Beijing Evicts Residents to Save Hutongs

[hkskyline]

Beijing to evict residents of old courtyard homes

BEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) - China will evict residents of traditional courtyard houses in the capital in time for the Olympic Games in 2008 to protect the city's cultural heritage, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

Entire blocks of the city's old alleyway, or hutong, communities on which courtyard houses traditionally sit, have been demolished and replaced with office towers and apartment blocks, sparking protests from residents told to relocate.

Courtyard houses, known as "siheyuan" in Chinese, used to be one of Beijing's most distinctive features, and whole families would live in rooms off one central, four-sided courtyard.

"Currently, many of the siheyuan courtyards have turned dilapidated and some are in danger of possible collapse," Xinhua cited Mei Ninghua, director of the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, as saying.

But it did not say what would happen to the present residents.

Traditionally low Chinese structures have been making way for forests of skyscrapers in Beijing, though some old courtyards have been renovated and turned into chic, ultra-expensive residences costing thousands of dollars a month in rent.

Many have already been demolished, however, and replaced by block after block of uniform high-rises to house Beijing's growing population as the economy races ahead.

"The courtyards, featuring typical classical roofs, decorated with corridors and old pomegranate trees, often impress visitors with their grace, tranquility and elegance and are regarded as an important part of traditional Beijing culture," Xinhua said.

Other architectural schemes have been criticised for looking out of place in Beijing, home to UNESCO world heritage sites like the old imperial palace the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.

Paul Andreu's National Grand Theatre, a gleaming half-dome of glass and titanium, has become a centre of controversy over whether it belongs next to the Soviet-era architecture of Tiananmen Square.

[hkskyline]

China: Under Construction
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n2204714.shtml

HANGDIEN, SOUTHERN CHINA(CBS) This Letter From Asia comes to you from Hengdien in Southern China. We all know that China is rising. Look at how many things we buy from this country. And every time an American buys something with the label “made in China,” it helps to make China – because this country is seemingly under construction from one end to the other.

A lot of what China is building are simply better places to live because with a fast growing economy living better is now possible. And thanks to the success of capitalism some will live better than others…a housing development outside Shanghai is called Thames Village and has a distinct English theme.

Yes, there’s a statue of Shakespeare, and, yes one more time, Winston Churchill stands overseeing it all.

But it’s the houses that are the draw…it will cost up to a million dollars or more to live in one of these showplaces. That means only the lucky few will ever live here…since for the vast population of China the annual income is about a thousand dollars a year.

But it’s not just shelter…take a look at the Shanghai. On an island once better known for its small farms, there is a skyline that would be the envy of any metropolis.

It is called Pudong, the centerpiece in China’s ambition to be Asia economic capital. And if you think it’s impressive now...the Chinese government just announced that it will invest the money to continue developing Pudong until it is twice its current size.

Now let’s switch cities to the mother of all construction projects….Beijing. The building here is two-fold…first, an entirely new business district with high-end apartments, five-star international hotels, and skyscraper after skyscraper of offices.

But look around a few corners and you see that other construction project…the new venues going up fast for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

China can do all this quickly for a variety of reasons…but the most important one is that no person can own land here. When the communists took power, they ended land ownership – so land belongs to the government and when they need it for, say, a sports stadium there are no appeals, no courts, no way to stop it.

That means the disappearance of something Beijingers miss… the hutong neighborhoods. They are centuries old collections of often one room houses usually with no plumbing… toilets are at the end of the block.

In one hutong, for instance, our favorite Peking Duck restaurant. Best to call us if you want to go there, because it’s easy to miss the last turn down the right alley.

And there is another reason to call us…because these neighborhoods are disappearing at the drop of a bulldozer.

And that is a price to pay for progress…after the skyscrapers are finished and the streets congested with new traffic…the cities will not only never look the same…they will never quite be the same.

[hkskyline]

Architect dreams of a greener Tiananmen
Ma Yansong also seeks to modernise Beijing's hutong landscape
5 October 2006
South China Morning Post

Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing has been the political centre of China for decades, but under one man's vision, it would become a leafy central park.

Replacing Tiananmen's paving stones with trees is among several initiatives dreamed up by maverick architect Ma Yansong , 30, in his Beijing 2050.

