Page 76 - JCAU-5-2

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Chinese troglodyte villages toward tourism

as a living space was interrupted and the function of the tourist development are generally considered together. This
economy came in, three possible transformations can be is why this function is considered a subset of the economy
found in the Chinese scenario. concept in Figure 5.
Spaces are transformed into hotels, shops, and exhibition Furthermore, musealization has been found in sites
centers. Among the selected cases, transformations into both inhabited and not. Laoniuwan village, Pianguan
B&B or charming hotels (blue in Figure 5) and commercial County, Datong City in Shanxi, is historic. Since the Ming
activities (violet in Figure 5) are more frequent in abandoned dynasty (1368 ‒ 1644), Laoniuwan fortress was erected
sites. In the Snail Valley Country Hotel, Tongchuan city, as a fundamental garrison in support of the Great Wall
central Shaanxi, some abandoned vernacular villages were and control of an essential landing on the Yellow River
turned into tourist accommodations. The Snail Valley to Mongolia, thus playing a strategic role in the defense
Country Hotel project aimed to attract tourists and develop of borders and trade with the Tartars, on the Mongolian
the economically depressed area. The project dealt with the side of the river. The village was developed under the Qing
renovation and conversion of abandoned cave dwellings into dynasty (1636 ‒ 1911) around the castle when it lost its
hotel rooms and the architectural addition of connection to military functions and troops became farmers. Recently,
the old underground spaces to create the tourist center (Xu the village is almost deserted, and the local people have
et al., 2019). Nonetheless, this kind of reuse can also be found moved to new settlements close to the historic one. Some
in inhabited villages. This is the case of Lijiashan, a historic cave dwellings have been recovered in the context of the
Ming village in Lin County, west of Shanxi province (Yu, Great Wall Protection Ordinance 2006 – regarding the
2008; Wang, 2016), which is still partially inhabited. Even conservation and protection of the Deshengbao Fortresses
if it is well known and promoted by various international network – and few have been turned into photographic
guides and tour operators, tourist reuse is limited to the exhibition spaces. Others have been recovered and
reconversion of a yaodong courtyard into a family guest opened to the public as tourist attractions that display the
house – the Qikou Li Jianxin Farmstay (Figure 4). During folk lifestyle in vernacular cave dwellings. On the other
the field visit in 2017, many renovation interventions on hand, Yan’an is a thriving town in Shaanxi. The city hosts
cave dwellings were seen, and we pointed out the techniques the most famous Chinese cave dwellings, which are an
and solutions that were respectful of vernacular architecture, important historical symbol, having been inhabited by
which came with excellent results (Genovese et al., 2019). Mao Zedong and some comrades of the Party between
Another possible reuse is the musealization or the 1935 and 1948. Here, they headquartered and elaborated
transformation into a tourist and/or exhibition center the ideology that later became known as “Maoism.” Today,
(orange in Figure 5). In the country, culture and economic/ Yan’an Revolutionary Site is listed as a Major Historical

Figure 5. Underground Built Heritage chart of yaodong functions transformations. At the bottom part, the transformations from living space to economy
are represented. Source: Diagram by Roberta Varriale

Volume 5 Issue 2 (2023) 8 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0940