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Two Water Towns in the Qingpu District of Shanghai Semprebon

Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism

2022 Volume 4 Issue 1: 1-20 Original Article

Fragilities of Historical Settlements Targeted by Heritage
Tourism: Comparison and Ex-Post Assessment of Two Water

Towns in the Qingpu District of Shanghai

Gerardo Semprebon

Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

Corresponding author: Gerardo Semprebon, Via Lastari 53, 37015, Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella
(VR), Italy. Email: gerardo.semprebon@polimi.it

Citation: Semprebon G, 2022, Fragilities of Historical Settlements Targeted by Heritage Tourism:
Comparison and Ex-Post Assessment of Two Water Towns in the Qingpu District of Shanghai. Journal
of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism, 4(1): 163. http://dx.doi.org/10.36922/jcau.v4i1.163

ABSTRACT

Heritage tourism in Chinese historic sites has gained importance and has become a widely adopted
development strategy that uses architecture and urban ensembles to sell cultural experiences. These
sites, immersed in heritage settings or traditional ambiences, embody an extraordinary dimension of
Chinese tangible and intangible culture, which call for in-depth studies and critical understanding. This
paper discusses how a condition of fragility has materialized under the aegis of economic boosts. The
impact of cultural tourism on historic sites is assessed by considering two similar water towns
expressing exceptional cultural values, Zhujiajiao and Liantang. The methodology envisaged
ethnographic tools to highlight how development strategies have altered local communities, discussing
the consequences on physical authenticity and sociocultural equilibriums.

Keywords: fragility, cultural tourism, development, water town, China, authenticity

Copyright: © 2022 Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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