Mr Ma's design out of his Beijing-based MAD Architectural Design Studio won an international competition in April to design the fourth high-rise in a landmark residential tower complex in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. In its presentation for the Absolute World South Tower, the firm said it would be "the sexiest building on the planet, a high-rise that resembles perfect female curves under a tight skirt". It was dubbed the "Marilyn Monroe building".

Mr Ma unveiled the Beijing 2050 project at the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale last month, outlining a rendering of the future landscape of the capital. He and his team have sought to modernise the city's traditional hutong areas (courtyard homes along alleys) to make them more livable. Such homes have become popular attractions among overseas visitors. "But take a look at how people have been living there. They don't even have basic hygiene facilities, such as separate toilets and showers," Mr Ma said.

He said people would have to surrender part of the old blocks to make room for modern facilities, "but the essence of the hutong landscape remains". Mr Ma and his team also designed a floating island - a cloud-like structure among the capital's skyscrapers to add a futuristic touch to the otherwise dull cityscape.

Mr Ma said the motivation behind these projects was to spur a sea change in town planning and design on the mainland.

"In China, particularly during the past one or two centuries, people have had little faith in long-term planning, as things have rarely turned out as intended because of social and political changes.

"Is there any long-term plan for the city that goes beyond the 2008 Beijing Olympics? No, and that's scary because 2008 is less than two years away."

The Yale-educated architect returned to the mainland at the end of 2003, setting up MAD in a small flat. For more than a year, his small team of young architects fought to make their mark by entering international and domestic design contests.

The studio moved into a large old factory workshop in central Beijing after two years. It has attracted more than 20 young architects from the US, Europe, Hong Kong and the mainland.

Mr Ma said he enjoyed working with people from different cultures, and valued the expertise and different ways of thinking they had brought in. His studio has won several projects on the mainland, including the design for a Hong Kong Phoenix TV studio in Beijing. But his designs are not without controversy. Even his acclaimed design for the Absolute tower has been questioned by some for its outlandish design, whopping budget of US$130 million and the high level of engineering it might require. But the Beijing native said he would not compromise his artistic vision to win projects.

"We [MAD] are not the kind of studio fighting to win every project that comes around. But those who come to us know what we stand for and what we can deliver."

Mr Ma said that after winning the design competition he decided that he would help other young people like him see hope in the future. "They should take pride in what they're doing without worrying too much about how they are judged by so-called mainstream people and the established set of standards."

Mr Ma said a good architect should first have a great interest in how people lived. "It seems that we are simply designing things to fill the city landscape, but what we are actually doing is deciding how people will live for many years to come."

He said a bad architect could do great harm to the landscape, the environment and peoples' lifestyles, and that damage could be felt for many years to come.

Mr Ma said he was not particularly targeting Tiananmen Square or trying to change Beijing's landscape by dreaming up his own vision of the city. "We are simply saying we're not happy with what we have and want some changes on the part of the public, government and policymakers."

The young architect realises that the visions contained in Beijing 2050 Project are bold, but said he believed they would become a reality.

"Tanks and even jet fighters were deployed in parades in the 1950s and 60s to mark important occasions such as National Day. Now the central government hardly stages such mass rallies any more and has even allowed turf to be laid.

"We have the grass, so why can't we have trees in the square? If the biggest venue for political gatherings can be turned into a cultural centre for the people, then this country is moving on."

[hkskyline]

Love of heritage too little, too late to save hutongs from the developers
9 June 2007
South China Morning Post

As people enjoy free entry to heritage sites and museums around the nation today, the second annual Cultural Heritage Day, Xia Jie wonders if the new-found enthusiasm will save her 100-year-old courtyard house in Beijing's Dongsi Batiao, Dongsi's Eighth Alley.

On the day Ms Xia was born, her grandmother planted a guava tree in the family's courtyard at No11 Dongsi Batiao, which four generations of the family have called home since 1948. Ms Xia, now 33, grew up picking fruit in the courtyard, running up and down the hutongs, roaming in and out of neighbours' courtyards and wondering why she had to share her home with strangers, "tenants" the family was obliged to take in during the Cultural Revolution.

When all the tenants finally moved out a few years ago, Ms Xia was thrilled that she could at last lay her hands on the whole of the 500-square-metre courtyard and transform it into a family-run hostel and art space, giving visitors a taste of authentic Beijing life and local artists a place to showcase their work.

