Beijing: 9 Gates to a Civilization
China, a world famous civilization, obtains the concern of the world from the very beginning. On this land, millions of stories has happened in the past and still happening right now. Culture and long history has always been symbolic of this nation. 1.3 billions of people are gestating by this 9.6 millions sq. km. land. 5000 years of history is a miracle, from ‘Spring and Autumn (770-476BC) Warring States (475-221BC) periods’ to ‘The golden age of Tang dynasty (618-907)’; from ‘Genghis khan to Aisin Gioro’, China has went through a lot of changes.
Beijing, the capital of China, and the political center of the whole country, holds too many secrets. The inner city and the 9 gates are still standing there, but how many people know about them? How many people care or could even name all of them?
Those gates were once the only entrances to the inner city. They were the entrances to the heart of China; and so were the mysteries. Each of them had its own function in Chinese history. Zhengyang Men (Qianmen) was the most important gate. It is standing right on the middle axies of Beijing, only the emperors were allowed to use the gate. Chongwen Men was used only for alcohol transportation, people paying taxes for alcohol in that gate. Chaoyang Men was for grain transportation. Fucheng Men was for coal transportation, because it was close to the coal mine. People say that Dongzhi Men was for all the construction materials transportation, but the truth was that all common people can go through that door, and on the Dongzhi Men street there were many stores selling daily supplies. The emperors did not drink water from the inner city, they thought that the water from inner city were bitter, so they need a special water supply from a mountain called YuQuan, and Xizhi Men was used for water supply. Both of Desheng Men and Anding Men were for armies, they army exited from Desheng Men and returned from Anding Men.
Stories will always be stories. People forget about things, especially with such an incredibly high speed of development of the country. Bridges, buildings, new roads are everywhere in the city. Demolishing is not a new word to us anymore. Those buildings that escaped the demolition are still standing there and watching the changes of the country.
Hundred of years will pass by, the inner city will disappear one day and all the memories will be gone. So we are trying to find a way to keep all those memory of Chinese civilization for the future generation. The building which we designed is placed on the 9 gates. Each of the gates will show the most important elements of Chinese civilization which is history, engine, people, scale, nature, future, network, technology, culture through its shape and its function. It will be the best presentation about China civilization. With the huge design, people from all over the world will know China in a very dramatic way, and also the future generation will have a chance to learn about their own country.
We cannot slow down the speed of development, but we can at least try to look back for just a moment; to remember the history of our civilization and to protect those treasures that our ancestor had left for us.People may ask why? It will be a shame when people ask you about the Chinese civilization and you can say nothing about it.
