Shanghai government will renovate 30 historic buildings and lanes over the next two years, as the first step in conserving all of the city's more than 600 heritage houses, a government official said yesterday.

Wang anshi, head of the renovation and management department of the Shanghai Housing and Land Administrative Bureau, said this is the first time the government has financially supported such an extensive renovation of historic houses.

Previously, such projects were only partly financed by district governments.

"Eventually, we want to conserve all of the city's historically important buildings by all means possible," said Wang.

He said the bureau has organized a panel of experts to evaluate the historic buildings and decide what renovations they need. The first batch of 30 sites, mostly residential buildings, are located in eight downtown districts, namely Huangpu, Jing'an, Luwan, Changning, Xuhui, Hongkou, Yangpu and Putuo.

The buildings include Clement Apartments on Fuxing Road M., and Jianyeli Lane, a stretch of shikumen homes at the intersection of Jianguo Road and Yueyang Road.

Clement apartments, which comprises five semi-detached houses, are located at 1363 Fuxing Road M. and was built in 1929. It is a typical example of French-styled villa houses in the city.

Jianyeli lane houses an extensive stretch of shikumen homes built in the early 1930s. It has 22 rows of shikumen lanes including 260 connected two-story houses within the former French Concession.

"If the city doesn't protect its old shikumen houses in time, they will disappear within the next decade," said Zheng Shiling, a renowned expert of architecture at Tongji University.

The government has budgeted up to 200 yuan (US$25) per square meter for the renovations.

Residents won't have to be relocated, as most of the work will be done on the exterior of the buildings, including door and window frames.

However, some local officials said such face-lift projects can only improve the outlook of those old houses, but won't extend their lives as they are overcrowded.  

(Shanghai Daily November 8, 2005)