Work to preserve Beijing's historic streets and houses has
begun, but the old imperial capital is still under threat,
according to leading preservation experts.
The plate of No 1 siheyuan now hangs by the gate of the
courtyard home at No 39, Dongsi 12th Lane.
However, when China Daily reporters called the municipal bureau
of cultural heritage and of city planning, no official would say
which traditional courtyard is listed as No 2 or offer the
addresses of the other 199 siheyuan.
Some precious courtyard houses still face demolition or
destruction, said Liu Xiaoshi, a leading architect active in the
preservation of old Beijing.
Liu, 80, was the director of the Beijing City Planning Bureau in
1980s, the predecessor of the current Beijing City Planning
Commission which has the final say on which areas can be
demolished.
China's registered cultural relics are divided into four levels
- State-level, provincial or municipal level, city level, and
district or county level.
The 200 selected siheyuan are not listed among the registered
cultural relics, Liu noted.
The few courtyard houses on the official registration list are
homes of well-known historic figures.
But even listed cultural relics sometimes cannot escape
destruction.
Yu Qian (1398-1457) Temple in Beijing is a case in point. It has
been nearly ruined, even though it was added to the municipal-level
protection list of cultural relics in 1980.
Yu Qian was the minister of defence in the early Ming Dynasty
(1368-1644). Under his lead, Ming soldiers and people successfully
defended the capital against the attack of Mongolian nomads in
1449. However, Yu was beheaded on the orders of the then Ming
emperor, who accused Yu of putting his life in danger.
But people built the Yu Qian Temple in memory of Yu's
courage.
Today, Yu Qian Temple is littered with debris and dissembled old
furniture. The roofs of several rooms are holed and thick dust
coats a wine-coloured folding screen in a room at the rear of the
complex.
A woman sitting outside the old courtyard said she was entrusted
by the Beijing Bureau of Cultural Heritage to stop the house from
being destroyed.
"Originally it was said the residence would be removed to build
a new mansion, and now the cultural heritage bureau says it will be
preserved and I was sent here to guard against thieves," said the
woman, who only identified herself as Li.
Chen Zhihua, a professor of ancient architecture with Tsinghua
University, said the wooden structure of the ancient rooms would be
destroyed within one rainy season because of the holes in their
roofs.
Officials from the municipal cultural heritage bureau said the
temple would not be demolished, but the protection plan had not
been finalized.
The race between bulldozers and conservation is a fierce one,
despite the fact that top Beijing municipal officials have
repeatedly called for ancient Beijing to be protected.
About 50 meters south of Yu Qian Temple lies a silent and
delicate courtyard in which plants, rockwork, a bridge and small
pond form a carefully devised garden.
However, on the wall of the 500-square-metre courtyard, the word
chai (to be demolished) is clearly marked.
The courtyard, now the temporary home of the widow of a former
minister, used to be the home of Tang Shaoyi (1860-1938), the first
premier (Mar 1912-Jun 27, 1912) of the Republic of China. It is on
the cultural relics protection list of Dongcheng District.
"We have been told that the courtyard will be demolished to
build a luxury mansion," said the courtyard guard. "We cannot
interfere with the development because this house is
government-owned."
An official with Dongcheng District Bureau of Cultural Heritage
said it is discussing with the developer of the luxury mansion how
to protect the site. But they did not deny the courtyard home could
be removed or rebuilt elsewhere.
In Xicheng District's Wudinghou Street, near the business hub
Financial Street, residents are moving out of their ancestral
homes. Courtyards here will be pushed down to build luxury
apartments.
"We would not move, but we do not have any other choices," said
73-year-old Li, who shares with seven other households a big
courtyard which used to be the residence of Yan Xishan (1883-1960),
one of the top warlords of early last century.
Residents here will be compensated 8,600 yuan (US$1,038) per
square meter of living area. However, with an average living area
of less than 30 square meters, most households will only receive
about 200,000 yuan (US$24,154) each while the new apartments built
there will sell for at least 1 million yuan (US$120,772) each.
"Even if we do not talk about protection, residents should be
compensated more. On the other hand, a higher and market-based
compensation cost would curb developers' desire to destroy old
houses," Liu suggested.
(China Daily August 13, 2003)