Beijing preserves cultural heritage while achieving modernization

The Chinese government has succeeded in transforming Beijing into a modern, cosmopolitan city while protecting its 3,000-year cultural heritage, Kong Fanzhi, director, and Yu Ping, deputy director, of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, told reporters at a press conference at 11:00 a.m. on July 30.

Beijing has long been faced with the complex responsibility of protecting the cultural heritage, relics and artifacts that have accumulated in the past 3,000 years. The task has been made all the more difficult for the central and municipal governments, as modernization of the urban environment in the city has been equally essential.

As it has in developing its economy, Beijing has also been attempting to take into account the experience of developed countries in preserving its heritage.

Kong introduced the government's approaches to preserving historical and cultural heritages in the city. By preserving the core essence of the city, it is preserving the sites of the Ming and Qing Dynasties that have existed for more than 500 years. The 7.8-kilometer Central Axis running from Yongdingmen, crossing through Zhengyangmen, the Forbidden City, Jingshan Park and then to the Bell and Drum Towers, still remains intact. The imperial city area (8.6 square meters), including the imperial garden, is well preserved, and its original pattern in a reversed capitalized T remains unchanged.

Moreover, Beijing spreads the scope of preservation to the cultural houses and hutong in a large area and the more than 1,000 heritage buildings within the ancient city.

For effective protection, a series of rules, regulations and laws have been passed to protect the famous historical and cultural city. Kong named the laws protecting the imperial city and the imperial palace as examples.

For modern buildings, high-rises in particular, a limit was in place on the height of new buildings built prior to 2004; now there is control on both the height and number of buildings.

Kong revealed that the government's investment in heritage protection reached 930 million yuan in 2000-2007 and it will increase to 1.2 billion yuan in 2008-2015. Before 1990, the total annual investment was only around one million yuan. In addition, society has invested five billion yuan into those protection projects. In the past eight years, 139 projects have been completed, of which 78 projects increased the number of areas open to the public. The Summer Palace, for example, after renovation, has opened up the western part to the public, with 20 hectares of accessible garden.

Moreover, the government has put in one billion yuan for the renovation of hutong and siheyuan to improve the living conditions of local residents.

Finally he introduced the protection efforts in the planning and construction of the Olympic venues and installations.

Beijing Olympic Torch Relay in Tangshan winds up

(BEIJING, July 31) -- Chen Guoying, mayor of Tangshan, lit the cauldron at Caofeidian Island Hotel Square at 12:05 on Thursday, bringing the Tangshan leg of the Olympic Torch Relay to an end. This is also the last stop for the sacred flame in Hebei Province.

The torch relay in Tangshan was divided into two stages. 59 torchbearers participated in the first part, which spanned 2.7 kilometers. This section of the relay followed a theme of all-round relief efforts and goodwill for Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province, which was devastated by an earthquake on May 12. A few of these torchbearers were selected from the numerous model workers who had served at rescue operations in Sichuan and elsewhere.

The second part, covering 7.4 kilometers with 149 torch bearers, was carried out at Caofeidian Industrial Zone, a promising large-scale industrial area still under construction.

Another highlight of the Torch Relay in Tangshan was that many torchbearers were former Olympic or world champions. Among them were Qian Hong (Women's 100 meter Butterfly champion, 1992 Olympic Games), Niu Jianfeng (Women's Singles champion, 2003 ITTF Professional Tournament), Yun Yanhong (46kg champion, 1994 World Women's Weightlifting Tournament), and Wang Kenan (3m Springboard Men's Doubles champion, 2004 World Cup Diving).

Tianjin will host the next leg of the Torch Relay on August 1.