Buildings restoring ancient ways stand by the water in the town of Meicheng, Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang province. [Photo/sinomach.com.cn]

Meicheng, an ancient town formerly known as Yanzhou, is located in Jiande city of Hangzhou, capital city of East China’s Zhejiang province. It was recently included among the “Elites” as one of the Most Beautiful Cultural Tourism Towns in China after its makeover. The Elites are attractions hailed as the “Oscar-winners” in international tourism.

The project’s head-contractor China United Engineering Corporation (CUC), a subsidiary of Sinomach, urged its working group to study the Yanzhou culture on the basis of the town’s current situation, and to integrate the local distinctiveness into the designing scheme, highlighting Meicheng’s history and heritage.

In 2018, the Zhejiang Government proposed making the Meicheng reconstruction project the first model work of beautiful town construction in China.

The Yudai River Engineering Project, part of Meicheng reconstruction and located in the town’s southern area, features water culture. In September 2020, the Yudai River, which had been buried underground for half a century, reconnected the east and west lakes in the region. With that, and after work on the waterfront buildings, landscaping on the banks and lighting projects, the thousand-year-old town has regained its former prosperity.

As a showcase of ancient town culture, the restoration project of Meicheng’s Longshan Academy and the Fan Ancestral Shrine, a temple to Fan Zhongyan, a politician and writer in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), focused on replicating the academy culture and architectural style of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). The project was completed in December 2020 and won the “West Lake Cup”, an award from Hangzhou for high-quality municipal construction projects.

Meicheng, the town with a history of more than 1,800 years, is set to usher in its new era.