Gou Shen｜Industrial Relics: Suzhou River Baocheng Bridge, a living urban landscape

Among the \”Eighteen Bays\” of Suzhou River, the names of Baocheng Bay and Baocheng Bridge are quite poetic. The word \”Baocheng\” avoids the secular meaning of \”Baocheng\” and means \”there is a treasure here, and success depends on people\”. Although this bridge and this bay have many names, after years of ups and downs, Baocheng Bridge and Baocheng Bay are still catchy and impressive. In particular, the Baocheng Bay area was once a gathering place for the development of China\’s national industry. It has rich industrial heritage and is expected to become a living landscape resource. In the development along the Suzhou River, how to make full use of the industrial relics left to us by history is really \”there are treasures here, and it depends on the people\”.

1. There is only Baocheng Bridge and no Baocheng Road

The current location of Baocheng Bridge It was originally a ferry port for small wooden boats and was called Tanjiadu. In 1931, Yang Xingdi and others from Chongxin Cotton Mill on the north bank of the Suzhou River donated funds to build a wooden pedestrian bridge. Because the south bank of the bridge connected to Baocheng Lane (today\’s Yejiazhai Road), it was named \”Baocheng Bridge\” and was mainly used for workers to commute to get off work. use. Because there are many spinning mills in this area, Baocheng Bridge is also called \”Spinning Mill Bridge\”. The wooden Baocheng Bridge was blown up by the Japanese army during the \”August 13\” war in 1937. When it was restored in 1938, it was named \”Chongdong Bridge\” after the first characters of Chongxin Cotton Mill and Donghua Cotton Mill, so it was also called \”Tanjiadu Wooden Bridge\”. At that time, the Baocheng Bridge was very simple. A few large wooden piles were inserted into the river as bridge pillars. The bridge deck was paved with short wooden strips, and the boats under the bridge could be clearly seen. If pedestrians run and play on the bridge, the bridge deck will make a \”creak\” sound. Cyclists who want to cross the bridge must carry their bicycles on their shoulders and walk across. After the liberation of Shanghai, the wooden bridge was repaired by the municipal engineering department. In 1971, relevant departments in Shanghai decided to demolish the wooden bridge and rebuild it with reinforced concrete pile foundations, making it the only double-curved arch-beam pedestrian bridge on the Suzhou River. The bridge is 45 meters long, 5.1 meters wide, and has a design load of 400kg/m2. In 2009, in preparation for the World Expo to be held in Shanghai, the Putuo District Municipal Construction and Maintenance Company was responsible for the construction and landscape renovation of the Baocheng Bridge. The entire bridge body of Baocheng Bridge is decorated in palace yellow with some white accents, which is a generous approach to landscape color processing. The palace yellow has the characteristics of gorgeousness and exquisiteness. It matches the shape of the bridge pillars, bridge railings and facade decoration. The overall appearance is elegant and unique. The footbridge steps are decorated with Sichuan red marble, and the bridge bodyA symmetrical picture is used on the wall, coupled with concave and convex siltstone spray painting, creating a strong three-dimensional effect. Four Greek classical Ionic art lampposts are added at both ends of the bridge. The smooth lines of the pattern reflect the unique regional cultural characteristics of Baocheng Bridge. The simple and elegant bridgehead columns highlight the landmark role of Baocheng Bridge and are also connected with the adjacent bridge. The style of Wuning Road and Bridge echoes with each other.

Baocheng Bridge in 1972

Baocheng Bridge is a slow-moving bridge without a road name in its name. Generally speaking, the name of the bridge is consistent with the name of the road. A certain bridge is always connected to a certain road, but there is no Baocheng Road in Shanghai. Baocheng Bridge connects Guangfu West Road to the north and Yejiazhai Road to the south. In history, Baocheng was also a place name, namely Baocheng Lane, which is the old name of Yejiazhai Road now. The original site of Shanghai No. 7 Cotton Mill was at No. 111 Yejiazhai Road, where Baocheng Cotton Mill No. 1 was established in 1919, and in 1920 it was added to Baocheng Cotton Mill No. 2. It should be said that Baocheng Bridge as a place name is friendly, loud and full of history. In June 2020, Baocheng Bridge will undergo another major overhaul, and will soon be displayed to the world with a fresher and more beautiful appearance.

