Old palace, new status (3)

Barriers to a better future

In 2010, Yuanmingyuan Society of China together with other organizations declared the Old Summer Palace a memorial that reminds people to strive for the harmony of human civilization.

And during the same year, the management department of the Old Summer Palace ruins together with the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences of Peking University began to research the Old Summer Palace before applying to make it a World Heritage site. Two years later, the Yuanmingyuan Society of China announced its current aim, to protect the site by using World Heritage standards, and much of the research and studies that need to be done in order to provide academic support for any development. This all makes the Old Summer Palace one step further along the road of being a World Heritage site.

Though the hope is good, many barriers still stand in the way.

Wang Shiren, a well-known expert in ancient architecture, said that the Old Summer Palace is not qualified to be the world heritage at this moment.

"There is something wrong with the Old Summer Palace's management, which means that a lot of ruins inside it don't get enough protection and many buildings that don't belong to the Old Summer Palace still stand there," Wang said, adding that the current condition of the Old Summer Palace can't meet the qualifications of a World Heritage site compared with other countries.

"I know there are many things for us to do but we cannot do it without the help from the government. We put forward our proposal of turning the Old Summer Palace into a World Heritage Site and I hope the government won't let us down this time," Yao said.

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