Over the forty years of reform and opening up, five childhood friends from Changganli grow up to become an architect, a deputy bureau chief, a journalist, an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, and a property developer. Their attitudes toward historical sites, cultural relics, and traditional culture, including the Ming City Wall, the Number One Scholar’s Residence, the original Buddhist scriptures, and Shangyuan lantern art, undergo different changes and evolutions. As cultural awareness and confidence continue to grow, the preservation of cultural relics and heritage gradually shifts from conflict with modernization to harmony and mutual support.
