Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
REBUILDING B
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IJ
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NG
For first-time visitors to Běijīng, the city can be an energising and inspiring synthesis of
East and West, old and new. Yet after 1949 the characteristics of the old city of Běijīng -
formidable and dwarfing city walls, vast and intimidating gates, unbroken architectural nar-
rative and commanding sense of symmetry - were flung out the window.
Many argue (such as author Wang Jun in
Story of a City
) that the historic soul of Běijīng
has been extirpated, never to return. It's a dismal irony that in its bid to resemble a Western
city, Běijīng has lost a far larger proportion of historic architecture than have London, Paris
or Rome.
In 1949, Mao Zedong declared that 'Forests of factory chimneys should mushroom in Běijīng'.
He didn't let ancient architecture stand in the way. When the mighty Xīzhí Mén was being
levelled in 1969, the Yuan-dynasty gate of Héyì Mén was discovered within the later brick-
work; it disappeared too.
Going, Going, Gone
Although Běijīng has been radically altered in every decade since 1949, the current build-
ing mania really picked up pace in the 1990s, with a housing renovation policy that resulted
in thousands of old-style homes and Stalinist concrete structures from the 1950s being torn
down and replaced by modern apartment buildings. In the following decade, office blocks
began to mushroom across the city, prompting yet more demolition.
So much of Běijīng's architectural heritage perished in the 1990s that the capital was
denied a World Heritage listing in 2000 and 2001. That led the government to establish 40
protection zones throughout the older parts of the city to protect the remaining heritage
buildings. But according to Unesco, more than a third of the 62-sq-km area that made up
the central part of the old city has been destroyed since 2003, displacing close to 580,000
people.
One of the hardest-hit areas was the central neighbourhood of Qiánmén, once the home
of scholars and opera singers. Preservationists and residents have petitioned for govern-
ment protection. However, a resolution passed in 2005 to protect Běijīng's historic districts
did not include many places, including Qiánmén, which had been approved for demolition
before the order was passed. Road widening has bulldozed its way through the area; Qian-
men Dajie itself has been restored in a mock historic style, and the Dashilar area may be
the next in line for redevelopment.
