Repairing a Living Town: Residents and Lijiang’s Heritage

Lijiang’s World Heritage property includes Dayan, Baisha and Shuhe: streets, houses, canals and bridges form an inhabited landscape. Repairing a roof or altering a building therefore concerns more than one owner’s rooms. The work also affects the street, neighbouring buildings and the inherited form of the settlement.

An account by Lijiang’s Cultural Heritage Research Institute records a joint review and management system introduced in May 2023. It explicitly includes active resident participation alongside government and departmental responsibilities. Housing work is placed within a coordinated process involving conservation, local administration and community institutions.

The institute describes repair manuals and construction-team management as technical supports for traditional buildings. Such tools turn a general promise to protect heritage into questions of materials, methods and responsibility. The house remains part of everyday life, while work on it is connected to the character of a larger place.

The same account describes contact groups for Dayan, Shuhe and Baisha established in July 2023, with repeated visits built into the scheme. The three settlements share a listing but have different local conditions. This is an institutional view of participation: it records procedures and intended links, rather than speaking on behalf of every household. It shows protection as continuing work among buildings, people and public bodies.