Objective In the context of urban renewal, the research on post-industrial landscape focuses more on the reuse of hardware such as sites and relics, and less on the activation of software such as industrial history and culture, especially the site history of post-industrial landscape and the contemporary value thereof. Strictly speaking, the history of each site has its own value, but the value positioning of the history of "young" post-industrial sites is relatively vague. Designers need to emphasizes the importance of making the once-hidden history visible in the present and try to reconstruct the contemporary value of site history by tracing the history of post-industrial sites at both the material space and the text-image levels.

Methods This research reviews the site history of post-industrial landscape from the "monumental, antiquarian and critical" perspectives. The first characteristic is "monumental history": The history of people and things that span thousands of years but are still vivid, bright, and great. The second characteristic is "antiquarian history": A more rational way of recording historical changes. Currently, the representation of the site history of post-industrial landscape faces a dual challenge: The history can neither be completely eliminated nor be completely represented. So, how can we creatively explore and utilize such history? "Critical history" may serve as an effective solution. Critical history opposes the fervent, joyful and eternal worship in monumental history, as well as the detached, restrained and highly rational explanations in antiquarian history. In fact, history is not a consistent linear sequence as people imagine, but a complex network consisting of various narrative discourses.

Results The research summarizes the historical characteristics of "monumentalization-fragmentation of the giant machine" and "archaeology-multilayering of technology and humanity" in Shougang post-industrial landscape. The "machine-based heavy industry" refers to the industry that engages in large-scale social production based on machines and machine systems. The Shougang post-industrial landscape has distinct characteristics of machine-based heavy industry. The density of industrial heritage buildings in the north area of Shougang old industrial zone reaches up to 45%, which covers numerous production units and complete production lines required for ironmaking, steelmaking, power generation, sintering and coking, logistics and machinery repair. The high furnaces, coke ovens, and quenching towers preserved on the site are the most distinctive post-industrial heritage of Shougang. Surrounding them are the scattered coal and sintering workshops, power and substation facilities, dust removal and condensation towers, slag and settling ponds, as well as crisscrossing rails and pipe racks for material transportation. Constructed following the principle of efficient production, the aforesaid steel industry buildings and facilities jointly constitute the complex and sophisticated machine system of Shougang. The industrial landscape of Shougang has a unique technical and cultural history. Taking the nearby Qunming Lake with the most historical relics as an example, the historical development of the lake can be summarized as a transformation from industrialization to post-industrialization, from technology to humanity, and from production to life after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Currently, the post-industrial landscape presents a multi-layered historical feature that can be summarized using four keywords: industrialization, garden factory, Shougang Grand Park, and post-industrialization. Based on the perspective of critical history, the research proposes the following three ways for representing site history: "spatial narrative", "fragmental palimpsest", and "contextual intertextuality".

Conclusion In the process of transforming the background color of Shougang from "brown" to "green", historical and design forces are simultaneously exerted to create a post-industrial site with a sense of history, while meeting the functional requirements of urban renewal. The history of the Shougang site is relatively "young", and the value and significance thereof require further exploration. However, the author believes that the exploration of the history of the Shougang site should not be a simple monumental exhibition or archaeological excavation, but requires an inventive analysis to interpret the historical significance of the site. The hidden history of the site can only be truly realized and exhibited in its value and significance through new designs that make it visible, readable, and thought-provoking. As mentioned earlier, Hunter's focus on the importance of site history is to "add cultural depth to the present through imaginative and creative historical revival". History can never be precisely defined and interpreted, as it is always in a gradually forming process and becomes increasingly rich over time. From the perspective of cultural inheritance, landscape architects need to continuously and critically reflect on the past, creatively analyze and reconstruct the design object of the present, and attempt to integrate historical research with design practice. The history of a site may be constantly reinterpreted, and good works created based on this should create a post-industrial place with a sense of history while meeting the functional needs of urban renewal. Narration is an effective method for on-site historical representation through text, images, and spatial narration. Designers of a site should construct corresponding spatial narrative based on specific historical scenarios to depict the history of the people, events, and relilcs once existing on the site, and have the same integrated into a pre-designed path, while guiding visitors through the site's history with the help of a guidebook. Designers should also use implicit narratives in buildings or create a certain atmosphere to imply an important historical moment. The purpose of palimpsest is to simultaneously represent the information in different historical layers, which emphasizes the expression of relationships between layers from the macro-history view that combines the past and present, rather than only paying attention to a specific period of history while ignoring others. When faced with fragmented history, clarifying the non-linear relationship between historical layers is a basic prerequisite for representation. As a design method that can effectively integrate site, history and design, palimpsest can provide theoretical support for designers to create post-industrial sites where people can encounter history unexpectedly. Intertextuality is seen as a powerful metaphor and rhetorical technique in literature. Palimpsest focuses on the multi-layered history within a site, while paratextuality is more concerned with the history outside the site, which can direct visitors' thoughts into the distance and allow them to briefly escape their current environment. Intertextuality refers to the historical referencing or substitution of the history of a site by that of another related site. This referencing is not baseless but based on inventive analysis, which can provide a new approach for homogenized industrial heritage and landscape renewal cases. Appropriately referencing the history of a site may make it possible to reposition the historical role of the site.