2. Fertile land, success depends on people

With the convenient water transportation conditions of Suzhou River and the cheap labor force on the river bank, since the 1920s, A large-scale enterprise group has gradually formed in the Baocheng Bay area. This was once the cradle and high-density gathering area of ​​my country\’s textile industry, and it was also the most important textile industry concentration area in Shanghai. The total volume once accounted for 20% of the national textile industry. Shangmian No. 1 Factory, Shangmian No. 6 Factory, Shangmian No. 7 Factory, cotton spinning warehouse and other enterprises gathered together, forming a large-scale shanty town on the north side of Baocheng Bridge. Among them, the original factory area of ​​Shanghai National Cotton Factory No. 1 was north of Changshou Road and south of Baocheng Bridge. The gate was originally at No. 582 Changshou Road at the T-intersection of Changshou Road and Jiaozhou Road. The spinning workshop in the factory is divided into southern yarn and northern yarn workshops, and the weaving workshop is divided into southern and northern weaving workshops. There is also a football field for workers to exercise. On September 18, 1957, when Chairman Mao was inspecting Shanghai, he went to the No. 1 Cotton Factory to watch the big-character posters. The Baochengqiao area has outstanding people and cultivated nationally famous labor models such as Yang Fuzhen (female textile worker at Shangmian No. 1 Factory) and Yi Shijuan (female textile worker at Shangmian No. 2 Factory), and sent a large number of outstanding cadres and workers to all parts of the country.

Shanghai National Cotton Factory No.1 Gate

News Daily, September 19, 1957

Yang Fujin, who was born in Nanhui, Shanghai in 1932, joined the Communist Party organization at the age of 15 and became a minor member of the Shanghai underground party at that time. traffic officer. After the liberation of Shanghai, Yang Fujin, who worked as a driver at Shanghai Cotton Factory, devoted himself wholeheartedly to the rapid development of new Shanghai. Yang Fujin was the creator and practitioner of the \”May Day\” weaving method promulgated by our country in 1951. One of the \”Yang Fujin Group\” named after her It has maintained the title of model collective for 43 consecutive years. As a worker at Shanghai National Cotton Factory No. 1, Yang Fujin worked hard at home every day to tie knots in cotton yarn small, fast and tight to ensure that every piece of cloth weaved was not defective. She practiced the basic skill of \”tying her head\” and asked her son to help her measure the knotting speed. Finally, she practiced She has a unique skill and can tie more than 40 knots per minute. She leads the weaving team to carry out the \”Care for Cloth, Cloth for Care\” competition, and pioneers the \”six skillful work, six careful\” high-yield and high-quality operation methods. , the number of personal stands has grown to more than 20, creating an industry that has not been published for 89 months. Industry myth. Based on Yang Fujin’s operating practices, the Shangmian No. 1 Factory summarized and promoted a new weaving operation method throughout the factory, and the production efficiency was subsequently promoted in the national textile industry. Therefore, Yang Fujin won the National Labor Award. Model and National March 8th Red Flag Bearer for seven consecutive years He was rated as a model worker and advanced worker in Shanghai for the first time. Entering the new century, Yang Fujin actively exerted his remaining enthusiasm and was enthusiastic about social activities. He used his own experience to preach the glorious \”Made in Shanghai\”. In Yang Fujin\’s words: \”Back then, it was weaving. Propaganda is for the people, now it is preaching for the people. ”

Yang Fujin (second from left) learns from young workers

3. The old days are replaced by new ones, and we are grateful to our silent predecessors

There are rich cultural resources and industrial relics gathered around Baocheng Bridge. Although it has been renovated, it is still a walk in Suzhou. You can still feel the richness and charm of history on both sides of the river. In terms of human resources, there are also many vivid stories that are difficult for young people to understand. In the era of planned economy, female textile workers were undoubtedly a very popular occupation. There were a large number of female workers, and men were more responsible for management, power, equipment maintenance and other tasks, which made it easier for textile workers at that time. The factory implemented \”four shifts and three operations\”. During commuting time, people flowed into and out of the factory like a tide. In its heyday, the profit generated by the first cotton factory in a year could build two cotton factories. factory, which shows its great contribution. According to the records of the Labor Department of Shanghai Textile Industry Bureau, “In 1988, the number of employees worldwide was 551,600, the highest in history. \”In 1988, among the 100 companies with the highest total industrial output value in Shanghai, 13 companies were in the cotton spinning industry.

