The Strategy Research Based On European Experiences To Preserve Historic Districts In Harbin

Historic preservation is always a hot topic in contemporary city development. Theheritage witnessed how human life evolved and how the city developed. The highhistorical value assembles the city’s spirit and it brings to the human a sense of belonging.However, with urbanization and modernization, the heritages are easily under the risks ofbeing damaged. Since1980s, China started to pay attention on heritage preservation. Thehistoric buildings, sites and historic cities are continuously added into the preservationobjectives.Harbin city is a Chinese city with influences of western culture in its architecture dueto its history. The government took actions to preserve these heritages since late1980s.But facing countless historic remaining, the process of historic preservation planning hasmany problems which lead to a dissatisfaction of Harbin city. So far, there are22legallylisted historic cultural districts. Based on their functions, they are divided into5types. Inthis research, the focus is on the first three categories. And the analysis is laying on thecurrent situation, environment and facilities and the current difficulties. The maindifficulties in historic preservation are stated to provide sufficient knowledge on what ishappening in Harbin, namely the decay of historic cultural value, the extensive influenceof the government and commercial developers over other actors, and the lack of fundingon preservation projects.In order to improve the historic preservation planning system for Harbin, theresearch analyzes three European cases in order to draw lessons. It contains the currentsituation, the case introductions and the pros and cons of the cases. The last phase isfocusing on transferring the merits from cases to Harbin. Five aspects are found to beessential in historic preservation. These are guidance of operation, public participation,supervision in process, coordination with other organizations and money source. Theactivities of these aspects are discussed in the case studies. And in order to improve thehistoric preservation planning system in Harbin, together with the local situation andresources, this research recommends five mechanisms.The research suggests that the experts should come up with a clear and detailedoperating guidance for the operators in real work. The public’s involvement and otherorganizations should be encouraged and stimulated to coordinate in the preservingprocess. The funding problem can be solved by getting support from central governmentand the society including rich groups and donations. The mass media should monitor theprocess in order to ensure the fairness of the process.