservation and urban development regulations to prevent overdevelopment of
Weishan’s 13th century old town, safeguard the 22 Taoist and Buddhist temples on
adjacent Weibao mountain, and preserve the agricultural practices of the valley.
 The second project was to promote eco-friendly tourism in Gaoligongshan National
Nature Reserve. Located in far west Yunnan near the Myanmar border, Gaoligongshan is
as biologically diverse as Weishan is ethnically diverse. Experts from Chicago’s Field
Museum conducted a rapid biological inventory to provide a thumbnail assessment and
identify a significant number of endangered and threatened species. They confirmed that
Gaoligongshan has the greatest biodiversity in China. They also did social asset mapping
of local communities and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architects contributed a
conceptual plan for an ecolodge on the edge of the reserve. This report was delivered to
Beijing, Yunnan and Weishan officials in 2003 during my first visit to Weishan.
The sporadic nature of visits from international experts meant that much planning was
still going on at the local level and not always in concert with the principles laid down in
the Weishan Heritage Valley report. Extensive road widening in Dali and the circuit
around Er Lake threatened the already precarious balance of traditional cultures and
modern development in that region, and that threat remains.

Student Work

SAIC students measuring Dong Yue temple, 2004. Photo by author.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Historic Preservation Program brought 9
historic preservation graduate students to Weishan in 2004. Our project was to measure
the Dong Yue temple complex on the edge of the historic city, produce plan drawings,
and devise a suggested re-use plan that would convert the temple complex into a Visitors
Center. The temple featured elaborate carved tile gables, intricately carved wooden lintel
beams, and even carved qiuwen screens. While we knew the temple, originally built in
the Ming Dynasty, was the focus of a traditional courtyard of buildings, including a gate
house and side pavilions, we were surprised to find a second complex adjacent which
included two temple buildings and a moon gate, dating from the early 20th century.

School of the Art Institute of Chicago student plans for Dong Yue temple, 2004.

The site was ideal because it lay on the edge of town near Weibaoshan, the temple
mountain, and thus could serve as a transfer point for visitors to either the town or
mountain, providing parking to prevent an overflow of vehicles within the pedestrian old
town. The plan envisioned a visitors center entered from the second complex, called the
Tai Bao Palace, which would be outfitted with visitors services and information desk.
The main Dong Yue temple complex was to be preserved for its historic and architectural
significance, with the temple remaining as a temple, the gate house restored to its original
configuration, and one of the side pavilions reconfigured as a community performing arts
center, a use that local officials said was needed. The other pavilion had been used as an
army barracks in the 1950s and 1960s and we recommended that this history be preserved
and the building reused as offices and galleries for the display of historic artifacts. Our
goal was to represent several periods of significance, which was a challenge, as local
officials and historians were not used to considering events as recent as the 1950s and
1960s worthy of preservation.
The plan was then revisited and revised by two students from New York University
and then by local officials. The revision focused on the Dong Yue temple complex and
the project is now in construction thanks to funding from Chicago philanthropists.

SAIC students documenting courtyard houses, 2006. Photo by author.

Our second visit in 2006 brought 13 students, both graduate and undergraduate, from
a variety of disciplines in addition to historic preservation. This time we documented 12
traditional courtyard houses and four temple complexes, all in current use. We
documented each building by measuring and drawing the plan, by describing it, and by
photographic documentation using both a large format camera and digital cameras. An
80-slide final report was presented to local officials with specific recommendations
urging the preservation of key character-defining elements of each building and general
recommendations for the preservation of these local landmarks. The photographs were
then shared with one of the officials responsible for the entire Yunnan Initiative, Fan
Jianhua of Kunming, who selected 70 of the student and faculty images for a photo book
called “Chinese Old City Weishan” published in Kunming late last year.
Photos by SAIC Instructor Felicity Rich for Chinese Old City Weishan.

Between my first visit and my most recent last summer, outside of Dali at the historic
Three Pagodas site, a massive multi-million dollar reconstruction of the temple complex
of the Nanzhao Emperor took place, crafting some two dozen brand new historic temples
replete with golden statuary. The effort is a testament to China’s wealth and power but it
is also a testament to the effects of the tourism industry. The massive government
expense in the heavily conjectural recreation of these religious buildings was driven by
the expectations of tourism, and the tourists – the majority in this region are Chinese
tourists - have responded. It was built and they came.

Examples and Counterexamples

How do preservation professionals convince a community to follow international

conservation standards when hypothetical reconstructions prove economically
successful? A key part of the answer is the approach followed by the Center for US
China Arts Exchange. The consistent message that the Center and its partners delivered
was that you must plan for your own community and your own citizens, not for tourists.
Tourism is a fragile and tenuous industry that cannot be relied upon. One place is
popular this year: a different place is popular the next year. The outbreaks of SARS and
bird flu during the last five years of the project reinforced the tenuous nature of the tourist
industry. If you plan for yourselves, you gain a viable result no matter what. And
tourists are more likely to come because what the tourists really want is authenticity.
During our 2004 visit, Weishan officials expressed to us a combination of jealousy
and disdain for Lijiang, a World Heritage Site in Yunnan province located several hours
drive north of Weishan. According to Zi Kaichun, our guide in both 2004 and 2006,
Lijiang received 20 times the government financial support as Weishan. At the same
time, Mr. Zi recognized that tourism was harming the historic character and traditional
culture of Lijiang as local people and immigrants responded to the commercial whims of
international tourists.
Our student group visited Lijiang in 2004 and found it shockingly
commercialized. Students said it felt like Cancun, the government-sponsored tourist
haven developed in Mexico’s Yucatan in the 1970s. A large theater offers a daily show
of Na’xi culture and the tiny winding streets of the town are filled with restaurants and
stores, many selling mass-produced silks and teas for the tourist trade. The strong
commercial character that pervaded Lijiang was in marked contrast to Weishan, where
the storefronts of the Southern Silk Road cater primarily to a local and regional
population. On each of our visits, it is 8 to 10 days before we encounter even one
Westerner in Weishan.
Even the more relaxed Dali, with its rebuilt Nanzhao empire temple complex and
flocks of Bai costumes seems excessive in its commercialization in comparison to
Weishan. Traditional wisdom would have it that Weishan is merely in an earlier stage of
development and that when the tourists come and the cash registers ring, its authentic
noodle shops and coffin emporia will vanish for more antique shops, bars and tea salons.
In 2004 we advised Weishan officials on the English language versions of a series of ten
signs designed for the community as slogans to promote sensitive tourism in concert with
local culture, along the lines of “Take nothing but pictures; leave nothing but footprints.”
Old town signage, Weishan 2006. Photo by Felicity Rich.

What has been most impressive is the receptivity of local officials and citizens to
the idea of sustainable tourism and their willingness to put these practices, and in some
cases, regulations, in place. The fact that these practices and mechanisms are put in place
first and foremost for the local citizens and their existing livelihoods makes them more
likely to succeed. While the danger of commercial overdevelopment cannot be ruled out,
such overdevelopment would require significant policy change, thanks to the work of the
Weishan Heritage Valley partnerships over the last seven years.