Rendering of the Cultural Heritage Park and part of Archibald John Little Foreign Firm

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- Archibald John Little Foreign Firm, a well-known historical building on Nanbin Road that has been in dust for many years. After more than 120 years in wind and rain, it will be rebuilt together with several other hundred-year-old historical buildings into a cultural heritage park in Chongqing, combining historical culture and modern fashion. It will lead citizens to witness the changes during the opening of the port.

A reporter from Chongqing Morning Post recently learned from the Chongqing Land Group that the overall renovation project of the Chongqing Port Cultural Heritage Park was officially launched and is expected to be unveiled at the end of next year.

Old site of “the earliest foreign firm in Chongqing” to be transformed into a cultural heritage park

More than a century ago, when the Chuanjiang steamship route began to operate, foreign merchant ships followed one after another, foreign merchants and churches were lined up, Sino-Western trade exchanges were intensive, and Nanbin Road became a bustling and prosperous place. Chongqing officially opened as a port in 1891, leaving behind a large number of old buildings such as foreign firms and consulates. Archibald John Little Foreign Firm, located in Longmenhao, Nan’an District, was one of them, and it was also a landmark building at that time. Today, Archibald John Little Foreign Firm has gone through more than 120 years of ups and downs and is known as “the earliest foreign firm in Chongqing.”

The founder of Archibald John Little Foreign Firm was the British businessman and adventurer Archibald John Little. Th man built this villa in the 22nd year of Guangxu (1896) when he opened a factory in Nan’an. It is now a Chongqing municipal cultural relics protection unit. The whole building organically integrates the elements of Chinese and Western architectural styles. It has the small and exquisite characteristics of traditional Chinese buildings and the slightly publicized Western architectural personality. It reflected the owner’s love for traditional Chinese culture. It is a historical building with distinctive features in foreign firms.

Chongqing Port Cultural Heritage Park is a major construction project of our city in 2020. It covers an area of about 4.47 hectares. Among them, there are 8 sites including Archibald John Little Foreign Company and a total of 17 cultural relics protection buildings scattered in different areas of the riverside, the cliff and the top of the mountain, including municipal-level cultural relic buildings, excellent historical buildings, and rebuilt historical buildings.

Citizens can visit the precious cultural relics of the port opening period

Chongqing Port Cultural Heritage Park consists of three sections: museum, park, and slow life block, which combines the history of the opening of the port with modern fashion elements.

Among them, the Chongqing Port History Museum will take the history of Chongqing’s port opening as its context, depicting a historical picture of Chongqing’s port opening, and convey historical and cultural stories of Chongqing to the younger generation. Through narrating the history of western powers entering into the hinterland of southwest China through a series of unequal treaties, the museum has influenced Chongqing and even the inland areas, and objectively accelerated the modernization process of Chongqing and even the upper reaches of Yangtze River, thus playing a role in patriotic education.

At present, the project party is collecting items, manuscripts, picture albums, etc. that appeared during the opening period of Chongqing. Such as British, French, American and Japanese copper coins of the 19th century, the costumes of foreign missionaries in the Chongqing Joseph Church in the late Qing Dynasty, the Sichuan Chamber of Commerce Bulletin, the manuscript of Tianyinge Manuscripts by Yang Cangbai, the Three Gorges of Shu photo album in 1907, and the emblem of Xinhai Revolutionary Shuzhong League Association. Cultural relics will be seen in the Port Museum in the future. At the same time, cultural and creative products with a history of opening up the port will be launched, combining history and fashion, and conveying the historical story of the city and the spirit of the times.

In addition to Port Museum, Chongqing Port Cultural Heritage Park will also create an urban park and a slow-enjoying block with an international perspective and fashion aesthetics, with interactive park installations, clock-in landscaping, cliff-side show, night experience, cross-border cuisine, and fashion play hand-made, LIVE HOUSE, art interpretation, Chinese and Western cultural exchange salon, etc.

The relevant person in charge of the project party stated that Chongqing Port Cultural Heritage Park will follow the theme of “Scenery and Humanities Stand, Patriotic Education Platform, International Exchange Stage, and Open Cooperation Platform”, inheriting the historical heritage of the opening of the port over a century, and exploring museums, parks, slowly enjoy the new possibilities of the integrated development of the neighborhood, enrich the cultural connotation of the city, and lead the “new” and “slow” lifestyle.

There are also historical and cultural buildings in the area of Nanbin Road, such as Buneimen Foreign Company, British Salt Office, and Majiali Villa. It is expected that they will also be used in different forms and to varying degrees. (Translated by Luo Juan, Fathom Language Limited)