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| A PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION ON CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF SHASHANG AREA IN THE YANGTZE RIVER DELTA |
| DONG Ping |
| School of Geographical Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, China |
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Abstract Shashang Area in the Yangtze River Delta refers to the region formed by the accumulation of the Yangtze River sediment, namely Yangtze River Delta in the narrow sense of physical geography. Owing to its relatively backward economy and relatively weak culture, Shashang Area was almost a blank field in cultural studies of Jiangsu Province. In fact, this area has many quite distinctive features of cultural landscapes, outstandingly reflected by the spatial layout characteristics of villages that they neatly line up a line. Overall, there are three characteristics of Shashang Area. Firstly, front and rear areas are plat and open, increasing the sense of space and making people broad-minded. Secondly, houses settled on dams, and courts are built with soil padded on in front of doors, commonly known as "court-ridge". Thirdly, houses sat on the earthen dam totally face south that is favorable for receiving sunshine. In front of these houses, plum trees and peach trees are planted, while bamboos are at the back, which is convenient to fetch water. Fences around houses separate one house from another. This spatial pattern of Shashang Area forms another South China cultural landscape of small bridges and flowing rivers. This special settlement pattern is originated from the process that ancestors reclaimed Yangtze River beaches step by step. From the perspective of macro-scale, the research on the culture of Shashang Area of Yangtze River Delta is important not only to the cultural construction of Jiangsu Province, but also to the construction of the whole cultural geographical pattern of the Yangtze River Delta, while Shashang Area owns unique and inclusive culture, and portal location and fast-growing economy as well. It is exactly the existence of its portal location that makes the economy of Shashang Area has increased quickly in recent years. As the advantage of Shashang Area being along Yangtze River (port) functions better, its cultural connotation is expected to be greatly enhanced on the basis of fast-growing economy. Thereby, with its very distinctive characteristics, Shashang Area will become one of regional culture types in Jiangsu Province.
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Received: 11 June 2011
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2011, Vol. 26 
