点评:To fully understand the meaning of the ancient city of Wuzhen, one viable route is to refer to the UNESCO document, inscribing this city in the group of "The Ancient Waterfront Towns in the South of the Yangtze River". The document clearly illustrates the conditions, in the Yangtze Valley, of a population dating back 7,000 years BP, and the early prosperity of this group of cities, favored since their founding era (in the case of Wuzhen, a fortress existed here as early as the 9th century AD) by the fertility of the soil, the early use of water for both agriculture and transportation, essentially by the regional prosperity fostered by the symbiosis with water.
Xi Za, the western part of the ancient city of Wuzhen, demonstrates the recent outcome of these historical processes. Passed down to us in the form it acquired at the end of the Ming Dynasty and especially during the Qing Dynasty, it clearly documents the settlement's amphibious conditions on the one hand (with the imposing landmark of the Grand Canal at its western end), and the diverse range of Wuzhen's urban functions on the other: not only housing and commerce, but also manufacturing activities, such as the Yichang Foundry and the silk and pottery workshops.
Today, all of this has been transformed by tourism, or rather, overtourism: restaurants abound, there are numerous specialized museums, and the canals are crowded with pleasure boats.
But despite this, Xi Za (West Wuzhen) still retains its power to seduce.
翻译:要充分理解乌镇古城的意义,一条可行的途径是参考联合国教科文组织的文件,该文件将乌镇列入“江南水乡古镇”之列。该文件清晰地展现了长江流域早在7000年前就已存在的人口状况,以及这片城市群早期的繁荣。这些城市自建城之初(例如,乌镇早在公元9世纪就建有要塞)就得益于肥沃的土壤、早期利用水资源进行农业和交通运输,而水与水的共生关系则孕育了区域繁荣。
乌镇古城西部的西杂镇,则展现了这些历史进程的近期成果。它以明末清初的形式流传至今,清晰地记录了乌镇聚落的两栖条件(西端是雄伟的地标——大运河),以及乌镇多样化的城市功能:不仅有住房和商业,还有制造业,例如宜昌铸造厂以及丝绸和陶艺作坊。
如今,这一切都因旅游业,或者更确切地说是过度旅游而发生了改变:餐馆比比皆是,专业博物馆不计其数,运河上挤满了游船。
但尽管如此,西乌镇依然保持着其魅力。