A 1916 panoramic view of the main tower of today's Qianmen

　　Debate rages over how to preserve Beijing's past while securing its future

　　By Caren Zuo

　　The resplendence of the imperial palaces and the grandeur of the temples, coupled with the open, low-lying residential constructions of gray bricks and tiles: This is Beijing, a city with over three thousand years of history, eight hundred of those as a capital. The 62.5 sq km area within the modern city's second ring road is referred to as the "Old City," in contrast to the newly developed areas beyond. The traditional nexus of Beijing life, the "Old City" is facing the same threat as other centers of historical significance around the world: Progress.

　　The Vanishing Hutongs

　　From the second floor of the Drum Tower (gulou), Wang Zhibin looks over the surrounding residential areas. He is surprised by what he sees: Snow-white pigeons wing above the wave-like roofs of the old courtyards, emitting a magic music produced as air rushes through flutes that the neighborhood pigeon-raisers have tied to the birds' bodies.

　　"It seems as if I've returned to 1980," says Wang, who has difficulty believing that this kind of scenery still exists in a city developing at an almost magical speed. "I thought this only exists in novels and pictures."

　　Only a 15 minute walk from the fashionable, busy Houhai Lake area, the area surrounding the Drum and Bell Towers (zhonggulou) is peaceful: At night there are no bright lights, no outsiders coming and going. The locals freely enjoy their evenings at the feet of the solemn towers, which have witnessed Beijing history since 1272.

　　"Maybe this is the last bit of peaceful paradise in Beijing," Wang says. "I hope it can remain untouched."

　　Wang speaks for many Beijingers. As one towering mansion after another springs up from the ruins of the old courtyards (siheyuan) and hutongs, more and more people are wondering if all of the city's ancient neighborhoods are doomed to be wiped off the map.

　　In the eyes of archaeological scholar Xu Pingfang, these hutongs are far from common alleys. "They represent the texture of Beijing and are particular to this city," says Xu, "Every hutong has its history and story; they are still-living cells left from Beijing's years as a dynastic capital." From 1964-1974, Xu spent 10 years exploring the alleys north of Beijing's central Chang'an Street, accumulating enough information to prove that the existing hutongs were indeed those originally built during the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368). Nearly eight hundred years later, the character of the Yuan Dynasty is still alive in the capital's old hutongs.

　　But bulldozers are making quick work out of neighborhoods that have otherwise survived for centuries. Statistics from the Beijing Evening News show that Beijing's hutongs are disappearing at a depressing rate. There were over 7,000 hutongs at the birth of the People's Republic of China in 1949. That number diminished to 3,900 during the 1980s. With the acceleration of rebuilding efforts in the Old City, Beijing's hutongs are now vanishing at the rate of about 600 per year.

　　Concern over this alarming trend was voiced in an appeal presented during the 28th session of the World Heritage Committee. Signed by 19 Chinese scholars and experts, the appeal stated that "From 2000 to 2002, an area of 4.4 million square meters had been reconstructed in the process of renovating old houses in dangerous condition, matching the total area demolished between 1900 and 2000."

　　"With the demolition of the last hutong," the experts warned, "will vanish the last traces of the Yuan capital."

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