Recently, Shenzhen Zhongying Metropolis Design Co., Ltd. won four major awards in the 16th Shenzhen Excellent Urban and Rural Planning and Design Project Selection, including one first prize, one second prize, and two third prizes, sparking broad interest in the industry. This success comes after the company’s earlier accolades, such as the 2009 National First Prize for Excellent Village and Town Planning and Design for the post-disaster reconstruction of Wenchuan Shuimo Town, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme’s Best Practice Award for the planning design of Luodai Ancient Town in Chengdu, and the architectural design award for the Zhuhai Opera House. The four projects that earned awards this time are all well-known tourism town planning and design projects completed in the past two years, further demonstrating Zhongying Metropolis’s strength as China’s leading brand in tourism town planning and design.
Shangri-La Ancient Town: Rising from Disaster to Build an Internationally Renowned Tourism Brand
The first prize-winning project is the Detailed Construction Plan for the Dukezong Ancient Town in Shangri-La County. This project originated from the highly publicized fire at the Dukezong Ancient Town in Shangri-La in 2014, which severely damaged the town’s infrastructure and destroyed a large number of cultural relics, ancient artifacts, and thangkas. To scientifically organize and implement the post-disaster reconstruction, the local government specially invited Zhongying Metropolis, with its extensive experience in ancient town planning, to develop the reconstruction plan for Dukezong Ancient Town.
In response, Zhongying Metropolis positioned the ancient town as an international tourism destination. Starting from a humanistic approach, the focus was on enhancing and preserving the overall cultural heritage value, reinforcing the “Eight-Petal Lotus” urban layout of the ancient town, and reorganizing courtyard spaces and landscape environments. The plan fully restored the road framework within the planning area, as well as the original street patterns, layouts, and spatial scales. While preserving the historical layout and texture of the original streets, some adjustments were made to the local road network to deliberately enhance the concept of the “Eight-Petal Lotus” urban design. The internal spaces within groups were reorganized, and courtyard landscapes were created to serve as firebreak zones and emergency shelters, while also improving the environmental quality of the ancient town and increasing the commercial value of the inner-street businesses. These efforts helped better showcase the town’s original historical culture and spiritual essence, gradually restoring its historical appearance, and transforming the crisis into an opportunity to create a new, safe, and harmonious home that is livable, workable, and enjoyable for tourism.
As China’s top brand in tourism town planning and design, Zhongying Metropolis has so far been responsible for planning over 200 projects, covering aspects such as ancient town revitalization and tourism town design, tourism planning, old city renovation, new town planning, architecture, and landscape design. In addition to the four award-winning projects, Zhongying Metropolis Design Co., Ltd. has many other notable projects that have garnered significant attention, such as the Zhuhai Opera House—known as “China’s only offshore opera house”—Nyingchi Nalong International Tourism Town in Tibet, Luodai Ancient Town in Chengdu, Chuanshihu Tourism Town, and Cuiheng International Tourism Town, among others. Zhongying Metropolis Design advocates the concepts of green new countryside cities and urban humanism, emphasizing the originality, regional character, and artistry of planning and design. The company rejects the notion of “a thousand cities with the same face” and is committed to creating the greatest possible value for cities, thereby shaping each one into a unique and distinctive place.