2.1 Research object

Beijing is one of the birthplaces of ancient mankind in the world, and also an important breeding ground for many of the dynasties in ancient China. With a long history and profound civilization, it is a world-famous historic and cultural city. In the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, Beijing was the capital of China, from which more than 30 emperors ruled the country. Traditional villages are an important part of Beijing today, as a famous historic and cultural city. They are non-renewable and precious historic and cultural resources, record the local style and context, and carry rich national culture and ideological spirit. In 2012, the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and other departments released the list of the first batch of Chinese traditional villages, which included 9 villages in Beijing. In 2018, the General Office of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality issued the guidelines on strengthening the protection and development of traditional villages and announced the first batch of municipal traditional villages in Beijing. So far, Beijing has 44 municipal traditional villages, of which 22 are national, covering 10 districts (Table 1).

2.2 Research methods

2.2.2 Literature analysis

In order to deeply understand the basic situation of traditional villages in Beijing and analyze their spatial and cultural features, this paper used the method of literature analysis, which involved the collecting and studying of a large number of documents, web pages and books about traditional villages in Beijing, and analyzed the basic situation, development history, and the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of significant traditional villages in Beijing.

Table 1

List of traditional villages in Beijing

3.1 Randomly distributed in general

Macroscopically, traditional villages can be regarded as having a point distribution, and the distribution types of point elements can be divided into three types: uniform, random and agglomeration. Traditional villages in Beijing are mainly distributed in Mentougou District, Miyun District, Fangshan District, Yanqing District and Changping District, and are relatively concentrated within their regions. Spatial statistical tools in ArcGIS 10.6 were used to calculate the nearest neighbor index of traditional villages in Beijing, in which the P value shows the significance level and the ANN index shows the distribution pattern of elements. In the case of P<0.1, if the index is less than 1, the distribution pattern is clustering. If the index is greater than 1, the pattern tends to be discrete or competitive. In our study, the significance level was found to be P>0.1 which shows that there is no significant aggregation or discrete distribution features, indicating that the traditional villages are randomly distributed in Beijing in general.

3.2 More traditional villages are located in the southwest and northeast

Traditional villages in Beijing are mostly distributed in Mentougou District and Fangshan District in the southwest, and Miyun District in the northeast. According to the statistics, the number of traditional villages in Mentougou District and Fangshan District in the southwest of Beijing accounts for about 45.46% of the total number of traditional villages in the city; Miyun District, Yanqing District and Changping District in the north account for about 43.17%; and there is one traditional village in each of Tongzhou District, Shunyi District, Pinggu District, Huairou District and Haidian District, together accounting for about 11.37% of the total number of traditional villages in the city. Mentougou District has the largest number of traditional villages, with 12 national traditional villages and 14 municipal traditional villages. The terrain of western Beijing is high while it is very low in the southeast, and most traditional villages are located in the outer suburbs of western Beijing and built in higher mountainous areas, which is conducive to avoiding flooding. At the same time, the ancient road passes western Beijing, with convenient transportation and prosperous commerce. In addition, with the Yongding River running through western Beijing, there are also sufficient water resources and vast fertile soil.

3.3 Distributed along piedmont plains or intermountain basins

Altitude is an important attribute of landform. The “extract points by value” was selected in GIS spatial analysis tool “analysis by value” and Beijing DEM data (from Geospatial Data Cloud website) were input to obtain the elevation information of traditional village sites. There are 18 traditional villages distributed in hills and basins with an altitude of 200–500 m, accounting for 40% of all traditional villages in Beijing. There are 18 traditional villages distributed in mountainous areas above 500 m above sea level, accounting for 40% of all traditional villages in Beijing. In addition, a total of 8 traditional villages are distributed in plains and valleys with an altitude of 50–200 m, accounting for 17.78% of all traditional villages in Beijing, and one village is at less than 50 m above sea level. The piedmont plain is relatively higher, avoiding floods and meeting the needs of flood control and drainage. The intermountain basin has a gentle slope, thick soil layer and fertile soil, which is good for farming. At the same time, the mountain rocks are easily processed into pieces, which provides rich stones for the construction of houses. Therefore, generally speaking, traditional villages in Beijing are mostly distributed in areas with slightly higher terrain (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

