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Water supply and the reconstruction of urban space in early twentieth-century Tianjin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

LIU HAIYAN
LIU HAIYAN*
Affiliation:
Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, Tianjin, China
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Abstract:

The emergence of tap water supplied through water grids changed the spatial structure of cities. As a commercial port containing foreign settlements and divided urban political systems, Tianjin became host to two major, long-term water supply systems. Different social environments and systems of municipal government meant that tap water was accepted by urban society in different ways. In the settlements, the supply of tap water was the foundation for the formation of a modern community. In the Old City, the introduction of tap water for the most part had a different effect: it manifested the ways in which traditional and new lifestyles conflicted and mingled with each other. Yet, in any case, as tap water entered the lives of the people from the end of the Qing to the Republican period, new ideas of health and hygiene associated with tap water were gradually accepted, and modern urban lifestyles gradually took shape.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 38 , Special Issue 3: China's urban turn , December 2011 , pp. 391 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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