The central urban area of Xinzheng City is a famous historical and cultural city characterized by Huangdi (Yellow Emperor) culture. Located in the ancient Central Plains, Xinzheng City has a profound historical and cultural heritage and rich tourism and cultural resources. The 8,000-year-old Peiligang culture was named after its first discovery in Xinzheng. The 5,000-year-old cultural progenitor, Emperor Xuanyuan, was born and established his capital in Xinzheng. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the State of Zheng and the State of Han successively made it their capital, lasting for 539 years.
The culture of the Yellow Emperor is recognized as the source of Chinese culture and the main body of traditional Chinese culture. Consequently, Xinzheng is also known as the hometown of the Yellow Emperor. Since 2006, the global Chinese ancestral worship ceremony has been held here on the third day of the third lunar month every year, symbolizing the connection of blood and the continuation of the legacy among the descendants of Yan and Huang (the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor).
Vision
In our plan, the ancient hometown of Fangcheng will be the starting point for global Chinese to seek their ancestral roots, forming a thematic complementary development with the Yellow Emperor cultures in Zhuolu, Hebei, Jinyun, Zhejiang, and Qiaoshan, Shaanxi, highlighting the historical connotation that the root of Chinese civilization originates from Xinzheng.
Combining the profound Yellow Emperor ancestral culture, the development advantages of Zhengzhou as a regional central city, and the increasingly improved transportation conditions,
with Zhengzhou's rich pre-Qin historical site resources, this place will develop into a national-level research center for the history and culture of the Yellow Emperor.
Zhengzhou Yellow Emperor Cultural Display Window
Making full use of the momentum of Yellow Emperor culture, this will be a display window showcasing the achievements of tourism, ecology, culture, and technology industries in greater Zhengzhou.
Catalyst for the Development of Xinzheng Central Urban Area
With the development of the tourism area in the central urban district of Xinzheng, the plan will effectively guide the renovation of the old city, gradually divert the population of the old city, and form a dual catalyst for the renewal of the old city and the expansion of the new city.
Reflecting the spirit of unity in Yellow Emperor culture, a bond is established to connect the city, relying on the ancient city walls of Zheng and Han, and the two rivers. Under the premise of protecting historical relics, nodes with distinct themes such as "history, sports, exhibition, craftsmanship, art, and ecology" are shaped, which are closely integrated with the surrounding cultural relics and urban functions. This bond will connect the city into a whole, and it will itself become the symbolic interface of the entire historical and cultural style area.
With Yellow Emperor culture as the theme, the urban pattern of the West City and East City is reshaped, continuing the ancient city layout and integrating historical site resources. The West City area is given the functional positioning of a "tourism service core", and the East City, through old city renovation, establishes multiple community cultural venues, forming a culturally rich "folk custom area".
Two axes run through the cultural control area.
From Zhenghan Road to the north bank of the Shuangyi River, the Yellow Emperor Cultural Axis runs through the core area from north to south, planning a series of landscape nodes that highlight the story of the Yellow Emperor from his birth at Xuanyuan Hill, to seeking out famous ministers, waging wars, unifying China, and even the continuous story of the Chinese civilization and the endless propagation of descendants.
The east-west axis from Xinjian Road to the Wofo Temple Pagoda is designed in combination with the allusions of the Yellow Emperor's great achievements in his life, depicting stories such as the Yellow Emperor sending Leizu to raise silkworms and make silk, ordering Cangjie to create characters, instructing Linglun to study music, build boats and carts, and record numbers, as well as the stars of the Hetu. It also combines with the east bank of the Shuangyi River and the Wofo Temple Double Pagoda Square to jointly build a landscape corridor.
On the Yellow Emperor Cultural Axis, the original site retains historical and cultural sites such as the Baomo Tower, the current China's First Treasure Ding, the Han Que shaped structures, the Chinese surname wall, etc., and protects and displays the Ming and Qing dynasty archways originally located on North-South Street. At the same time, the design uses a series of modern spatial languages such as sunken or elevated three-dimensional square spaces, three-dimensional water feature spaces, cross-street landscape platforms, and high观景平台, reflecting the high integration of tradition and modernity, and jointly building a Yellow Emperor Cultural Axis with a rich spatial experience.
The Chinese Ancestor Tree installation is the core of the entire Yellow Emperor Cultural Axis and is the visual focal point on the central axis of Xinzheng's central urban area. Located at the base of the tree installation is the Chinese World Map Square, representing the global distribution of Chinese descendants. Above the World Map Square is the Yellow Emperor Terrace, which features a statue of the Yellow Emperor, symbolizing the progenitor of Chinese civilization, and it will serve as the main platform for the annual ancestral worship ceremony on the third day of the third lunar month. The "branches" that crisscross represent the 56 ethnic branches of the Chinese nation. They not only serve as the supporting structure of the tree installation but also act as the green carrier for the sky garden and the conduits for rainwater collection. The thirty-four platforms and corridors of varying heights on the "branches" represent the thirty-four provincial-level administrative regions of contemporary China. The platforms are inscribed with Chinese surnames, providing a unique space for global Chinese to trace their roots and origins.
