湘西洪江古商城的特点、形成及其开发利用和保护

湘西洪江古商城,凭借其特有的交通区位优势,历史上曾一度成为久负盛名的西南地区商品转口贸易城市,集经济、政治、军事、宗教、文化功能于一体的综合性城市和具有鲜明地域特色的立体式山水型城市,是明清以来祖国大西南特定区域自然地理环境与社会经济环境综合影响的结果,其作为以完整风貌保存下来的中世纪专业性商城,在国内具有唯一性,应该妥善加以保护和合理利用。

The Characteristics,Formation,Exploitation and Preservation of Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town in West Hunan

Ancient commercial town of Hongjiang is situated at the upper reaches of the Yuan River in the west of Hunan Province.Relied on the peculiar advantage in traffic location,it once became a famous merchandise carrying trade town,a comprehensive town with economic-political-military-religious-cultural functions and a three-dimensional landscape city with regional characteristics in the southwest area of China in some period of the history.That has been the result of the integrative effects from physical geography and social-economic environment in southwest region of China since the Ming-Qing dynasties.Such special commercial town with intact style and features from the Middle Ages is rare in China,so it is of very high historical cultural value,scientific investigation value and landscape aesthetic value,and should be well-preserved and reasonably utilized.The strategies for its exploitation and utilization should be started from the improvement of management system,the cultural connotations of the town should be further explored,and the emphasis be on the cultural tourism.A new town might be built near the old town for replacing most of the functions of the latter;the historical cultural resources of the ancient town should be preserved as a whole,including the cultural atmosphere.At the same time,the preservation needs the active participation of the local inhabitants;they should be given their share of the economic benefit brought by exploitation and utilization of the ancient commercial town.Only by this way,the aim for preservation could be achieved.