Chongqing — In November, the creative energy of Chongqing meets the quiet weight of history inside the Observer Design Museum in Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area. "Witness of an Era – He Zhiya's Archives on Urban Construction and Historic City Preservation" gathers more than three decades of fieldwork, writing, and reflection by veteran scholar He Zhiya, offering an intimate portrait of a city in motion.

The new exhibition "Witness of an Era" reveals decades of field notes, photos, and stories from researcher He Zhiya — tracing how a mountain city protects its soul while racing toward modernity. (Photo: Liu Bo)

The Jiefangbei in 1992. (Photo: He Zhiya）

The photo is on exhibition. (Photo: He Zhiya）

Since its opening, the exhibition has grown into one of the city's cultural highlights. Visitors often describe the experience as stepping into a time capsule—one that documents Chongqing's transformation with unusual clarity and tenderness. He's lifelong project spans published books, extensive manuscripts, thousands of photographs, and meticulous records of major urban undertakings, together forming a textured account of how a mountain city negotiates modernity while holding on to its cultural foundations.

What sets the exhibition apart is the way it restores the stories behind familiar places. The evolution of Hongya Cave, now one of Chongqing's most photographed destinations, is presented not as a commercial phenomenon but as a deliberate act of cultural reconstruction. 

The development of Hongya Cave. (Photo: He Zhiya）

Nearby, early materials on the Chongqing Industrial Museum and rare documentation from the major restoration of the People's Auditorium reveal the quiet persistence and craft that shape the city's landmarks. 

The photo is on exhibition. (Photo: He Zhiya）

Even a simple photograph of Jiefangbei taken in 1992 draws visitors into long, reflective pauses.

The Jiefangbei in 1992. (Photo: He Zhiya）

But the most moving moments often emerge from the human traces embedded in the archives. He's notes from countless journeys through ancient towns, river valleys and rural settlements reveal the patience required to document oral histories and architectural traditions before they disappeared. His work captures a Chongqing that once moved at a slower rhythm—yet whose cultural depth continues to define the present.

The photo is on exhibition. (Photo:  He Zhiya）

The exhibition has quickly become a living classroom of memory. Inside the gallery, an elderly visitor points out old street corners to his grandchildren; architecture students gather excitedly around early design drafts of Hongya Cave; young people linger over black-and-white portraits searching for echoes of their parents' city. The space fills with a quiet yet unmistakable sense of belonging—a reminder that urban progress is not measured only in skylines, but also in what a city chooses to remember.

The exhibition has quickly become a living classroom of memory. (Photo: He Zhiya）

Even children sketch their imagined Chongqing in the exhibition hall, adding fresh lines to a story that continues to unfold.

More than a showcase of archival work, "Witness of an Era" stands as an invitation to pause, to look back, and to understand how the memory of a city quietly shapes its future.