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Chinese Capital Steps up Relics Protection
While a number of ancient cities are running roughshod over their relics during urban facelifts, Beijing has taken new measures to protect its abundant cultural treasures.
Sources with the Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau revealed the city will issue a new regulation stipulating that the construction of big buildings will be prohibited in the relics zones.
At the end of last year, 25 urban areas were located as the relics zones in Beijing, which cover 37 percent of Beijing's old city proper.
They said that Beijing recently publicized the findings of more buried relics, including tombs of different dynasties, to raise the public awareness of strengthening relics protection.
The delicate balance between relics protection and economic growth has stirred up a controversy here in recent years: A number of important historical cities are losing their cultural identity to accommodate urban development.
One of them is Anyang in central China's Henan province, where the capital of the Shang Dynasty was located and the earliest Chinese characters on animal bones were discovered there. However, the local government built a highway that has done irreparable damage to some historical sites.
Another is the eastern city of Dinghai, where the first battle of the Opium War was fought in 1840. Most of the old buildings have been demolished to clean up the area, despite local complaints.
Criticism has even targeted the Chinese capital, which is erecting more skyscrapers that overshadow its time-honored hutongs, or back alleys, and imperial palaces.
One of the worst injuries to Beijing's heritage occurred in the 1950s, when the city pulled down the 400-year-old wall surrounding the capital.
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