Since the beginning of 2001, Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau has
launched a survey on Beijing's traditional residences,
siheyuan (courtyard with houses built on its four sides).
According to Mei Ninghua, Director of the Beijing Cultural Relics
Bureau, 539 among the more than 3,000 courtyards investigated will
be listed as key cultural relics under the municipal government
protection. The rest more than 2,000, Mei said, will also be well
protected and not be demolished.
Siheyuan has existed in Beijing for more than 800 years.
Another characteristic feature of old Beijing's urban development
is the numerous hutongs, or back lanes, that serve as
communication channels of these residential compounds. The newly
publicized "Plan for the Protection of the Historical and Cultural
City of Beijing" states that 42 percent of Beijing's old
residential areas, most of them being siheyuan courtyards,
will be protected as a whole set. When some old and unsafe houses
are rebuilt, the original siheyuan-and-hutong layout
should not be destructed.
These old residential areas represent the traditional lifestyle of
the Beijingers. There you can learn about the vicissitudes of the
ancient capital and its rich customs.
But nowadays these siheyuan houses face an embarrassment.
Most of them, no matter how elegant they used to be, have lost
their original shape, with many households sharing one courtyard
which was originally designed for one family. In front of modern
apartment buildings, they are losing their charms, especially for
the younger generation.
Since the 1990s, Beijing municipal government launched a
large-scale reconstruction project to rebuild old and unsafe houses
in old residential areas. Many siheyuan houses were pulled
down to give way to new, tall buildings.
(china.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, November 2, 2002)