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Presidential Residence To Be Museum
The once-jammed former presidential residence of the Kuomintang Party in Nanjing was finally vacated last December for a makeover that will turn it into a museum , according to the latest Beijing Review.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 , the residence has served as government offices of more than 20 government institutions, including the provincial government and provincial people's congress. Throughout the years, the outcry for converting the residence into a museum has never abated.
Starting in the mid-1980s , the government institutions began to move out. The vacating took 16 years to complete.
With the residence now empty, the local government will use the next three years to build it into a contemporary Chinese history museum. When it is completed , the site will be expanded to its original 12.27 hectares from the current 4.3 hectares.
At the moment , the western garden , the office of Sun Yat-sen, China's first democratically elected president, is already open to visitors. Visitors may also see exhibitions of historical materials from the office of the Jiangsu governor of the Qing Dynasty��1644-1911 �� and the palace of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom��1851-64 ��, pictures and documentation about Sun Yat-sen , and historical materials belonging to the former presidential office , etc.
Qi Kang and Zhang Jinqiu, both well-known architects , said that it is an ambitious and wise decision to restore the presidential office to its original look. They believe the project will help mold Nanjing 's image as a historical city and build up the city's cultural uniqueness.
Some experts have pointed out that moving government offices out of the former presidential residence demonstrates changes in people's attitude toward protecting cultural relics. Since 1982 , China has released a list of 99 national historical and cultural cities.
During the urbanization and socio-economic development, all historical and cultural cities face the problem of development and protection. Whether historical sites are viewed as social wealth or as burdens to economic development and urban construction reflects whether the country values its own historical and cultural heritage.
Currently , there are still many buildings with historical value being occupied for various reasons. Many people see these buildings simply as what they are and ignore their cultural significance. What is even more saddening is that the rare ancient structures in some areas, still seen as burdens for economic development and obstacles to urban construction, are being damaged and destroyed on a large scale.
The ancient structures in historical and cultural cities are treasures of immense material and spiritual value. Such is the consensus reached by many developed countries after many lessons in the modernization process. Many developed countries, such as France , Britain and Japan, have legislated laws protecting their cultural heritage.
In China, the State Council in 1997 issued a circular on further improving and intensifying the protection of cultural relics, demanding governments at all levels include the protection of cultural relics in their plans for local economic and social development.
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