Improving the heritage management of Nanjing City Wall: Local community participation as an effective approach

Abstract

The contradiction between the process of urbanization and the protection of cultural heritage is an unavoidable problem in the specific stage of social and economic development. While speeding up urban construction and improving residents' living conditions, we should pay great attention to the protection of urban historical and cultural heritage. This is the basic principle for dealing with the relationship between urban construction and heritage protection. As one of the first batch of famous historical and cultural cities announced by the State Council, Nanjing has a long history and rich cultural resources. However, in recent years, with the rapid development of Nanjing's urban economy, the contradiction between urban construction and historical and cultural heritage protection has become increasingly acute. This paper taking Nanjing city wall as an example, combined with three heritage management approaches of the Dutch, explores how to coordinate the relationship between Nanjing urban construction and historical and cultural heritage protection. We concluded that the local community should be given access to mentorship and guidance too, as they tackle the difficult and long-term process of conserving natural and cultural resources in the context of heritage tourism; only if the local group is truly assured of benefits and assigned full responsibility, will the advantages of community participation be realized. Nevertheless, the self-interest of local culture and goodwill in conserving it are obviously far less than enough to achieve sustainable heritage management in China.