刊首语

刊首语

中国是一个多山的国家，山岳、丘陵与高原的总和约占国土总面积的2/3。这些分布广泛的山地影响着中国的地理区划、气候类型、水系分布、生物种群、社会组织和文化体系。

在山区，我们可以看到不同的景观类型。山区多样的地貌，茂盛的植被，充沛的水资源，丰富的动物，构成了优美的自然景观。一些高海拔的山区由于人迹罕至，保持了非常原始的自然状况，展现了从冰川、荒原、草甸到森林的壮观风景。而处于不同纬度和气候带的山区也呈现出各具特色的自然景观。这些风景都是大自然的杰作，许多这样的景观都名列世界自然遗产名录，如九寨沟、黄龙和 天山等等。

除了自然景观，山区还有人类生产生活的景观。早期的人类多生活在山区，因为山林能够提供食物和庇护。直到有了农耕后，人类才定居于平原。随着人口的增加，平原可耕地资源逐步枯竭，人口又开始向山区迁徙。人们在山间盆地开垦农田，在山坡上构筑梯田，形成了独特的山地农业景观。同时，人们依据地理环境和自然条件，就地取材，建造房屋，创造出不同的建筑类型，在此基础上形成各具特色的山村。这类基于生产和生活的景观，都是人工与自然结合的杰作，具有很高的景观和文化价值，其中中国云南红河哈尼梯田已成为世界文化遗产。

虽然山区地形复杂、交通不便，并不是最佳的建造城市的地点，但是历史上由于贸易的发展，军事的需要或者自然条件的限制，许多城市建造在山地环境中。在中国的600余座设市城市中，有一半左右是山地城市。这些城市坐落在起伏不平的地形地貌上，城市用地往往被山脉和河谷分割，表现出与平地城市不同的特色鲜明的景观面貌。

山也是神圣的象征，山岳崇拜是远古文化的一种普遍现象。中国上古传说中的神仙仙境都位于遥不可及的高山之巅。在漫长的历史中，我们的祖先将众多风景优美的山岳都神圣化了。特别是自东汉以来，中国人持续在名山中或是在城镇周边的山体上建造寺庙道观，形成了一种宗教景观。僧侣在此研经修行，悟道参禅，百姓在此祭拜祈福，慰藉心灵。这些寺庙的选址和建设往往与山水环境融合在一起，形成了中国特有的仙山胜境，这样的风景也影响着中国独特的山水文化。

近代以来，随着工业的发展，山区也有大量环境受损的区域。山区蕴含丰富的矿产资源，而不合理的开发建设对山区生态环境造成很大的破坏。中国是世界上重要的矿业大国，矿山和采石场主要分布在山区。许多边远落后的区域为了发展经济和提高收入，对矿产资源进行了粗放式地开采，往往造成极大的生态环境问题，如植被破坏，地质灾害频发，土地河流污染，尾矿库溃坝威胁等等。这些山区受损环境的生态修复有很大的难度。

随着经济的发展和科学技术的进步，人类的影响范围不断增大，不仅城市化侵占了越来越多的山地，以前人迹罕至的山区也有越来越多的公路、铁路、索道、旅游设施等等。与平原相比，山地地质地貌复杂，气候水文条件多变，生物多样性丰富，生态敏感。如果没有完善的景观保护体系和合理的土地利用途径，山区天然的景观就会不断被蚕食，一些生态极为敏感和脆弱的区域就会被破坏；如果山地进行过度的开垦和放牧，脆弱的生态环境就有可能逆向演替，优美的山水可能成为穷山恶水；如果不充分遵循山地的条件和特点进行规划和建设，山地城镇就会丧失特色并有可能面临安全的隐患；如果中国的传统名山胜地得不到有效地保护，“天人合一”的山水文化就无法延续。

山地景观可持续发展的基础是研究山地的特点，协调好山地生态环境保护、山地人工设施建设和山地文化延续之间的关系，本期的主题就是山地景观。

PREFACE

China is a mountainous country with mountains, hills and plateaus covering 2/3 of the total land area. The widely distributed mountain land affect the geographic district division, climate type, water distribution, biotic population, social and the cultural composition of China.

