Wuxi builds on its heritage

However, if development is completely prioritized, it can lead to distorting, damaging or demolishing city neighborhoods and iconic landmarks. Poor residents can be dislodged, and the original feel of an urban environment can be erased.

Local residents and businesses may express unfavorable views, feeling a loss of uniqueness and pride, as though their culture is being replaced and obliterated by popular, modern Western thought and ideology.

In Wuxi, city planners and grassroots organizations alike have attempted to balance development and preservation with care and determination.

According to Mohammed Al-Zouba of the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, preservation in the city is "not exclusively from public policy, but preservationists surrounding the city".

He says each person is part of the chain of transmission that passes down our ancestors' heritage. "The fabric of society, too, has what the thinkers of today call a collective memory, forming an association with our physical environments. This cultural legacy of monuments, buildings and old town squares transcends our very identities."

Over the past few decades, the systemic measures and scientific development methodologies for conservation and restoration that have been implemented in Huishan Ancient Town have been recognized and accepted by residential communities, creating a win-win for parties involved, according to local authorities.