But Ms Xia's plans for the transformation have been stalled by the rumble of bulldozers and a bureaucratic web of decisions by different layers and arms of the government covering what is officially a protected area of old Beijing. In response, she has been forced to embark on a legal journey to fight for her home.

In the past few decades, despite the government's commitment on paper to heritage conservation, two-thirds of Beijing's 3,000 hutongs - some of which have formed the capital's core since the Yuan dynasty - have been torn down as heritage protection has lost out to development. The threat to Dongsi Batiao is only the latest case.

The alley's residents first heard about demolition plans for the hutong in mid-April when the Dongcheng Housing Department put up a notice saying all odd-numbered courtyards between No1 and 23 Dongsi Batiao would be torn down for a development. They were told to move out by May 26 and the demolition permit was to remain valid until September 30, the day before the country's long-awaited Property Law takes effect.

Then, on May 14, Ms Xia found herself the unexpected centre of media attention after developers tore down No9 Dongsi Batiao. For the first time, two government-affiliated newspapers offered extensive coverage of the proposed destruction. The coverage forced the Dongcheng authorities and the developer to hold a press conference the next day to insist the demolition could take place because the heritage-listed homes were not protected.

They said the initial approval for redevelopment was obtained in 1999 on the basis that the buildings were in a dangerous state. The developer said the Dongsi Batiao section in question, which contains about 70 households and more than 100 residents, would be used to build a new office and residential complex housed in historic-style buildings, which would be much tidier than the existing ones.

As revealed by the two newspapers, a Beijing municipal government department gave the final nod for redevelopment of old and dangerous buildings in Dongsi Batiao in January. And, on the strength of this document, the Dongcheng Housing Department issued a demolition permit and the developer, the Zhongbaojiaye Properties Development Company, proceeded with demolition.

However, it was also revealed that the Beijing Heritage Bureau had opposed the demolition on the grounds that Dongsi Batiao was within a "historical and cultural preservation area". The Dongcheng Heritage Management Centre, on the other hand, said that there were no listed heritage sites in that specific stretch of the hutong.

Dongcheng authorities also said heritage experts, which must be consulted on any construction work in the old town, voiced no opposition to the demolition plans. But Xu Pingfang , from the Archaeological Society of China, a panel expert who has openly opposed Dongsi Batiao's redevelopment and who was not consulted on this occasion, said the decision-makers had "mixed up the laws".

As a first step to untying this administrative tangle and keeping her home, Ms Xia filed a request for administrative review of the Dongcheng government's March decision permitting the demolition to go ahead. The request has been accepted but it will take many more weeks until she knows what her next step in the process can be.

No further courtyard has been torn down since the sacrifice of No9. And three days after May 26, the deadline for all residents to move out, local media reported the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said there would no longer be "extensive demolition" at Dongsi Batiao. But Ms Xia said everyone knew the administration had no decision-making power on the matter. And she and other residents had not yet received any formal notice from any government department or the developer saying that the demolition had officially stopped.

"Forced demolition is happening all around the country and it is against the law. So we are very lucky that our cause has attracted so much attention," Ms Xia said.

The administrative logjam has ironically also proved frustrating for the developer. Bai Hua , the company's deputy general manager, said late last month that the "situation with the government is changing every day, it's difficult to comment".

Hua Xinmin , a 10-year veteran crusader for the protection of Beijing's hutongs, says Beijing does not lack laws to preserve the old town - the problem lies with the lack of a united vision between government departments and some officials' disrespect for the law.

"There have been many government documents over the years, but the tearing down of the hutongs has not stopped," Ms Hua said.

As far back as 1983 a central government-approved plan stressed the importance of preserving historical buildings as well as the surrounding environment. A subsequent string of decrees has also stressed the importance of protecting the old town, meaning the area enclosed within the second ring road, where the Ming city wall used to stand.

The preservation documents for the area include the "Plan for Beijing Old Town's 25 Historical and Cultural Preservation Areas" issued in 1999 and the State Council's Beijing Municipal Development Plan (2004-2020) released in 2005, which demands authorities preserve the whole of the old town, and "must stop all large-scale demolition and construction".

Two key principles underlined in the State Council document are the need to "preserve historical authenticity" and "protect the wholeness of traditional outlook".