Various landscape types exist in the mountain area. The complex morphologies, flourishing vegetation, abundant water resources and rich animal resources contribute to the beautiful natural landscape. Due to the limited human intervention, the high altitude -mountain area can maintain their original natural landscape, revealing the magnificent sight of glacier, desert, meadow and forest. Besides, the different latitude and climate zone also generate the distinctive natural landscapes in mountain areas. They are exactly the masterpiece of nature, and many of these are listed among the world natural heritages such as Jiuzhaigou Valley, Huanglong Scenic Interest and Tianshan Mountain.

Human live and produce in mountain areas and then create the cultural landscape besides the natural landscape. Early humans mostly live in the mountain areas where food and shelter can be easily accessed. They move to the plains till farming thrives. With the increasing population living on the plain, arable landing resources are gradually exhausted and people move back to the mountain areas again. They reclaim farmland at the basin and develop terraces on the hillsides, which brings a unique mountain agricultural landscape. They built their houses from local materials, considering the geographical environment and natural conditions. In this way, various building types are established and gradually it turns into the distinctive villages. Such valuable cultural landscape represents the combined masterpiece of the interaction between human and nature. Yunnan Honghe Hani Terrace fields in China is a good example, which has been listed in the world cultural heritage.

The mountainous area has varied topography and poor transportation, which is not appropriate to settle the urban constructions. Despite that, the mountainous city still exists for the trade requirement, the military need or natural condition limits. There are approximately 600 cities in China and half of them are mountainous city. Situated on undulating land and divided by natural mountains and valley, these cities present the unusual landscape features from the plain city.

In remote antiquity, mountain worship was a common phenomenon and people would regard mountain as a holy place. The immortal and wonderland in Chinese stories are always told to be located on the top of mountain and where is exceedingly distant. In Chinese history, our ancestors would love to make the graceful mountain area sanctified. Specially, from the Eastern Han Dynasty, temples and Taoist temples were constantly built in the famous mountains or the mountain areas surrounding towns. A new type of religious landscape emerged. Monks and Taoist priests would study and practice Chan Buddhist meditation in the temples. Besides, the public came to worship and asked for blessing in the temples. Obviously, the location and architectural style of these temples are well integrated into the environmental context. Such unique mountain scenery also affects the landscape culture in China.

From the industry prosperity in modern times, natural environment is extensively damaged across the mountain area. Unreasonable utilization and exploitation indeed damage the ecological environment of mountain area, although there are rich mineral resources in mountains. China is one of the mining giants over the world and our mines and quarries are mainly distributed in the mountain areas. To develop the economy and enhance income level, extensive mining are common in the remote and less-developed zones , which lead to many ecological environment problems like vegetation destruction, geological disaster, land and river pollution, tailings dam risk etc. Unfortunately, the restoration of these ecological issues in the mountain areas is actually very difficult.

Currently, the human intervened area is enlarged a lot by the progress of science and technology. Urban areas vastly expand to the mountain areas, even the previously inaccessible and untraversed regions also realized roads’and railways’ constructions and built cableway and tourist facilities. However, the mountain area is ecologically sensitive, unlike the plain, due to its complex morphologies, unstable hydrological cycle and abundant biodiversity. Without thorough landscape protection system and rational land use approach, natural landscape in the mountain areas would be eroded slowly, especially for the most sensitive and fragile districts. Excessive reclamation and grazing in the mountain area would lead to regressive succession of ecological cycle, further incur the devastation of landscape sceneries. If the conditions and characteristics of mountain areas is neglected in the planning and construction, the towns and cities inside would be faced with hidden danger and lose its own character. If the famous mountainous resorts failed to get full protection, the Chinese landscape culture together with the traditional theory that man is an integral part of nature would no longer sustained.

By recognize the feature of mountain areas, we will accomplish the sustainable development for the mountain landscape and well balance the relationship among the ecological protection, infrastructure construction and the culture. This issue of Landscape Architecture is exactly on the topic: Mountain Landscape.

July 18, 2016 WANG Xiang-rong