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Virginia Tech

Past and Present: Transformation of an ideal City - Beijing

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Early Chinese city planners and builders succeeded in creating a imperial ideal city - Beijing. The spatial order of Beijing expresses the elaborate system of imperial hierarchy (meaning). Since the founding of People's Republic in 1949 as all the physical elements which defined the old spatial order have changed, the Chinese State attempted to reconstruct a new ideal city -a people's capital of socialist era. Some of these changes ignored the historical and aesthetic values of the traditional elements for utilitarian functions. This thesis examines the transformation process of this ideal city in terms of the physical elements and sociological perspectives, identifies the unique order and meaning of urban space in the ideal city - Beijing, and articulates some design principals that could be used to reconstruct a new ideal city - Beijing, express the new ideology of the people in the socialist era and preserve the historical and aesthetic values of traditional elements.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Landscape Architecture
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Landscape Architecture
Department dc:contributor.department
Landscape Architecture
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
1999

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Xiao, Feng
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Katen, Brian F.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Wang, Joseph C.
  • Jacobson, Wendy R.

Subjects

dc:subject × 3

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-062199-232035
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/43373

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Xiao, Feng. Past and Present: Transformation of an ideal City - Beijing. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/43373