And yet the destruction continues. The Zhengjue Temple, built in the Ming dynasty (1445) and which used to sit right outside Ms Xia's courtyard, was bulldozed in 2003.

"If a temple of 500 years can be demolished, what is the heritage significance of our buildings which are only 100 years?" a devastated Ms Xia said she thought at the time. "They first destroy the heritage, then they say there's no heritage."

Ms Hua says the debate about what stays and goes should not be about heritage value of the individual buildings. She says Beijing's old town, with its intricate grids and flows of the Yuan capital, is a piece of artwork as a whole.

"This is not a question whether the targeted buildings have heritage value or not," she said. "This is about protecting Beijing's cultural environment. We are trying to protect the hutongs, not an individual house."

However, the diversity of property ownership rights in the hutong further complicates the problem. While Ms Xia's family is owner of their courtyard, many other residents are only renting the hutongs from the government and, like Zhao Jinfu, are happy to move if the compensation is reasonable.

She lives with four other family members in a room of less than 10 square metres. Her complex now has 18 households living in add-ons to the original shared courtyard.

"This is not heritage. It's only an old and broken house," Ms Zhao said. "It's a pity that I have to move out after 50 years. But this house is not good, and I want to live in a better place."

[hkskyline]

Demolition of China's heritage is attacked by minister
12 June 2007
The Daily Telegraph

CHINA'S record of bulldozing swathes of historic city quarters in its rush to development has come under attack from one of its own construction ministers.

The country's cities had been "devastated'' by the "senseless'' actions of its officials desperate to construct "new and exotic'' buildings, said Qiu Baoxing, the vice construction minister.

Mr Qiu, who has an increasing reputation for criticising the drawbacks of China's rapid growth, then strayed into even more sensitive territory, comparing the effects of modern commercial development with two of the major disasters of the era of Chairman Mao.

China Daily, the English-language daily, quoted him saying that what was happening to China's heritage was a "third round of havoc'' after the Great Leap Forward, Mao's catastrophic experiment in mass industrialisation in the 1950s, and the Cultural Revolution of the following decade.

"Some local officials seem to be altering the appearance of cities with the determination of 'moving the mountain and altering the water course','' he was quoted as saying at a conference on urban culture and city planning in China.

The conference came after the second national cultural heritage day, a belated attempt by the government to encourage preservation in an era of rapid economic change.

Mao's hostility to traditional Chinese culture, followed by redevelopment under the raw capitalism pursued in the three decades since his death, has reduced most Chinese cities to grey patchworks of housing blocks, glitzy office developments and increasingly packed roads.

Recent attention has focused on the hutongs of Beijing, old alleys lined with grey-brick, gabled courtyard houses, and the shikumen of Shanghai, a distinctive cross-breed of Chinese and Western housing, partly because of international interest and partly because so little survives in other cities. In some cases, even historic temples have been torn down.

There have been signs that the government has become more responsive to local and international pressure. A development in a hutong north-east of the Forbidden City was put on hold earlier this month after it was condemned by local newspapers.

But the destruction of Qianmen, one of the most famous of old Beijing's districts, south of Tiananmen Square, has continued unabated. Officials say that it will be replaced by courtyard-style housing.

But such schemes came under fire from the government's representatives at the conference. "It is like tearing up an invaluable painting and replacing it with a cheap print,'' said Tong Mingkang, the deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

[hkskyline]

Renovation to benefit thousands of families
29 November 2007
China Daily

Thousands of traditional houses in 40 hutong in Beijing are to be renovated by July, as part of a massive effort to improve the safety and living conditions of nearly 10,000 families.

It is the largest renovation of the old houses in Beijing since 1949.

A total of 9,635 families living in 1,474 courtyards in the hutong are involved, the municipal government said on its website on November 27.

The municipal authorities have allocated 250 million yuan ($33.8 million) for each of the four districts to be renovated - Dongcheng, Xicheng, Xuanwu and Chongwen.

During an inspection of the project's progress on November 26, Beijing Vice-Mayor Chen Gang said the focus will be on improving residents' heating and toilet facilities.

The authorities will also hire conservation experts to ensure the renovation work does not damage the look of hutong that so many have come to associate with the capital.

The Beijing municipal commission of urban planning and the Beijing municipal construction committee, which gave detailed guidelines for the renovation, stressed the project will preserve historical items and the look of the traditional siheyuan (courtyards).

