On April 26, 2025, Rizhao Station completed its transformative upgrade and resumed operations. This station, originally built in 1985, is located in the core urban area of Rizhao City. It is a crucial component of the “Eastern Bridgehead” of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge, providing a fast high-speed rail corridor to the Central Plains, Northwest, and Southwest regions of China. As a vital north-south transportation and spatial link within the city, it plays an important role in Rizhao’s urban development strategy.
As a significant transportation hub in Rizhao City, Rizhao Station carries the important mission of showcasing Rizhao’s urban cultural image. Professor Liu Qiang of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, led his team from the Institute of Travel Experience Design in a specialized study on the cultural image identification and enhancement of Rizhao Station. Their work aimed to embed Rizhao’s cultural DNA deeply into the station’s upgrade and renovation project. Guided by the cultural concept of “Sun’s First Radiance, Cloud Sails Chasing Waves”, and focusing on scene creation, they meticulously crafted space, public art, and multimedia displays to comprehensively build a dynamic sensory experience and embodied cultural understanding for travelers.
Rizhao is one of the birthplaces of ancient sun worship in China. “Sun’s First Radiance” is derived from the city’s name, meaning “where the first light of the rising sun shines,” symbolizing the origin of urban civilization and a future of vigorous development. From the early inhabitants’ fishing and hunting to the modern city, Rizhao boasts abundant marine resources. “Cloud Sails Chasing Waves” is an adaptation of the poetic line “Straight-hoisted cloud sails to cross the vast sea,” echoing Rizhao’s vitality as the “Capital of Water Sports” and the open and inclusive nature of its marine culture. The Rizhao Station renovation and upgrade project is centered on its long-standing solar culture and vibrant marine culture, transforming it into a modern station building that integrates functionality, artistic expression, and cultural narrative.
Visual Identity Symbols
Visual Identity Symbol 1
Visual Identity Symbol 2
Revolving around Rizhao City’s “Solar Culture” and “Marine Culture,” the team reimagined and reconstructed the spatial narrative through visual symbols. They systematically cataloged Rizhao’s historical context, folk traditions, and modern achievements. From these, they extracted iconic symbols ranging from historical elements such as sun worship, the origin of ancient characters, Dongyi civilization, Longshan black pottery, and intangible cultural heritage, to contemporary contexts like the city’s status as the Capital of Water Sports, seaside ecological tourism, and a modern port economy. This resulted in a cultural identification system that permeates all aspects of the station, with regionally distinctive decorative elements strategically placed to foster a deep integration of the city’s brand image, cultural tourism industry, and high-speed rail station space, ultimately forging the recognizable “Beauty of Rizhao.”
Art Installations and Design Elements
Art Installation at the Concourse Entrance
“Chasing the Sun,” “Chasing the Waves” Art & Leisure Area in the Waiting Hall
Art Decoration at the Comprehensive Service Center
“Mountain Embracing Sea” Business VIP Lounge
Detailed Design Application for Platform Ceiling Space
Restroom Visual Identity
Innovative Integration of Technology and Culture
Integrated Service Island Installation
Through digital interaction, light and shadow installations, and spatial aesthetic innovation, Rizhao’s urban identity is seamlessly combined with public service scenarios. Functionally, technology empowers information guidance and environmental perception, enhancing the accuracy and real-time nature of information dissemination, and transforming the approach to humanized service. Aesthetically, mediums such as bare-eye 3D and large-scale multimedia installations create an immersive narrative space, with cultural storytelling interwoven throughout, constructing a technologically advanced service environment. This fusion of art and technology represents an innovation for domestic integrated service islands, strengthening the public service attributes of the transportation hub while showcasing urban vitality with an innovative spirit, thereby building a new model for “station-city symbiosis” in urban brand promotion.
Smart Features and Micro-Tourism Experiences
Bare-eye 3D at the Entrance
Utilizing various functional spaces of the high-speed rail station, especially the transit areas, the project creates a “micro-tourism experience with a new scene at every step”, transforming fragmented scenarios like waiting and transit into touchpoints for urban culture. The team deeply explored landmark elements of Rizhao, such as intangible cultural heritage, natural landscapes, human history, and local specialties. Through modern design interpretation, folk symbols are integrated into modern industrial facilities, turning entrance and exit corridors and the island-style air conditioners in the waiting hall into visible and communicable cultural waypoints. As travelers move through the station, they feel as if they are in a condensed urban cultural exhibition, subtly enhancing their recognition of the city’s regional symbols and cultural significance, and promoting the upgrade of short-term stays into longer-term cultural tourism value.
Cultural Narratives in Public Spaces
Island-style Air Conditioner Art Installation in the Waiting Hall
Micro-Tourism Experience Space-City Corridor in the Exit Area
A Gateway to Rizhao’s Soul and Dream
From the ancient sun stone to the deep blue dream, from Dongyi pottery script to high-speed rail soaring, Rizhao Station connects millennia of civilization with future aspirations through its solar and marine cultures. It is not merely a temporary transit space for travelers, but a window that allows them to understand Rizhao’s “Soul of Mountains and Seas” and “Dream of the Era”.
The Rizhao Station renovation and upgrade project emphasizes urban brand image building, transforming the high-speed rail station building into a large-scale integrated media space for urban communication. The design language, combined with the characteristics of high-speed rail spaces, deeply embeds regional culture into the traveler’s experience, allowing passengers to perceive Rizhao’s continuous cultural lineage during their transit. This makes the high-speed rail station a vibrant interface for urban cultural output, enhancing service effectiveness and promoting the sustainable development of Rizhao’s cultural tourism industry, thereby injecting lasting vitality into Rizhao’s urban brand building.
