Australia-China cooperation to enhance the knowledge and impacts of historical culture through 3S technologies in the Hanzhong area of western China: Phase 1.
中澳合作在中国西部汉中地区应用3S技术促进历史古迹研究，提高历史文化影响: 第一阶段
Cooperation and exchange with Hanzhong
This project is working with the Hanzhong Museum in Shaanxi Province and other groups to develop interactions with Australian museums, art, library and academic groups as well as tourism and similar commercial operations. The primary objective is to enhance understanding, interchange and friendship and the mechanism is through common interest in the use of modern technology to support historical research and the preservation of history. The Hanzhong area is the centre of the history of the “Han” and the Han River basin has a rich fabric of history including great events from China’s past stretching to Neolithic times. The surrounding Qinling and Ba mountains also support many of China’s most significant wilderness and environmental protection areas as well as rugged mountains and passes that invite adventure.
The ancient Plank Roads
Since ancient times, the traffic through the Qinling has been dominated by the terrain. The Qinling range is a region of major environmental change dividing the south and north of China. This barrier has played a major role in the historical events and economies that developed in China. The Hanzhong basin has also been the place where one of the greatest of ancient engineering achievements occurred as, in order to move people, trade and armies through the mountains, Chinese road builders developed “Plank Roads”. These were built on the sides of cliffs and along the steep banks of rivers to allow traffic to flow through seemingly impenetrable terrain. The Qin/Han Plank Roads and the history that developed around them provide a major working theme of the cooperation in this project.
Reconstructed Plank Road near Guangyuan in northern Sichuan
History, technology and development
The west of China is still relatively poor compared with the established eastern seaboard. Sustainable tourism is one way that is being promoted to improve the situation. But sustainable tourism needs conservation, management and preservation of the history and environment to proceed in parallel with growth and development. The land and its history and the natural environment are assets to be valued for the long term. The current project has sought to bring together people with skills in some appropriate technologies. In China these technologies are collectively called “3S” or Remote Sensing, GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and GPS (Global Positioning System) and Australian scientists, surveyors and academics from disciplines from geography to anthropology have a well established reputation in the field.
GPS Track of an ancient road across the Qinling
The International Symposium in May 2007
In the first phase of the project, we built associations, exchanged visits and brought about an International workshop in which the potential benefits of 3S to historical research and the specific study of the Plank Roads was discussed. The Symposium heard 25 papers with 8 papers from guest experts. The speakers and participants presented their experience with 3S in archaeology and well-known experts in the history of the Plank Roads outlined the current state of historical, literary and geographical knowledge. The Symposium was held in Hanzhong between May 16 and 18 in 2007. The proceedings of the Symposium have been edited, translated and published as part of the second phase and are due out in August, 2008. Unfortunately, as the final editing of the proceedings was being completed, the Wenchuan Earthquake struck the west of China.
Current activities
Phase 2 of the project has been developing a set of time and
place based maps of the plank roads containing the current
state of knowledge and to make it available in modern web-based formats. It has also aimed to develop a data base
for a historically “busy” section of the ancient
roads which lies north of Hanzhong in the Bao River valley. The Wenchuan Earthquake of May 2008 has led to the postponement
of this study. However, as the underlying and key aim is for
this cooperation to result in exchange, interaction, knowledge
and friendships between groups who share common interests in
the ancient history and the growing developments that are
taking place around Hanzhong – including historical,
environmental and adventure tourism – our final component
of the project is planned be an assessment of the damage to the
Plank Road areas in southern Shaanxi and northern Sichuan and
the impact of the Earthquake on the livelihood of the people
who live there and are engaged in cultural preservation,
historical tourism and related industries.
Contacts for Principal Investigators
Australia:
David Jupp
PO Box 531
Jamison Centre ACT 2614
Australia
Phone: +61 2 6246 5895
Email: dlbjupp@ozemail.com.au
Website: http://members.iinet.net.au/~jupps_22@ozemail.com.au/index.htm
Prof Brian G Lees
Professor of Geography.
School of Physical, Environmental & Mathematical
Sciences
The University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence
Force Academy
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia.
Phone: +61 2 6268 9577
Email: b.lees@adfa.edu.au
China:
Feng Suiping (冯岁平)
Director
Hanzhong City Museum
Phone: +86 916 2231502
Email: fsping98765@sina.com
Prof Li Rui (李锐)
Institute of Soil and Water Conservation
Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water
Resources
No. 26 Xinong Road
Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100
P. R. China
Phone: +86 29 8701 2061
Email: lirui@ms.iswc.ac.cn
