Fifteen western style buildings in Beihai, a coastal city in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, were recently included by the State Council on a list for state top protection.

The buildings include the former sites of British, German and French consulates, a nunnery, a Catholic church, a hospital, a school for girls, and a customs building. Most of the buildings were built between 1869 and 1902, while some of them were upgraded or rebuilt in the early years of the 20th century.

Beihai used to be one of the starting ports on the sea for China's "silk road". After the Opium War, Beihai was turned into a port for free trade. Seven countries built consulates in this southern coastal city.

All the western-style architecture has been well preserved since New China was founded in October 1949 and it now forms a unique looking part of town together with the century-old street of Beihai, said local sources.

The city government of Beihai has also attached great importance to the protection of the western architecture, which is of great historical and tourism value. While carrying out rebuilding on the old city area in 1999, the city government raised one million yuan (about US$ 120,000) to move the British consulate 58.8 meters to give way to traffic on the city's Liberation Road.

A local official added that while preserving the western architecture, they are planning to carry out a series of other new development projects to turn the buildings into popular tourism sites.

(People's Daily 07/29/2001)