Xiangtan City Planning Exhibition Hall

Xiangtan City Planning Exhibition Hall

The entrance of the Xiangtan City Planning Exhibition Hall is located on Huxiang East Road. With an exhibition area of 9,400 square meters spread across three floors and a total of 15 exhibition halls, it presents a comprehensive and multi-faceted display of the city’s construction history, urban and rural economy, cultural achievements, and bright future through sections on city overviews, master plans, specialized urban planning, and interactive experiences.

The Xiangtan City Planning Exhibition Hall has a total of 15 exhibition halls, including the largest C–E triple-fold screen theater in China. Here, visitors can not only view the full panorama of Xiangtan’s urban area through the master plan sand table but also participate in various interactive experiences to envision the city’s future.

The first floor includes the introductory hall, city overview hall, historical and cultural hall, and construction achievements hall.

Upon entering the Planning Exhibition Hall, the first sight is the dazzling golden hall. The design of the introductory hall is solemn, elegant, and imposing. The ceiling features blooming lotus flowers, the floor is engraved with white-stone seals, and the spatial framework derived from traditional Huxiang architecture creates a unique and exclusive thematic impression space that belongs solely to Xiangtan.

On the left and right sides of the hall are relief carvings. The left relief depicts the grand scene of Emperor Shun’s southern tour and the performance of the Shao music, as well as the glorious journey of Hu Anguo, the founder of the Huxiang School, who lectured here and spread Huxiang culture. The right relief portrays Mao Zedong, Peng Dehuai, and Qi Baishi as inheritors of Huxiang culture, striving for the realization of the Chinese Dream with a spirit of concern for the nation and the courage to be pioneers.

The Construction Achievements Hall introduces major events such as the relocation of the county seat, the eastward shift of the administrative center, and the expansion of the Hedong New Area, as well as the six iterations of the city’s master plans. Using a panoramic sand table, it highlights key urban construction features such as parks, squares, bridges, sculptures, and landmark buildings.

The second floor primarily showcases planning content at various levels for Xiangtan, featuring six exhibition halls: master plan, specialized urban planning, regulatory detailed planning, riverside scenic belt planning, recent construction planning, and tourism and cultural development planning. Among them, the Recent Construction Planning Hall focuses on the planning and construction of key public service facilities and transportation infrastructure, including the core business district, intensive land use demonstration zone, Xiangtan Railway Station South Square, Bao Ta Road River-Crossing Tunnel, and Muyu Lake. The Historical and Cultural Hall presents Xiangtan’s more than 2,000 years of long history. A 3-minute dynamic sand painting showcases the city’s development process through a journey across time, including the establishment of the county seat, the prosperity of the “Little Nanjing” era, the Battle of Xiangtan, the Bi Quan Academy, and the “One County, Many Heroes” culture of Xiangtan’s notable figures.

In the Tourism and Cultural Development Planning Hall, citizens can take a virtual seaplane ride and fly over tourist attractions such as Xiangtan’s Shuifu Temple through projected images, enjoying the breathtaking scenery of a “heavenly jade pool.” They can also use high-tech AR (augmented reality) to “shake hands” with Chairman Mao and feel the deep sentiment of the great leader’s hometown.

Entering the bullet train virtual experience room on the second floor, visitors feel as if they are riding a high-speed train, speeding past the beautiful scenery along both banks of the Xiang River, including Yangmei Zhou, Wan Lou, and Zhao Shan.

The third floor presents Xiangtan’s planning concepts through sections on industry-specific planning, industrial park planning, county and district planning, and Smart Xiangtan.

The Smart Xiangtan Interactive Experience Hall reflects the information digitization in Xiangtan’s future planning and development. Utilizing multimedia technology, the hall creates a surreal digital space that interprets the convenience and surprises brought by smart cities to people’s lives. With non-contact interactive systems, visitors can experience innovations brought about by “smart transportation” and “smart communities.”

Similarly, in the 4D Dynamic Cinema, the short film themed “Dreaming Back Home, Two-Oriented New Look, Beautiful Lotus City” takes audiences on a flying journey through the future city. The ultra-wide field of view provides a fully immersive 3D perspective, combined with 4D motion seats that simulate various effects, engaging all the audience’s senses and truly transporting them into the future city to envision Xiangtan’s prospective urban landscape.

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units