From preservation to living heritage: Songyang’s revival of traditional villages

Since 2016, Songyang county in Lishui, Zhejiang, has launched the "Saving Old Houses" initiative, restoring Songzhuang's ancient homes, bridges and paths, and adding viewing corridors and walkways—upgrading infrastructure and sparking cultural tourism.

A decade later, Park Sungchoon, a South Korean environmental design student in Zhejiang, visits Songyang in Lishui to see how these old houses have shifted from “preserved” to “lived in” again. Today, Songyang has 78 national-level traditional villages—an important window into “classical China” and the continuity of rural life.