Cultural Heritage and Historical Continuity
• Living Cultural Carriers: This street is a testament to the trade of the starting city of the “Maritime Silk Road.” The arcade buildings blend the Minnan red brick architecture with Southeast Asian architectural styles, with each building carrying the historical memory of overseas Chinese returning to their hometowns to build and develop the area.
• Revitalized Intangible Cultural Heritage Scenes: After renovation, intangible cultural heritage performances such as Nanyin music, string puppetry, and the traditional flower-adorned hairstyles of the Xunpu women have been introduced, bringing traditional culture from the “museum” into everyday life and making it a cultural display window for Quanzhou, a World Heritage site.
• Continuation of Time-Honored Brands: Traditional businesses such as Yuanhetang and Shuimen Guozai have been preserved, allowing “traditional flavors” to blend with modern consumption and continuing the city’s commercial and cultural heritage.
Architectural Protection and Safety Reinforcement
• Structural Restoration: Addressing issues such as cracked wooden beams, loose mortise and tenon joints, and leaning walls, the “restoration to original condition” technique was used to reinforce beams and columns, replace decayed components, and restore the structural safety of the arcade buildings.
• Material Reuse: Old bricks and stone slabs from the Qing Dynasty and Republican era were recycled, combined with traditional techniques such as oyster shell washed stone, to maximize the preservation of the building’s historical texture.
• Technological Innovation: Without damaging the original appearance, modern facilities such as fire protection and drainage systems were incorporated, allowing the century-old arcade buildings to both “extend their lifespan” and adapt to contemporary life.
Functional Enhancement and Urban Renewal
• Space Activation: The renovated ground floor of the arcade buildings introduces creative cultural spaces and intangible cultural heritage workshops, while the second floor features guesthouses and art exhibition halls, shifting the old buildings from “static protection” to “dynamic utilization.”
• Creation of Public Spaces: The optimization of the stone-paved streets and green plant containers transforms the street into a public cultural space for citizens to stroll and tourists to visit, continuing the function of the “North-South Street” as the city’s central axis.
• Cultural Tourism Integration Engine: As a core street in Quanzhou’s ancient city, it connects attractions such as Kaiyuan Temple and the Bell Tower, becoming an important cultural tourism IP for “Seeing Quanzhou in Song and Yuan Dynasty China,” driving a new pattern of comprehensive tourism development in the ancient city.
