Jiyuan — Jiyuan Map Poster & Print

המפה

Jiyuan Map Poster & Print

Jiyuan sits where the plain of northwestern Henan starts to crease into mountains. On a map the urban core is a tidy block of streets on flat ground, and around it the contour-free paper gives way to a dense scatter of valleys and ridgelines. The city is easy to read at a glance: a planned centre, a few broad arterial roads, and then terrain that begins to take over.

The city takes its name from the source of the Ji River, one of the four great rivers honoured in ancient Chinese ritual, and it lies close to Wangwu Mountain, the setting of the fable of the Foolish Old Man who set out to move a mountain. A Jiyuan map poster keeps that setting in view, with the streets of the town fading into the watercourses and slopes that surround it.

South of the city the Yellow River runs through a reservoir landscape shaped by large modern dams, and on a wider framing the water shows as a long pale band against the darker road network. Closer in, the grid is regular and generous, with wide blocks typical of Chinese cities expanded in recent decades. The contrast between that order and the irregular hill country is what gives the print its character.