My street is a lovely street. Tree-lined, noodle shops, old houses. Old houses? Well, there were. Every time, it seems, I walk down my street, I come across another pile of bricks. In a matter of days, history is erased.

　　From my window, I look over a nongtang - a complex of old, low-rise buildings with courtyards joined by a labyrinth of lanes. When I moved in to my flat (I am only too aware of the fact that my apartment is more than likely built on the site of a similar arrangement), my landlady told me that there were plans to tear it down and put a park there. I don't want a park.

　　My favourite house, a beautiful, solid three-storey building with shuttered windows, was reduced to rubble in two days a fortnight or so ago. Another bank of high-rise apartments is being built. Yet, why did that house have to go?

　　Why not restore it? Rent it for a restaurant or elegant and different apartments? I used to live in an estate in London which had an old house in its grounds. Instead of being destroyed, the house was renovated beautifully and sold.

　　One method of "preserving history" is tearing down the old buildings and replacing them with new ones that look the same.

　　Let's take Xintiandi for an example. It's raved about for its shikumen architecture. Yet, most of Xintiandi is reproduction. There is the odd door way that the wreckers left standing, but the original shikumen houses were demolished to provide space to build. That's not preserving history.

　　A reproduction does not have the soul, the "What have these walls seen?" feel of an authentic building. It was not built generations ago. Then there's the Jing'an temple which was moved from its original site. Imagine moving Stonehenge because you wanted to build a road there.

　　Another approach is to preserve the building but allow modern styles and modifications to encroach. On the corner of Huaihai Xilu and Huashan Lu is a gorgeous French-style old building with balconies, French doors, the works.

　　I am grateful that it is still standing. Yet, residents have been allowed to add ugly windows and panels to turn their balconies into rooms, thus destroying the look of the place and tainting its original state. This happens all the time.

　　One of my friends has a personal gripe with the replacing of original green or black-paned windows with white aluminum ones with no consideration of the architectural heritage of the building. I share her pain. The art deco Paramount Dance Hall near Jing'an Temple suffers the ultimate travesty - a McDonald's restaurant with its gaudy red and yellow facade tacked on to the base of the building.

　　In its pursuit of economic growth and development, China is erasing its history as fast as it can. What is the point of 5,000 years of history if you are left with nothing to show for it?