Workers of Shanghai Cotton No. 1 Factory got off work

In 1991, Shanghai shouted \” As the tragic slogan \”A strong man breaks his arm\”, the period from the mid-1990s to the 21st century was a period of industrial adjustment and transformation for Shanghai\’s cotton textile enterprises. The textile factories around Baocheng Bridge also successively entered a painful transformation like a phoenix\’s nirvana, which laid the foundation for the adjustment of Shanghai\’s industrial structure. Sacrifices were made. At that time, the transformation and development of Shanghai\’s textile enterprises in eliminating backward production capacity can be summed up as \”tragic\”. It is said that yesterday, the workshop was still running rumblingly. Today, the equipment that has been with it for decades will be smashed with a hammer. Tomorrow, a large number of workers and cadres will be laid off. Xu Kuangdi, the mayor of Shanghai, once specifically said at the Municipal People’s Congress: Without them. Without their efforts and sacrifices, today’s new Shanghai would not be possible. Today’s decision-makers cannot forget this group.Bay, the roar of spinning machines and looms in the past has disappeared, and what is left in front of you is a water-friendly platform and pedestrian greenway that take into account both safety and humanity. With the relocation of factories and real estate development on the banks of the Suzhou River, commercial housing on both sides of the river has become more and more beautiful, and more and more people are living along the river. Many residents are proud that \”my family lives in Baocheng Bridge.\” It should be said that the Suzhou River Bankline connection and the landscape transformation around the Baocheng Bridge are relatively successful and have become a hub and visual highlight of the urban landscape. Baocheng Bridge has relatively well achieved unity, diversity and coordination in appearance design, with both overall beauty and detailed features. Especially on the winding course of the Suzhou River, you can find different viewing spots at many places, and experience the beauty in the unity of the bridge and the surrounding landscape. In order to preserve a good visual effect of the river, the flood control walls have been carefully designed and beautified. The water-friendly platforms set up in conjunction with the bends of the water body are high and low, allowing both close and distant views. The ground is a blue or reddish pedestrian walkway, and the green varieties planted on both sides have been continuously optimized to present an effect of mainly green, multi-color embellishments, staggered heights, and visual transparency. In terms of greening plant selection, a large number of colorful leaf trees such as ginkgo, Chinese tallow tree, and zelkova trees were planted, as well as flowering shrubs such as cherry blossoms and large crape myrtle. A large number of newly planted or adjusted ground cover plants, such as meadowsweet, hexapods, hostas, ornamental grasses, etc., are and have already formed a green space landscape effect with the upper plants with clear layers, less obstruction, more colors, and clear sightlines. By adjusting species combinations, technical pruning and other means, fewer and fewer plants block the view, and a good visual channel in harmony with the waterscape has initially been formed. With the long walking path as a visual guide, national fitness facilities, seats, flower corridors and wooden pavilions are embellished to give people a comfortable and warm feeling.

4. The lost industrial relics are irretrievable, and their development and utilization urgently need scientific exploration

Now both sides of the Baocheng Bridge are not only well-planned and well-proportioned , harmonious colors, beautiful environment, numerous merchants, and a strong cultural atmosphere. It also retains industrial relics such as the track for loading and unloading raw materials in the cotton spinning mill, the water pump room for draining stagnant water, and the spinning and weaving workshop. These industrial relics and nameplates are scattered among the flowers and greenery, and have initially become one of the windows for citizens to understand the development history of Shanghai\’s national industry while strolling. In particular, industrial relics are the footprints left by the development of modern science and technology in the long river of history. They have characteristics that cannot be copied. They are unique resources that are rare and cannot be obtained again. They also leave a big issue for future generations on how to make full use of them. Shanghai is the birthplace and growth place of China\’s national industry, especially along the Suzhou River. There are a large number of industrial heritage scattered along the Suzhou River. Once destroyed during the demolition process, it will cause an irreparable historical mistake. The industrial relics that have been preserved also face the challenge of development and utilization in keeping with the times. If developed and utilized improperly, no matter how precious an industrial relic is, it will become an unsightly “waste” and may even be discarded again after being used for a period of time. As far as Shanghai is concerned, the first is to turn industrial heritage into industrial heritage; the second is to redevelop and reuse existing industrial heritage. in processing industryWhen considering heritage, we must not only meet the requirements of current urban planning, select the right industrial relics that must be preserved, and \”turn the old into the new\” to serve today, but also meet the requirements of protecting industrial relics and continuing urban culture. Industrial heritage must be old and backward, while the industrial heritage preserved and utilized must be brand-new and advanced. As time goes by, the contradiction between the new and the old constantly and directly tests the wisdom of planners and builders.