Elevation distribution of traditional villages in Beijing

3.4 Close to the riverside

The buffer analysis tool in ArcGIS10.6 was used to buffer the river systems in Beijing at the intervals of 300 m, 600 m, 900 m and 1200 m, and then straight-line distance analysis was used to obtain the distances between traditional villages and adjacent rivers. Among the 44 traditional villages in Beijing, 8 are located within 300 m from the river; 12 are distributed within 300–600 m from the river; 4 are distributed within 600–900 m from the river and 2 are distributed within 900–1200 m from the river. Altogether, they account for 59.09% of all traditional villages, indicating that most traditional villages are distributed within 1.2 km of the river, so one obvious distribution feature is following the river. Rivers close to or flowing through villages can beautify the environment, maintain appropriate humidity, provide domestic and production water for the villages, and meet people's traditional concept of “water gathers wealth” (Fig. 2).

3.5 Backed by hills

Beijing is located at the junction of the North China Plain and the Inner Mongolia Plateau, which is strongly affected by the northwest wind. Therefore, most of the traditional villages in Beijing are distributed around the mountains and backed by mountains, facing onto the sunny side, so as to have a natural barrier to block the northwest wind and form a good local microclimate. At the same time, Chinese traditional thought believes that places surrounded by mountains and rivers are livable geomantic treasure lands.

Fig. 2

Distances between traditional villages and adjacent rivers in Beijing

3.6 Along the ancient road

Many villages in western Beijing are distributed along the ancient road. The Jingxi Ancient Road mainly runs along the Yongding River Valley, Qingshui River Valley and Xishan Valley to the west and northwest, forming a crisscross road network by connecting multiple main roads and branches. The ancient road is a vital channel connecting Beijing with the North China Plain and the Inner Mongolia Plateau. The villages distributed along the ancient road have convenient transportation and a prosperous commercial economy.

4.1 Traditional residential culture

Due to the similar natural climate and cultural background, the residences of traditional villages in Beijing show great commonality, displaying unique local forms and styles in the process of formation and evolution, and forming a traditional northern residential culture. First of all, in terms of residential site selection, traditional villages in Beijing pay great attention to Feng Shui (Geomantic Omen). Due to terrain, climate, traditional beliefs and other factors, people tend to settle in places close to mountains, facing water and leeward to the sun (Xue, 2015). Secondly, in terms of the form of residence, most of the traditional residences in Beijing are in the form of courtyards, which are divided into many types according to their specific functions and structures. There are different designs and considerations of the orientation, scale, entrance channel and gate form of the courtyard, which fully reflects the characteristics of geography, aesthetics and culture. In terms of residential construction, the pedestal, wooden frame, roof layer, ridge, wall and facade of the residences also show strong regional characteristics (Xue, 2015). At the same time, in terms of decoration, most traditional residences in Beijing are decorated from the door cover, door leaf, wall leg stone, door hairpin and pillar head to reflect the beautiful meaning and show the identity of the owner (Xue, 2015). Currently, a large proportion of traditional villages in Beijing retain rich traditional residential buildings, which are the representatives of traditional residential buildings in the north of China. Typical villages with well-preserved buildings and outstanding features include Cuandixia Village, Huanglingxi Village, Baoshui Village, Shuiyu Village, Nanjiao Village, etc.

