In the tide of new urbanization, the protection and Revitalizing of ancient villages have become the focus of attention from all walks of life. What is the most ideal development mode of ancient villages? How can people really participate in the "Revitalizing" of ancient villages? In the game between commercial pursuit and ancient village protection, who is the ancient village developing and protecting for? This series of questions have been answered in the design practice of gankeng Hakka town.

In May this year, with the launch of the 11th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industry Expo (Shenzhen ICIF), gankeng Hakka Town, which once again became the sub venue of this year's ICIF, welcomed tourists from all over the world. At the same time, the first cross-strait Hakka Cultural Festival and Hakka style tourism week were also held here, making gankeng, an ancient Hakka Cultural Village hidden in high-rise buildings in Shenzhen, once again attract the attention of the world.

The design level of gankeng Hakka town is quite high, which has been highly affirmed by the Shenzhen municipal government. The project won the second prize of the 16th excellent urban and rural planning and Design Award in Shenzhen in 2015. Meanwhile, the design projects of Shangri La dukezong ancient city, Yunnan Airport International Science and Technology Innovation Park and Guizhou Xiasi ancient town also won the first, second and third prizes respectively.

Gankeng Hakka town is a key project for the Revitalizing of ancient villages by the Shenzhen government. It was approved in 2012. Professor Chen Keshi, the first person in the revitalization of ancient towns in China, was responsible for the overall planning and fully designed and built by Shenzhen Zhongying urban design company. It took two years to repair, develop and rebuild. After the first show of the ICIF last year, and as the branch venue of the ICIF this year, the popularity of gankeng Hakka town has increased sharply. It has become another good place for Shenzhen citizens to appreciate the charm of Hakka culture and spend their weekends.

In the Hakka town with "gankeng" "Before the new name, gankeng was actually just a community in Buji street, Longgang District, Shenzhen - gankeng community. It's hard to imagine that it was an ancient village inhabited by Hakka people surrounded by four mountains and flowing water. Hakka people moved and settled here more than 300 years ago. They lived by planting fruits and produced large and sweet pineapples, pears and persimmons. After the founding of new China, gankeng was also identified as the national fruit export base And enjoy special policies. Gankeng's "Hakka hat" is also famous for gankeng's fruits. The hat made by gankeng people is fine, thin as paper and changeable in style, which is loved by Hakka people all over the country.

Gankeng was once a place where merchants gathered. Gankeng has an excellent geographical location. It is reported that before the opening of Bulong Road, residents in a large area of Longhua and Guanlan had to go through gankeng to gather in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Over the years, gankeng has become a place for merchants. This is one of the important reasons for the prosperity of gankeng, an ancient Hakka village. After the reform and opening up, with the rapid development of Shenzhen, great changes have taken place in gankeng. New buildings have sprung up nearby. More than 200 Hakka families have moved into new buildings and lived a new modern life. Gankeng village in the past has become a real ancient village, and the remaining Hakka ancient houses, bridges and flowing water are gradually ignored.

In order to carry forward Hakka culture and realize the revival of Hakka ancient town, the Shenzhen government started the Revitalizing of gankeng Hakka ancient village in 2012 and built it as a key project in Shenzhen. Chen Keshi, vice president of the school of urban planning and design of Peking University, director of China Urban Design Research Center of Peking University and chief designer of Shenzhen Zhongying City Co., Ltd., was invited to be the chief designer of the project, leading the Zhongying urban design team to carry out the overall planning and urban design of "gankeng Hakka town". Professor Chen Keshi has been concerned about the development of domestic tourist towns and the revitalization planning of ancient towns for many years. Shenzhen Zhongying Urban Design Co., Ltd., founded by him, has completed the restoration and reconstruction projects of historical ancient towns such as Chengdu Luodai Ancient Town, Guizhou Xiasi ancient town, Foshan famous town and Dunhuang ancient town.

Professor Chen Keshi proposed that the combination of development and protection is the main principle of the construction of "gankeng Hakka town". In this regard, he proposed the transformation goal of "taking Hakka culture as the connotation and Hakka charm architecture as the carrier to build a diversified and composite tourism destination integrating cultural tourism, pastoral leisure, ecological vacation, cultural exhibition and popular science education" for gankeng Hakka town. The overall planning is divided into two themes: Hakka town and ecological park. Hakka town is composed of cultural leisure area and characteristic industrial area; The ecological park is composed of agricultural experience, wetland science popularization area, agricultural sightseeing area and mountain sports area.

In addition, Zhongying city also put forward the core design concept of "landscape priority and complete form" for gankeng Hakka Town, and proposed the design goal of creating a kilometer long Hakka landscape street with the earth landscape as the background, the valley style as the support and the Hakka style as the theme. It aims to sort out the ecological landscape structure according to local conditions, highlight the small town form of mountains, water, fields and gardens, and create a rich and unified architectural language. At the same time, it aims to build an attractive gankeng Hakka town by protecting and repairing traditional Hakka houses, transforming and improving the current industrial buildings, harmoniously unifying the style of the whole town.

It is reported that after the completion of phase I construction and the successful debut in May last year, all the remaining projects of gankeng Hakka ancient town have successively entered the stage of full completion. In May this year, gankeng Hakka ancient town was once again used as the branch venue of Shenzhen Cultural Expo, and held many Hakka cultural theme activities, attracting countless domestic and foreign tourists to visit, which greatly increased the reputation of gankeng Hakka ancient town. With the improvement of all aspects of the construction of gankeng Hakka Town, I believe that in the near future, gankeng will truly become a Shenzhen Hakka town integrating the functions of local Hakka hometown local diet, traditional residential life, vegetable planting, local specialty exhibition, local culture leisure, sightseeing and so on.