In Jijiang Street, Jiangjin District, Chongqing City, Kong Meiyu, a volunteer guardian of cultural relics in Dashizi Community, conducts regular cultural heritage inspections every week. He completes location check-in, live photos, and status registration through his mobile phone. The inspection data is uploaded to the "Bayu Cultural Relics" digital application (hereinafter referred to as "Bayu Cultural Relics") with one click. The whole process only takes 3 minutes.
“In the past, we had to fill out paper forms after inspections and enter them into the computer when we came back, which took us a long time.” Kong Meiyu said, “Now they are handed in on site, and the system automatically transfers them, and you can see which links are stuck.”
Jijiang Street is the mother city of Jiangjin and is located in the old town of Jiangjin. The stone city wall was built in the Ming Dynasty, and was subsequently repaired and improved to form a nine-gate city wall. Although the city gate itself has disappeared, the fragments of the city wall, the remains of ancient buildings and the place name of the city gate remain in the streets and alleys of the old city, and 29 immovable cultural relics are scattered among them.
"The biggest problems in the protection of cultural relics at the grassroots level are the small number of people, scattered sites, and slow discovery." Wang Shunqin, a publicity and campaign committee member of Jijiang Street, said that the cultural relics resources in Jijiang Street are dense and scattered. In the past, paper ledgers were slow to transmit and information was asymmetric, making grassroots management and protection more difficult.
The change starts with a "screen".
The picture shows Jijiang Subdistrict staff carrying out cultural relic inspection work through the "Bayu Cultural Relics" digital application. Photo by Ma Jiaxin
Recently, the "Cultural China Tour Yangtze River Cultural Exploration" themed interview activity entered the grassroots governance command center of Jijiang Street, Jiangjin District. At the event site, staff were conducting inspections through the "Bayu Cultural Relics". 29 cultural relics points were marked one by one on the electronic map. Click on any point to see inspection records, hidden danger photos, and rectification and cancellation status at a glance.
"Bayu Cultural Relics" is a digital application for cultural relics created by the Chongqing Municipal Culture and Tourism Development Commission. It is embedded in the "Chongqing Express Government" platform and is presented in the form of functional modules such as cultural preservation intelligent patrols for town, street and community inspectors to carry out daily cultural relic inspection check-ins, hidden danger reports and other operations. Members of the two committees of Mingming Village (community) in Jijiang Subdistrict serve as cultural preservation workers, and as operators on the execution side of the platform, they carry out regular inspections of 29 cultural relics. By locating and punching in, taking photos and reporting on the platform, the inspection records of each point can be traced and consulted. Cultural preservation workers can report hidden dangers as soon as possible when they find them, and the system automatically transfers them to the Jiangjin District Cultural Tourism Commission and the District Cultural Management Office. The streets follow up and verify and supervise rectifications. After the rectifications are completed, supporting materials are uploaded to complete the cancellation of accounts. This changes the shortcomings of slow transfer of paper ledgers and information asymmetry in the past, and realizes the whole-process online closed-loop management of "discovery-reporting-dispatch-disposal-cancellation".
"On the basis of digital inspections by professional teams, Jijiang Subdistrict has also promoted the 'one-click insurance reporting' function of Chongqing Express. When residents, merchants, and volunteers find problems such as cracks in the walls of cultural relics, damaged components, fire hazards, etc., they open "Bayu Cultural Relics" to submit clues, and the system automatically obtains the location, and the work order is automatically diverted to the street and community for disposal." Wang Shunqin said that the process sounds complicated, but for ordinary people, it is just a matter of clicking on the mobile phone screen.
After the public reports, the "Yu Kuai Zheng" terminals of grid members, village secretaries, and town and street cadres will simultaneously receive system messages and text messages. They must check within 1 minute and 3 minutes respectively. If they fail to check on time, they will respond through voice calls. If the town or street does not respond within 3 minutes, the escalation will be called to the district or county governance center; if the district or county governance center does not respond within 5 minutes, the escalation will be called to the city governance center.
The "method of addition and subtraction" is thus clear: What is added is digital tools, public participation, and closed-loop mechanisms; what is subtracted is paper ledgers, intermediate links, and response time.
"Digitalization does not replace offline management and protection, but empowers the protection of traditional cultural relics." Huang Xiqiong, secretary of the Party Working Committee of Jijiang Street, said that in the future, we will continue to make good use of digital tools, constantly improve the digital cultural relics safety protection system, use digital technology to protect the thousand-year urban context, and allow precious cultural relics resources to be passed on. (over)
