The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal flows slowly, giving birth to a peaceful and soft Jiangnan water village; the boat floats leisurely on the water of the South Lake, giving birth to a red light that illuminates Kyushu. Jiaxing, a city with countless historical memories, situated about 100km southwest of Shanghai, sits at the intersection of rivers, lakes and seas, and is the choke point of the Taihu South Corridor. It has unique advantages in terms of economy, transportation development, tourism, and housing.

For Jiaxing, which lives and thrives on water, the river and the city are now isolated and separated. Changxian River, Pinghu River and Jiashan River represent the life and cultural waterways of Jiaxing. Challenges such as ecological restoration, urban re-activation and cultural identity hinder the full potential of Jianxing. The river system is like a spider web weaving through urban areas. The “Nine Waters to Heart” project offers new opportunities for the future of this Jiangnan water city.

Adhering to the design vision of “returning to the river bank, different from the south of the Yangtze River”, the proposed design includes four major strategies for water, city and people:

• Show the essence– allow the site to tell its own story by digging and integrating historical relics, urban features, and landscape features.
• Building a network– build slow greenways, water transportation, and bridges to improve connectivity along the waterfront, allowing people to seamlessly connect with the river.
• Space and venue-combining the functional requirements of the venue, create a variety of safe and active venues in the green corridor along the river, so that life meets the river.
• Going to nature-connect with surrounding green areas to build an ecological network; combine water ecological treatment to restore clean rivers and allow rivers, cities, people and nature to meet.

Here, the river connects the history and the future of the city, and life returns to the riverbank. Along the Changxian River, Pinghu River, and Jiashan River, the design creates important nodes of the “six gardens and ten sceneries” as a place where rivers, cities and people meet.

Jiaxing City Concept Animation: