“However, there are too few site restoration projects like this.
The plan has been prepared, but it has been stopped on paper.
As one of the early salt making areas in China, the ancient town of Ningchang has been producing salt for thousands of years without interruption.
With the support of the superior cultural relics department, the county is applying for a special protection fund of more than 26million yuan for some cultural protection sites in Ningchang ancient town.
Finally, in 2015, they applied to the higher authorities for a special fund of more than 700000 yuan for the restoration of the site.
Huang Wei photographed the old street of Ningchang ancient town and hung warning signs of “danger here” everywhere.
However, due to the lack of funds for the revision of the plan, it has been delayed, let alone the implementation of the plan.
Where is the road to rescue the ancient town? Grassroots cadres and people suggest that the state and Chongqing municipal levels should increase capital investment, support Wuxi County to protect the ancient town of Ningchang, and focus on investing in the reinforcement and repair of the cultural relics protection units and ancient buildings in the ancient town.
It is short of financial resources.
However, since the late 1990s, Ningchang ancient town has gradually declined, with vacant houses and population loss.
Now the roof has completely collapsed, leaving only more than 10 mossy bearing columns.” Sheping, chairman of the association of folk literature, art and folk culture of Wuxi County, told banyuetan that without emergency protection measures, the building may become a ruin in a few years.
In Wuxi Ningchang ancient town, some buildings collapsed and became farmland.
In addition, we should respect the development law of the ancient town, maintain historical patience, innovate the protection planning and development ideas of the ancient town, and ensure that the planning can be implemented and effective..
In recent years, in addition to the restoration of Longjun temple, the reinforcement of some buildings of Wuwang temple and the maintenance of the old plank road of the ancient town, Ningchang ancient town has invested very little in the cultural relics and building protection of the ancient town.” Local culture researchers said.
However, due to the long cycle and high cost of protecting and revitalizing the ancient town, the enterprises will not continue to invest in the repair and maintenance of some infrastructure, and this matter will not be settled.
“With the decline of the ancient town, the intangible cultural heritage of Ningchang ancient town, such as ancient salt making technology and traditional folk culture, is also rapidly withering away, and there are no successors.” Said tangwenlong, a researcher of Wuxi culture.
The Longjun temple, which is a part of the Ningchang salt industry site, was in disrepair for a long time, and the relevant cadres of Wuxi County, who were deeply affected by the serious problems, kept running.
It is hoped that the state can establish a project as soon as possible and give support.
The traditional architectural styles of Bayu folk houses, such as stilted buildings and street buildings, are also disappearing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
In the past, the large-scale ancient legal salt industry made Ningchang ancient town prosperous.
The long-term active salt making economy has bred the deep salt culture of the ancient town.
More than 2000 original residents of the ancient town have been lost in large numbers.
On the North Bank of Houxi River in Ningchang ancient town, there is the third salt workshop of Ningchang, a cultural relics protection unit.
The first edition of Ningchang ancient town protection plan expires in 2020, and the second edition needs to be revised.
At the same time, the protection and development plan of Ningchang ancient town has not formed rigid constraints and is in a “suspended” state, which is not conducive to promoting the protection of the ancient town.
In the ancient town of Ningchang in Wuxi, some cultural protection sites collapsed seriously.
Now only more than 100 people are left.
Insufficient investment in protection funds is also an important reason for the protection arrears of Ningchang ancient town in recent years.
However, facing the competition of modern salt making industry, Ningchang ancient salt making method has low efficiency, high cost and no market competitiveness.
In the past 10 years, the decay rate of the ancient town has been accelerating.
It is difficult to fundamentally reverse the decaying trend of the ancient town.
The reporter found that the biggest reason why Ningchang ancient town is facing the dilemma of decay in recent years is that the ancient town has lost the industrial support to maintain its vitality and popularity, and has fallen into a vicious cycle of “industry hollow – population loss – town decay”.
It has thousands of years of salt making history and profound cultural heritage.
Because of its great historical and cultural value, Ningchang ancient town has been rated as a famous historical and cultural town in China.
The ancient town is silent or even dilapidated.
In order to promote the overall repair, protection and utilization of Ningchang ancient town, as early as 2005, the relevant departments of Wuxi County hired the planning, design and Research Institute of Chongqing University to prepare the protection and development plan of Ningchang ancient town, and made detailed provisions on the protection scope and restoration and renovation measures of Ningchang ancient town.
After the collapse of many buildings, they were transformed into vegetable fields and sorghum fields by local farmers, and the construction wood was burned as firewood.
It can only apply for project funds such as cultural relics protection at the higher level by means of alms everywhere and piecemeal.
“More than 10 years ago, this salt workshop still retained some tile roofs.
However, such a thousand year old ancient town, which bears the gold lettered signboard of a famous Chinese historical and cultural town and has many cultural protection units in the town, is now facing the embarrassment of “people walking in the town shortage”: the protection plan is difficult to implement, the investment is insufficient, and the buildings accelerate to decay and collapse, as if entering the countdown to death.
A cadre from the local cultural administration department told banyuetan that Wuxi is a small county in the mountain area.
Huang Wei photographed that in order to protect the ancient town of Ningchang, Wuxi County tried to introduce municipal state-owned enterprises to carry out the overall cultural and tourism development of the ancient town.
If you lose your industry, you can’t keep the population.
There are many cultural relics protection units in the town.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the output of table salt accounted for 1/4 of the whole Sichuan.
Most of the measures proposed in the plan to improve, renovate and update key buildings have not been implemented.
The “two streams of fishing fire and ten thousand stoves of salt smoke” was once a grand scene.
A large number of residential buildings are empty, and the buildings have become dangerous buildings.
The semi monthly reporter saw that on the exterior wall of the workshop, the sign “this room is dangerous, do not approach” was particularly eye-catching; In the workshop, the original salt making tower stoves lined up in a row collapsed in a large area, and there were more than 2 meters deep holes on the ground; The brine filter bundled with strips was originally more than 2 meters high, but now it is full of sediment and is seriously damaged; The workshop is covered with more than 1 meter tall thatch…
Ningchang ancient town, Wuxi County, Chongqing, is located in the depths of Qinling Bashan mountains.