Dancing beside Baocheng Bridge (Photography: Tang Xiaotian)

Surrounded by the beautiful scenery of the Suzhou River bank, looking at the increasingly clear water of the Suzhou River, we look forward to the two sides of the Suzhou River becoming more and more beautiful, and at the same time, we also hope that industrial relics can be preserved in a more scientific and reasonable manner to increase the sense of history. Human beings miss the past, miss old friends, and are willing to relive the beautiful scenes they have been in contact with. Nostalgia is human nature; human beings also yearn for tomorrow, look forward to new life, and chase new trends. It is also human nature to be new.

The golden arch beside Baocheng Bridge (Photography: Tang Xiaotian)

Industrial relics are the connection hub between nostalgia for the past and the new. . Industrial heritage, as once-buried aesthetic values, has been rediscovered and revealed and then became industrial relics. Many industrial buildings and industrial facilities themselves show extraordinary artistic appeal in terms of volume, shape, color, proportion, etc. This is the value of industrial heritage becoming industrial relics. We hope to use artistic intervention, commercial development and other means to better integrate industrial relics with modern architecture, so that industrial relics can exert new value in the process of being re-used artistically. Industrial relics are the artistic representation of historical traces. Such historical traces can only gain new vitality when they are compatible and blended with reality. If the industrial relics of the past are \”forcibly\” placed in a modern environment, not only will theIt’s hard to understand, and it certainly won’t last long. The original functions of industrial relics have become history, and their new functions must be realized in \”reuse\”. \”Reuse\” not only requires material scenes, but also artistic thinking. In the process of development of any city, it is impossible not to demolish any old buildings and facilities. However, there is a lot of knowledge about what to demolish, what to keep, what to use and how to demolish, how to keep and how to use it. Facing the old factory area, it is necessary to select iconic, typical, and original buildings, facilities, and equipment to preserve them, and skillfully integrate them into the new environment and new buildings to give them new vitality. Industrial production takes different forms, and there is a lot to learn about the selection of specific materials that characterize different types of production. Generally speaking, when selecting industrial relics, attention should be paid to whether the appearance features are unique, whether its connotation can be intuitively understood by the public, and whether it has overall aesthetic value. For example, storage and transportation facilities for grain processing, spinning looms in textile factories, and filter tanks in waterworks are typical. It is difficult for power transmission and distribution rooms, water pump rooms, and boiler rooms in general factories to display their original functions. If only a section of railway track and some sleepers are preserved, it will be difficult to tell what kind of factory it was and what kind of production operations were carried out here. Shanghai is an important town of light industry, and there are not many light industry productions with grand scenes. Special attention should be paid to discovering the industrial relics of light industry, which are signs of \”big things can be seen in small things\” and \”ingenious things can be seen in small things\”. Shanghai already has examples of successful use of \”big chimneys\” in the utilization of industrial relics. From the perspective of avoiding homogenization, it is not appropriate to replicate the \”big chimney\” scene. Before people are about to forget the original functions of industrial relics, their original functions must be accurately recorded and artistically displayed under the conditions that the original environment no longer exists. Depending on local (environment) conditions, scene (scene) conditions, and category (category) conditions, the intervention of multiple categories of art is undoubtedly a feasible way to reuse industrial relics. If industrial heritage is compared to an ancient tree, the prerequisite for industrial heritage to show new buds must be the spring rain and gain new life.

We hope that the ancient trees of industrial heritage along the Suzhou River will become industrial relics, sprout new shoots, grow new branches, and bear fruit again!

Text:Tang Xiaotian/Pujiang Zongheng (Tang Xiaotian is a professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law and vice president of Shanghai Social Construction Research Association)