Table 2

Cultural system of traditional villages in Beijing

Continued

4.2 Traditional folklore culture

Folklore culture is the custom and living habit created, shared and inherited by the people living in a concentrated area, and involving production and labor, daily life, festivals, folk performances, traditional handicrafts, etc. In the long process of formation and development, some traditional villages in Beijing have formed rich and colorful folk cultures with unique northern regional characteristics and the condensation of people's wisdom, which has been inherited in various forms. These villages carry out folklore tourism with their unique festival activities, artistic performances and handicrafts, and have become traditional villages with folk customs as the main cultural features. Typical representatives include Weizishui Village, Yangshudixia Village, Zhangzhuang Village, Qianjuntai Village, Nanjiao Village, etc. For example, the original yangko in Weizishui Village was rated as the intangible cultural heritage of Beijing. The Lianqiao Rice folklore activity is an ancient traditional folk custom spread in Yangshudixia Village for more than 180 years which is a national intangible cultural heritage. People eat “Lianqiao Rice” and “Walk on Ice” on the 16th of the first month of the year, and there are also theatrical troupe performances. The Dragon Lantern Festival in Zhangzhuang Village is a folk cultural heritage of Beijing, with a history of more than 300 years. Qianjuntai Village is the inheritance place of Beijing's intangible cultural heritage “Fanhui folklore activity”. Nanjiao Village has folk activities such as the Yinyin traditional musical performance, lantern festival, lion dance, etc.

4.3 The Great Wall garrison culture

In order to resist the invasion of northern minorities, the rulers of several dynasties in the Central Plains built the Great Wall at various scales. At the same time, a large number of forts, garrisons, fortresses and military settlements have been set up along the Great Wall to guard the border areas. There are eight sections of the Great Wall in Beijing, including Badaling Great Wall, Juyongguan Great Wall, Simatai Great Wall, etc. In the vicinity of these great walls, a large number of villages had also formed for military defense purposes. Most of these villages are located on the inner side of the Great Wall with dangerous terrain and a superior military position. Military defense facilities such as city walls, barbican entrances, beacon towers, gateways and city gates, have been built in the villages. In the past, these villages were used for both military defense and living. The construction and layout of the village not only considered military defense, but also fully considered the production and living functions, forming unique traditional border villages. Such villages with the typical characteristics of Great Wall garrison culture and border guarding culture are mainly distributed in Miyun, Yanqing and Huairou districts, like Chadao Village, Gubeikou Village, Chaoguan Village, Hexi Village, Yanhecheng Village, Changyucheng Village, etc.

4.4 Mausoleum guarding culture

As the capital of several dynasties, there are also many mausoleums of emperors and royal family members in Beijing. The Ming Tombs are located at the foot of Tianshou Mountain in Changping District. They are the tombs of emperors in the Ming dynasty, with 13 emperors buried here. In the past, there was a special mausoleum guarding organization, which arranged special personnel to guard the mausoleum, take charge of the incense, maintenance and cleaning of the mausoleum, etc. In the Ming dynasty, every mausoleum was built with a mausoleum guarding organization called Shengongjian (Shrine Warden), with eunuchs living on-site and guarding the mausoleum. In the Qing dynasty, not only the eunuchs guarding the mausoleum lived here, but so did all members of their families. Later, the mausoleum guarding organization was abolished, but the mausoleum households still existed. They cultivated the land allocated by the imperial court and were responsible for guarding the mausoleum. A large number of villages formed around the Ming Tombs. Typical representatives include Wanniangfen Village, Deling Village, Maoling Village and Kangling Village. These villages are generally distributed near the imperial mausoleum. Most of the villagers are the descendants of families guarding the mausoleums in the past. These villages still retain many historic sites such as ancient castles, ancient trees, ancient wells, ancient bridges, etc.

4.5 Religious belief culture

China is a country with an agricultural civilization. Traditional farmers are based on the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, which leads to a psychology of paying attention to practical interests, and their religious beliefs also reflect their attention to their survival and production conditions. At the same time, China's traditional religious beliefs reflect the characteristics of the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Among the traditional villages in Beijing, some still retain many temples, reflecting the traditional religious belief and culture that existed in the past and still does even now. Guan Yu Temple, Dragon King Temple, and Niangniang Temple are the most common religious buildings. Typical villages with prominent religious culture and many religious buildings are represented by Liulinshui Village, Heilongguan Village, Cheerying Village, Lingshui Village, Changyucheng Village, etc. Liulinshui Village has Taoist relics such as Changxing Temple, Shengmi stone pond and Pantao Palace, as well as huge statues of Laozi and ancient cypresses in the mountains. This village has a long history of religious belief and culture. Heilongguan Village has many ruins such as Dragon King Temple, Xuandi Temple, Taoist Tower and Seven Holy Shrines. It was once a holy land for the royal family and the surrounding villagers to pray for rain. Cheerying Village has a stone tower, stone Buddha of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Lvzu Cave, Guanyu Temple and other religious sites, giving it a strong religious atmosphere.

