Beijing unveils grand plan to protect old town, as China’s capital looks for a new landscape
- China has unveiled a blueprint to preserve what is left of its historic capital city’s inner sanctum, but mainly for central government apparatus
- Dongcheng and Xicheng will have historical sites, with the ultimate aim to create a ‘flat and open’ view of the old town, according to the plan.
Beijing’s municipal government has unveiled a grand blueprint to redefine the inner city of the Chinese capital by 2035, after decades in which it was ravaged by demolition and development.
The detailed design was revealed on Monday and is now soliciting responses over a 30-day period. It says it seeks to preserve as much history as possible and to serve primarily the functioning of the central government apparatus.
The blueprint covers two districts in Central Beijing spanning an area of 92.5 sq km: Dongcheng and Xicheng, both key to China’s centre of politics, culture and international diplomacy.
It is part of a broader masterplan covering the whole of Beijing from 2016 to 2035 that seeks to achieve more macro aims, such as keeping the population under 23 million in 2020 and maintaining that level for a long time. This revamp has already seen the Beijing municipal government kicked out of the Forbidden City to a completely new site about 30 kilometres away, in the Tongzhou district.
Much of Central Beijing’s old structures, including its city wall, were torn down in the early years of Communist rule. The narrow alleyways that formed the residential hutong districts were bulldozed amid urbanisation in the 1990s and early-2000s. The new plan seeks to preserve what is left.
It said the blueprint will protect the old Beijing city, strictly control the height of buildings, and preserve cultural heritage sites, including underground burial areas, historical streets and alleys, hutongs, traditional place names, historical gardens, and revolutionary sites.
A recent visit to the Xihuamen, or the West Gate of the Forbidden City, found that many small restaurants, pubs and stores were closed, replaced only by grey brick wall. The atmosphere was solemn on the street neighbouring the Zhongnanhai compound, the working and living area of China’s state leaders.
Demolition of temporary structures, which usually housed small shops, has been conducted across the city, with billboards pulled down and open air markets cleared.
The ultimate aim is to create a “flat and open” view of the old town, according to the plan.
As Beijing has been clearing up its streets, it has also carried out massive “restorative constructions” that replaced old buildings with new ones that shared antique flavours. Indeed, town planners in the capital have long had a taste for tearing down old structures only to replace them with something less popular.
For instance, the Yongding Gate, the southern entrance of the Beijing city that was completely demolished in 1957, was rebuilt in 2005. The traditional Dashilan alleyways, meanwhile, were completely demolished to build up new shopping malls in 2007.
This sort of real estate development has been opposed by some long-term advocates of protecting historical heritage sites.
The municipal government does not realise that it does not need to spend so much demolishing the old city, people still have confidence in its old form.
“The municipal government does not realise that it does not need to spend so much demolishing the old city, people still have confidence in its old form,” Wang said.
