History Squarely at Odds With Progress in Beijing
BEIJING — Turn off the main road and step into yesterday--past the cramped greasy spoon, past walls that stood through centuries of emperors, past crumbling gray-brick homes slathered with one huge painted Chinese character: "chai"--demolish.
This is Nanchizi, a half-mile from the imperial Forbidden City and one of the abundant but dwindling warrens of confounding alleys and courtyard homes that have dotted central Beijing since the 12th-century Mongol invasion.
Long ago, a prince lived here, and scholars from the Qing court next door visited Pudu Temple to study. But in recent years, stately courtyards have grown ramshackle, overcrowded and, the government says, inadequate for a metropolis striving to be China's showpiece. Plumbing has collapsed; houses are crumbling; for some residents, toilets are 100 yards away.
Already, most of it is no more. Its modern replacement, designed to mimic the old houses in outward appearance, will rise with strong foundations, reliable plumbing and electricity--and far less of the character that carried the neighborhood through three dynasties and two republics. Longtime residents will be swept away, relocated; some will return and pay higher prices.
As Beijing hurtles toward a future brimming with development, foreign investment and an economy-boosting Olympic Games, a tension plays out across the city that has been China's capital for much of a millennium. It's a problem that vexes many of the world's ancient metropolises, from Jerusalem to Jakarta, as they enter the 21st century: Progress or preservation?
Unlike many cities, though, Beijing has no master renovation plan for residents to peruse at City Hall, no open appeals process where preservationists and residents can lodge objections. For the government, the answer seems simple--too simple, some say. It is solving matters in its own way: by giving orders, and by shuffling people around.
"Preservation should always be the priority," says Wang Jianqing, the deputy director of Beijing's Dongcheng District, where Nanchizi is located. Moments later, he adds: "Our aim is to improve people's living conditions."
"The balance," he acknowledges, "is very complicated."
Tourism--and growing national pride in a fascinating history--is nudging the government toward preservation efforts that will showcase Beijing as the ancient emblem of an ancient nation.
