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Mark O'Neill

IN 1957 the communist Government built the country's first planetarium in Beijing, a symbol of its commitment to science and public education at a time of scarce public funds.

 Since then, more than 10 million people have passed through its doors.

 This year, the city Government ignored a flood of protest and approved a plan by a Hong Kong company to knock it down and build an office complex that would include a new planetarium.

 It argued that the existing facility was too old, visitor numbers were declining and the land around it was not fully utilised.

 The planetarium is a landmark in northwest Beijing. It was built of brown stone, with then state-of-the-art optical equipment and a dome from East Germany, at a cost of four million yuan - a considerable sum at the time.

 It is surrounded by a small park full of trees.

 'It was a very significant building, given the poverty of the Government at that time,' said Zhang Kaiji, 86, the architect.

 'It showed the commitment to science and public education. Zhou Enlai went to see it a week after it opened, to show how important that he thought it was.'  In April last year, 19 prominent astronomers wrote to the city Government, arguing that modernisation of the building should be achieved by buying new equipment and expanding the existing structure, not by knocking it down.

 Ai Guoxiang, director of the planetarium, said he strongly opposed demolition.

 'This is the only such facility in the whole of China and people come from all over the country. We have 1.2 billion people, while Hong Kong, with just six million, has a much larger and better equipped one.

 'It would be absurd and ridiculous to rebuild it as part of an office, commercial and entertainment centre. Beijing already has more than enough commercial space. We should preserve this area of Beijing for education and recreation,' he said.

 Behind this opposition is scepticism a new planetarium will be built at all, or else it may be on a smaller scale than the present one.

 One plan submitted included a small planetarium on the top floor of the office building.

 Mr Zhang was measured in his comments.

 'I cannot say yes or no,' he said. 'But, if the site must be redeveloped, I insist on several conditions - that the new planetarium be the centrepiece and dominate the site and that the other buildings be secondary.

 'The site must include a park, with trees and sculptures of Chinese astronomers and scientists, as well as paintings so that it becomes a place of education and it can raise the artistic awareness of people,' he said.

 'It must not be a commercial centre with a planetarium attached.'  This year, Mr Zhang received a visit from an official of the facility inviting him to become overall adviser to the reconstruction. He agreed but has heard nothing since then.

 Living Weekly magazine said that since the first planetarium was built in Germany in 1923, more than 100 had been constructed throughout the world.

 Not one had been demolished in the name of redevelopment.

 Given the glut of commercial and office space in Beijing, it made no commercial sense to knock down the planetarium, the magazine said. To say that China was short of money to improve the facility was ridiculous, it said, considering how much poorer the country was when it was built.



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