While fancy new Olympic venues are being erected across Beijing,
more and more scaffolds have also appeared around its many ancient,
historical sites as the Chinese capital is moving to protect its
cultural heritage.
A number of ancient palaces, temples, imperial gardens,
residences of the nobility and imperial tombs, which have undergone
centuries of wear and tear, have received repairs in the past few
years and many other projects now are under way in the hope of
impressing the millions of athletes and tourists who are expected
to pour into the city in 2008.
Three ancient structures in northwestern Beijing's
world-renowned Summer Palace, a resort for Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
royalty, included in the city's multi-million-dollar renovations,
were reopened to tourists in late September after a 630-day repair
period.
The Hall of Dispelling Clouds, the Tower of Buddhist Incense and
the Long Corridor of the Summer Palace were restored at a cost of
about 60 million yuan (US$7.5 million).
New guarding monitors, fireproof facilities and
water-electricity supply systems have been installed, in what so
far has been the most extensive and complete renovation of it in
the last century.
This year is the fourth in the city's Humanism Olympic Cultural
Heritage Protection Plan. In the wake of a 330 million yuan (US$41
million) maintenance project from 2000 to 2002, the Beijing
Municipal Government decided to invest another 600 million yuan
(US$75 million) between 2003 and 2007, or 120 million yuan (US$15
million) each year, to repair historical sites around the city.
The expenditure on heritage protection in a single year at
present comes close to matching the city's total spent in the
1990s, according to the Beijing Municipal Administration of
Cultural Heritage.
"Beijing has entered an unprecedented era of heritage protection
and rehabilitation," said Wang Yuwei, head of the Heritage
Protection Division under the administration.
He said nearly 200 historical sites around the city, including
popular landmarks like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, have
been or are being repaired. In the next two years, the maintenance
work will cover dozens of other cultural relics in the city.
"Before the 2008 Olympic Games, all the heritage sites under
State and municipal-level protection in Beijing will be repaired,"
Wang said. "It was unimaginable in the past to repair so many
heritage sites in such a short period of time. The Olympic Games
are helping us make a record in the history of heritage
protection."
After years of headlong economic development, Beijing is
becoming dominated by skyscrapers and shopping centers. Across the
city, many cultural heritage sites are at risk of disappearing
under the tidal wave of urbanization.
"But the country and city leaders now have a deeper
understanding of the importance of cultural heritage," said Kong
Fanzhi, director of the heritage administration. "The old city of
Beijing, which has suffered overwhelming shocks of modernization in
the past half-century, will be protected as a whole. Preservation
is now given priority over modernization in this area."
The old city that Kong mentioned refers to the original area
laid out in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties -- comprising
the 62.5-square-kilometre area within the Second Ring Road where
the city wall and moat used to be.
Kong said his administration is drafting a long-term city
heritage protection plan to last from 2008 to 2015. "It is
impossible to repair all the historical sites in Beijing before
2008. We are not only doing this for the Olympic Games.
"After the Games, we will start to revamp the cultural relics
under district-level protection. About 100 such historical sites
will be repaired by the end of 2010," Kong said.
Old courtyards
The Beijing municipal government has listed 658 ancient
courtyards as valuable relics for protection, and hung "blue
plaques" over the gate of each courtyard to rescue them from
destruction.
Courtyards with the blue plaques are not allowed to be
demolished or damaged in any restoration projects, said Zhang Mao,
vice-mayor of Beijing, when he nailed the plaques at several
courtyards in Xicheng District a couple of years ago.
The majority of courtyards still intact in downtown Beijing were
built during the Ming and Qing dynasties and have long been
considered the epitome of China's traditional urban residential
architecture. Heritage experts say that the design, layout and
material of these "siheyuan" reflect the Chinese ancient philosophy
of harmony between humans and heaven.
However, countless courtyards have decayed greatly under the
stress of Beijing's population growth. About 10,000 families are
living in structures worthy of cultural-heritage protection.
"We will repair the old courtyards section by section, rather
than demolishing the old and restoring newer ones," Kong said.
"Moving most residents out of siheyuan is crucial to the
preservation. But it requires time and money. We will push forward
the repair work step by step."
Cultural relic excavations in eight Olympic venue sites so far
have found more than 450 ancient tombs and 1,000-plus antiques
dating back from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD) to the Qing
Dynasty, according to the Beijing Academy of Cultural Heritage
Studies.
The Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage and
the Beijing Construction Command of the Olympic Venues have jointly
issued a notice stipulating that archaeological investigation and
excavation must be carried out first at the sites where gymnasiums
and stadiums are to be built.
The tombs cleared for the Olympic venues include wood confines,
brick chambers, pits and urns, most of which were single-coffin
tombs. More than 1,000 articles of porcelain, pottery, gold and
silver ware, jade, bronze ware and ironware have also been
unearthed.
Archaeologists say that these cultural relics provide new
materials for research into burial and funeral customs in the Han,
Liao, Jin, Ming and Qing dynasties in Beijing and are of great
value for the exploration of Beijing's regional culture and its
history of urban development.
(China Daily October 13, 2006)
