Completed Projects
Lijiang, China
Despite being one of the few remaining authentic ancient towns in China, Lijiang has suffered badly from neglect and uncontrolled development that threatened to destroy the character that led to it being designated a World Heritage Site. Buffeted by natural disasters, unplanned construction, mass tourism, and the exodus of native Naxi families from the ancient town, the Old Town of Lijiang needed to undertake a systematic process of planning and model conservation, while maintaining its historical integrity.
Lijiang is the most popular tourist destination in China and will most likely remain one of the top 3 or 5 tourist destinations for Chinese travelers. The Ancient town is impacted heavily by it 5 million visitors per year. New commercial development pressures, the deterioration of historic buildings and inappropriate modern buildings all threaten the authenticity of the city and create a loss of traditional heritage.
A massive influx of immigrants, along with exploding per capita income growth, has come with the rapid growth of tourism. Lijiang County’s population has grown from 200,000 people in 1990 to over 600,000 (3x) in 2007, while the native Naxi population has remained stable at 180,000 local Naxi during the same period. Local Naxi people have seen their per capita income increase tenfold in the past 10 years from $580 per annum to over $6,000 per annum while renting their homes and shops to immigrants coming in to leverage the increased tourism. According to statistics, from 1997 to 2007, old town’s visitor number grew from 1,733,200 tourist arrivals to 4,600,900 arrivals while tourism revenue increased from 17.45 billion Yuan to 46.29 billion Yuan.