No changes to the width or layout of the hutong will be allowed, to ensure their original appearance is maintained.

The use of old bricks and stone materials will also be encouraged to achieve traditional facades.

A worker on a renovation site in Xicheng district told Beijing News that even the new windows will be in the old style - glass in wooden frames instead of the popular aluminium alloy ones.

He said even small towns in China no longer use such wooden frames now.

But the renovation will add many new facilities to the houses too, improving people's lives.

One resident told Beijing News his renovated home benefits from an electric heating system, which saves him the trouble of relying on a coal stove that causes him to choke on hazardous fumes in winter.

New homes will also have utility meters installed to encourage residents to save energy and water.

Some courtyards will also be given new drainpipes and flush toilets.

Dongsi resident Sang Nanhua is one of those looking forward to a new home.

"In the past, it was too cold and inconvenient in the dead of winter to go out of the house and use the public toilet," Sang said.

[hkskyline]

Beijing to move 200,000 people out of sites of historical value by 2010

BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Some 200,000 Beijingers will be encouraged by the municipal government to move out of the old city proper and sites of historical value by 2010, in efforts to safeguard historical and cultural sites.

The move is part of a larger plan to reduce the population of the city's urban core by 700,000 people by 2020.

Under the Old City protection regulation promulgated on Monday, the municipal government has put 16,410 square km of such sites into preservation, in order to keep their original appearance.

The preservation spectrum covers all areas of the 850-year-old capital within the city's No. 2 Ring Road, and such protected heritage areas as the Summer Palace, the Badaling Great Wall and the Temple of Heaven. Relocation is expected to be voluntary, although it was unclear if this would be the case if the target figure for relocation was not met.

"The final target of the relocation is to reduce the population in the preserved areas from 1.8 million at present to 1.1 million by 2020. The project is going to be an enduring work, and it will be done step by step," explained Chen Jianju, an official with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning.

He said that the commission considered relocation to be the best way to preserve the original state of the sites, since the current population density has made protection work extremely difficult.

Sui Zhenjiang, director of the Beijing Construction Committee, told Xinhua that residents in the old city area often live in houses as cramped as around 20 square meters per household. Some of the houses are worn down and dangerous to live in.

"Through relocation, these people will be able to move into new apartment buildings. The government will make its utmost effort to mitigate negative effects in relocation," he said.

The planning commission said that the municipal government will compensate and provide subsidized housing for those resettled, in line with relevant laws and regulations. The commission has asked authorities in local districts to evaluate how much those relocating will get for giving up their houses.

Recently, Beijing residents were paid some 10,000 yuan per square meter in resettlement compensation for moving out of houses to be pulled down in the city's downtown areas to make way for new urban planning or real estate development.

The move to preserve what remains of Beijing's historic core, made up in large part of hutongs, or narrow streets, has come too late for many areas.

Xinhua reported a field survey by The Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture in December 2006 that showed the city had boasted more than 3,679 hutongs in the 1980s, a number that plunged 40 percent as the city sought to make space for urban roads and skyscrapers.

Only 430 hutongs, 33 percent of the 1,320 hutongs surveyed, have been able to preserve their original character.

Hutongs are lanes lined with traditional Beijing courtyard houses. A traditional form of urban construction, they once formed a dense latticework in Beijing and are a traditional cultural feature of the city.

Hutong is originally a Mongolian expression meaning "well". In the old days, people lived together around a well and the "passages" they made formed today's hutongs.

[Ramses]

Heritage is not only pagodas and temples, it is more about the everyday life. When i think of Chinese heritage i rather think of the hutongs than of temples. Now almost everything is going to be (or already is) demolished. Too bad this is the way it goes. By the time the Chinese government starts caring about the heritage, it is already too late. No hutong will survive this present day construction boom.

We've had a similar period of destruction in Europe in the sixties, that was in the time of modernism. People saw old buildings as something that should be left behind, it refered to a undesirable decadent past. Towers were the future, and that was all that counted. Historic dowtowns should be demolished and replaced with logical commieblocks. Luckily most historical downtowns in the Netherlands survived this way of thinking, but some areas have had irreparable damage.

Hopefully the Chinese realize which great treasures they have in their cities before everything is gone.