According to the direction of geography, touching the soul of a city often starts with the analysis of the texture of the earth.
The human geography major at Peking University, a knowledge deeply rooted in Yanyuan, has gone far beyond the scope of simple spatial description, becoming a tool that can decipher the codes of urban history and a key key to insight into the trajectory of humanistic changes.
When we talk about cities, we are not just talking about the bricks, stones and civil engineering, but the memories and emotions flowing in the streets and alleys.
Homeland of mountains and rivers: the origin of cities from a geographical perspective
The birth of a city is never accidental.
In the academic tradition of the School of Urban and Environmental Studies of Peking University, geography has always been endowed with a grand and vast sense of time and space.
As early as the past century, seniors and scholars like Mr. Hou Renzhi, as representatives, rediscovered the city of Beijing with their keen vision of history and geography. They not only saw the golden tile-red walls of the Forbidden City, but also understood how the twists and turns of the Gaoliang River system nurtured and nourished the initial emergence of Jicheng, and explained how the changes and evolution of the Yongding River shaped the pattern of the ancient capital.
This kind of research lifts the city from a flat map and places it into a three-dimensional picture of mountains and rivers.
The subtlety of human geography is shown here: it explores why cities arise in this place, and how the initial tone and corresponding outlines are determined through interactions with mountains, rivers, lakes and oceans.
Every high-rise hillock and every river with ancient traces is most likely the cradle of the city's childhood. The choices made there and the resulting adaptation process together constitute the oldest cornerstone of the city's character.
Spring and Autumn in Streets and Alleys: Spatial Writing of Cultural Changes
Time keeps passing by, the face of the city continues to change, and cultural genes are often attached to specific spaces and continue to exist.
The study of territorial spatial planning and human geography is something that the college is conducting in-depth research and exploration. What it focuses on is precisely the traces of this state of continuous change.
When we stroll through the alleys of Beijing and pass through the cultural and creative parks transformed from industrial heritage, we can clearly touch this context.
First, the Yuan Dynasty showed a checkerboard-like road network, and then during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial city and the city were juxtaposed. Furthermore, in modern times, functional zoning has evolved. Every breath of the city is concentrated in the width of the streets and the texture of the buildings.
Human geographers are like translators of the city. They interpret the patterns that have been polished by time on the door pillars, analyze how the rise and fall of a guild hall connects business gangs and operas in various places, and reveal how the silence and rebirth of a factory area reflect the adjustment of industrial structure.
The memory of the city is not sealed in archives, but is truly and truly engraved in the texture of every block, waiting for thoughtful people to interpret it and awaken it.
Fireworks in the World: Geographical Decoding of Folklore Heritage
If the bones of a city are streets and buildings, then its flesh and blood and soul are the people who were born and raised here, plus the folk life they have inherited from generation to generation.
Peking University’s human geography research has always focused on the core proposition of “the relationship between man and land”.
According to the spatial distribution pattern of temple fairs, the radiation range of folk beliefs can be clarified; through the concentration and transfer process of time-honored shops, we can gain insight into the passing of commercial culture between generations; based on the past site conditions of guild halls and theaters, we can imagine the scene in the past when many immigrants from various places gathered here and the local accent continued to linger.
These seemingly trivial daily fireworks are precisely the most solid foundation of the city.
They are not isolated cultural symbols, like the handles of the overpass, the fragrance of ink in Liulichang, or the ice play in Shichahai. They are the result of the combination of specific geographical space and social functions.
The work carried out by human geography is to find spatial coordinates for those memories full of vitality, so that future generations can understand what kind of shouts lingered at a specific corner in the past, and what kind of separation and gathering, joy and sorrow were performed.
The pulse of the times: the spiritual core in the mark of development
Entering the modern era, cities are growing and renewing at an unprecedented rate.
Researchers at Peking University who are engaged in human geography have always stood at the forefront of the times, recording and then thinking about such a huge change.
The college undertakes many scientific research projects related to territorial spatial planning and regional development. These scientific research projects precisely focus academic attention on the most vivid pulse of the city.
They have witnessed the transformation from incremental planning to stock renewal and participated in it, thinking about how to inject new vitality into the city while retaining historical memories.
Today's cities must carry the wisdom and wisdom of the virtuous people of the past, incorporate the conveniences of modern life, and guide the way forward toward a vision of sustainable development in the future.
Regardless of the exploration of metropolitan areas or the search for ways to revitalize old cities, there is a strong humanistic concern behind it. That is the development of the city; ultimately it is to support the happiness of the people who live in it; to ensure the weight of history and the vitality of modernity; to achieve harmonious coexistence in every ordinary corner.
This kind of care is the most precious spiritual core of this city and this discipline.
It reminds us that no matter how the city grows, the context that connects the past and the future is always worth guarding with gentleness.
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