4.6 Ancient road trade culture

Jingxi Ancient Road in western Beijing is one of the most important historic sites in Beijing. It started from Sanjiadian, connected various main roads from north to south, and formed a crisscross road network in Mentougou District. These ancient roads mainly include commercial transportation roads, military roads and pilgrim roads. Camels and horses transported coal, stones and fruits from the mountain area of western Beijing to the capital, and then transported the products of the capital back to western Beijing and even Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and other places, gradually forming a business trade road. Many traditional villages are distributed along the ancient road, and the development and evolution of the villages are greatly affected by the ancient road. Some villages took advantage of the superior position of the ancient road to set up post stations and develop commerce and trade, so as to provide conveniences for passers-by along the trade road. Some villages exploited their rich coal resources and developed a mining industry, while others relied on exquisite handicrafts to make glaze. In addition to the ancient villages with strong business cultures, there are also a large number of temples, historic sites, watchtowers and stone carvings along the ancient road. Typical traditional villages of trade culture along the Jingxi Ancient Road include Cuandia Village, Liuliqu Village, Sanjiadian Village, Dongshiguyan Village, etc.

Zhaitangchuan, near Cuandixia Village, produces coal, and the incoming and outgoing caravans must pass through Cuandixia Village, which brings the prosperity of commerce and trade. Some traditional residences in the village show the dual-use characteristics of commerce and residence. Liuliqu Village is an important traffic node on Jingxi Ancient Road and the only path for the ancient incense road. At the same time, it is also an important base for the manufacture of colored glaze, enjoying a reputation as the “Hometown of Colored Glaze”. Sanjiadian Village used to be an important ferry and material distribution center on the Yongding River. Merchants gathered there and more than 300 commercial shops and dozens of coal plants were set up. The coal industry and commerce were very developed. Dongshiguyan Village is located at the intersection of the ancient road, which passes through the village, and this village took advantage of its location to provide accommodation services for passing businessmen.

4.7 Red culture

During the Anti-Japanese War, people in Beijing (called Beiping at that time) fought bravely to resist the aggression of Japanese imperialism, showing magnificent patriotic enthusiasm and forming the unique red culture in Beijing. As the front line of the Anti-Japanese War, many areas in Beijing were involved, people had devoted themselves to the cause of Anti-Japanese War, and a number of typical Anti-Japanese War villages have emerged. Some villages still retain the Anti-Japanese War ruins, record the epic heroic deeds, and inherit the heroic spirit of the Anti-Japanese War. At the same time, some villages also retain the traditional village style and folk customs. The Anti-Japanese War ruins are integrated with the traditional village landscape, becoming typical traditional villages with red culture as the main culture. Typical representative villages include Malan Village, Jiaozhuanghu Village, etc. During the Anti-Japanese War, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China set up the Jirecha headquarters in Malan Village which is known as “The First Red Village in Western Beijing”. The village still retains the former site of the Jirecha headquarters, the former residence of general Shaw, and the ammunition depot, and it has also set up an Anti-Japanese War exhibition hall. Jiaozhuanghu Village is a famous “Tunnel War” village, known as “The First Fortress of The People”. The village has retained the ruins of the tunnel war, the former site of the militia headquarters, the watchtower, the “news tree” and other Anti-Japanese War ruins, and established the village history museum, a memorial forest of the Anti-Japanese tunnel war and red culture street.

4.8 Food culture

Over time, traditional villages have formed unique local food cultures that rely on local food materials, cooking methods, eating habits and customs. Some villages have formed a unique food culture by virtue of local specialties and characteristic feasts. Taking the food culture as the core to drive the development of sightseeing and folk activities, a special type of traditional village featuring food culture was formed. Typical representatives include Liugou Village, Kangling Village, Changyucheng Village, etc. Liugou Village is the birthplace of the hot pot in Yanqing District. Its tofu feast is special regarding the number of pots, bowls and dishes, so as to provide an auspicious and beautiful meaning, forming a folk tourism brand of “Phoenix City-Hot Pot-Tofu Feast”. By using local agricultural and sideline products, Kangling Village has created a “Spring Cake Feast” including more than a dozen characteristic dishes, of which the “Zhengde Spring Cake Feast” has formed a certain brand effect.

