Urban Renewal Investigation Of Historic Waterfront In The Ancient City Of Suzhou

How to conserve characters of the ancient cities in appropriate ways, and give integrated solutions to problems of city building? The sustainable development of Chinese cities desiderates answers. This article focuses on Suzhou, with the pressures from both preservation and city development, and selects two cases—Shantang street and Nanhao street, in the historic district of Changmen, for investigation. Both cases have been renewed in recent years. Based on the comparative study, the author wants to gain some experience on integrating commercial pedestrian street renewal and local region characteristics.This article includes four chapters. The first chapter explains the meaning, makes definitions and introduces means of research. The second chapter summaries the essential theories in order to get the frame of investigation, including two parts--- the characteristics of historic waterfront and the qualities of commercial pedestrian street. The former includes three parts: the street, the building and the node. The latter divides into five parts: space, environment, traffic, function and management. The following chapter shows the investigation and makes analysis on both selected cases. The last one is the conclusion and some suggestion.