College students’ paintings of Hohhot landmarks recall nostalgia

A painting by two college students from Inner Mongolia Normal University shows the North Gate of Old City which was demolished in 1959.

Several paintings of Hohhot by two college students have recently gone viral on social media networks after being widely circulated on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, according to a news release by local media organizations.

The two students, Li Pengfei and Wu Jiaying, are from the school of art and design at Inner Mongolia Normal University (IMNU), and designed the artwork as part of a homework assignment.

In order to accomplish the work to their satisfaction, the two students had spent a fortnight seeking inspiration by traveling around the city, and were inspired by the old landmarks in Hohhot such as the Drum Tower, Hohhot cinema, the natural gas station, and the North Gate of the Old City, many of which were demolished years ago.

As urban areas grow, many old buildings have been dismantled with some images of them becoming blurred in people’s memories, said Li.

With the intention of reminding local residents of the old Hohhot, they decided to paint the landmarks by imitating the pattern of game maps.

Once the artwork was posted on the internet, the two young men received praise from netizens, many of which expressed their nostalgia for the old buildings of Hohhot.

This painting by the two college students shows the old natural gas station, known as the “big green tanks” among local residents. The gas station is no longer in operation.

The natural gas station was once one of the city’s landmarks until it was demolished in 2014. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]