4.9 Farming-reading culture (Juren culture)

In the ancient farming society of China, some intellectuals combined farming with reading and took “Cultivation and reading to bequeath to the family” as their values, thus forming a unique farming-reading culture. Among the traditional villages in Beijing, some villages with a strong farming-reading culture have produced emerging talents from generation to generation. Typical representatives are Dongmenying Village and Lingshui Village. In the history of Dongmenying Village, there were both civil and military Juren (successful candidates in the imperial examination). A large number of plaques, brick carvings and screen walls in the village are written with words and sentences such as: “The beauty of books never fades”, “Cultivation”, “Respect and righteousness should be passed down in families for thousands of years, books and knowledge should be inherited by the society for hundreds of years”, “The best traits in the world are loyalty and filial piety, the most promising plans in the world are farming and reading”, which give people a strong cultural atmosphere. Lingshui Village has a long history and prosperous literary style, which is called Juren Village. Today, ancient buildings such as Juren's residence and temples are preserved in the village, and statues with the theme of the imperial examination are displayed, with a strong literary style.

5.1 Natural environment factors

5.1.1 Terrain

Terrain is an important natural environmental factor affecting the distribution of traditional villages, influencing the site selection, scale, layout, external transportation, personnel exchange and architectural form of villages of a region (Zhao and Tian, 2020). Places with flat terrain, convenient transportation, favorable production conditions and a low residential construction cost have great attractiveness for people to carry out their living activities (Guan et al., 2017). The traditional agricultural society determines that people's survival and life are inseparable from farming. Therefore, land issues are very important for people to consider when choosing a place of residence. Generally speaking, people will choose an area with relatively flat terrain that is conducive to farming as their residence. At the same time, the slope of the terrain will also be considered, as the terrain with a certain slope is conducive to drainage and avoiding flood disasters.

Fig. 3

Factors driving the spatial distribution and cultural features of traditional villages in Beijing

5.2 Human activity factors

6.1 Conclusions

Using ArcGIS spatial analysis, literature analysis, fieldwork and in-depth interview methods, this paper deeply analyzed the spatial distribution and cultural features of traditional villages in Beijing, and their driving factors. This analysis led to three main conclusions.

6.2 Suggestions

Based on the abundant and scientific research results above, we put forward some suggestions for the preservation, development and utilization of traditional villages, which can hopefully promote the cultural protection and rural revitalization of traditional villages in Beijing. Firstly, while protecting and utilizing traditional villages, we should fully consider their different spatial distributions and cultural features, and then take holistic and targeted protection and utilization measures. For example, due to the influences of river distribution and traffic lines, traditional villages show linear distribution features and cultural commonalities. In the protection and utilization of such traditional villages, the villages in the entire linear region should be protected and developed as a whole, so as to maintain the uniqueness of the regional cultural characteristics and the integrity of the spatial pattern. Secondly, it is favorable to build the cultural tourism belt of traditional villages and develop linear tourist routes, so as to enhance the overall image and form the overall benefit of traditional villages. Thirdly, for traditional villages with cultural commonalities and similarities, they can learn from each other and share their experiences of cultural protection and inheritance, so as to improve the effectiveness of the protection and development of traditional villages. In tourism development, a full understanding of cultural commonalities is conducive to emphasizing individuality, developing tourism differentially, forming a cluster complementary effect, and avoiding homogeneous competition and image masking effects. Fourthly, it's critically important to get local villagers involved in the protection and development of traditional villages in order to draw on more wisdom and support during the process of rural development and comprehensive revitalization of the rural culture, economy and society. Lastly, in the choice of the traditional village tourism development mode, we should start from the spatial and cultural features of the village, choose the mode and path suitable for the development of the village, and avoid inaccurate positioning, mechanically copying or destroying the local spatial distribution features and cultural context.