The former residence of Chong Li, a secretary of the Grand
Council during the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1875-1908) in the Qing
Dynasty, located on Dongsi Liutiao Street in Beijing's Dongcheng
District, comprises three courtyards and covers an area of 10,576
square meters. It became a state-protected site in 1988. However,
it now serves as the living quarters for staff from the China Light
Industry Confederation, housing some 50 to 60 households.?
Chong Li's residence is not an exceptional case. A source from
the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage indicated
that among the capital's 3,500 cultural sites, up to 60 percent are
being used for purposes unbecoming of the sites' cultural and
historical standing.
Dagaoxuan Palace
Dagaoxuan Palace, located on Jingshan Xijie Street, was built in
the 21st year of Jiajing (1542) during the Ming Dynasty. An
important part of the Forbidden City, it had been the imperial
temple during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
After a military agency took over the premises, the palace fell
into disrepair. "Stone railings were sawed up, animal-shaped
decorations on the eaves were broken and were strewn in the yard,
and centuries-old trees were littered with coal piles," said Jia
Kailin, vice head of the Beijing Municipal Political Consultative
Conference's Culture and History Committee.
Furthermore, wires crisscrossing haphazardly over the palace and
flammable materials piled up inside it have turned the ancient
building into a fire hazard, said Hao Dongchen of the Beijing
Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage.
Liu Bingsen, a member of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC), submitted proposals in 1998 and
2000 respectively, requesting the return of Dagaoxuan to the Palace
Museum of Beijing. Zheng Xiaoxie and Luo Zhewen, two experts in
ancient architecture, also proposed in November 2000 to restore
Dagaoxuan as a cultural facility. Unfortunately, negotiations
between the occupier and the Beijing Municipal Administration of
Cultural Heritage have yet to offer a solution.
Liangxiang Tower
A 50-centimeter-long, 2-centimeter-wide crack can be seen clearly
in the 2100-year-old Liangxiang Tower in Beijing's southwestern
suburban Fangshan District. Nonetheless, no one wants to take the
responsibility to repair it.
As Beijing's only wooden-modeled pavilion-shaped ancient tower,
the Liangxiang Tower, along with the Old Summer Palace, was put
under city protection in 1979. Twenty years later, both the tower
and the Haotian Park, where it's located, were rented out by the
local government for 70 years.
The leasing contract states that the lessee, Yang Yongjun, a
manager with Beijing Electricity and Earthwork Corporation, will
pay an annual rent of 150,000 yuan (US$18,070) to Liangxiang's
township government, and bear all the expenses for the tower and
the park's maintenance and protection. However, the contract
doesn't specify how much Yang should invest each year in
maintaining the ancient tower.
A staff member of the park's administrative department said they
are not duty-bound to repair the tower.
The newly revised Cultural Relics Protection Law, which came
into force on October 28, 2002, forbids the transfer or mortgage of
any unmovable cultural relics, said Xue Yuan of the Beijing
Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage.
However, the law does not have retroactive application and
therefore doesn't cover this transaction that was entered into in
1999, said a vice director surnamed Xing of Fangshan's Culture
Committee. He added that it's impossible for the local government
to terminate the contract.
The Four Altars
The Four Altars of Beijing -- the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan),
the Temple of Earth (Ditan), the Altar of the Sun (Ritan), and the
Altar of the Moon (Yuetan) -- are well known for their
architectural beauty and traditional significance. They have,
however, found themselves in a bit of a quandary.
In the 1950s, the China Central Television (CCTV) established
its television tower at Yuetan Park. Although another tower was
erected in Yuyuantan later, CCTV decided to keep the original one
at Yuetan as a backup, where it still stands today. This has led to
a protracted delay of restoration works to Yuetan, said Mei
Ninghua, head of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural
Heritage.
CCTV has asked for permission to set up a new television tower
as a condition of moving out of Yuetan Park.
Radio 582 belonging to the State Administration of Radio, Film and
Television moved its station to the northwest of Tiantan in 1970.
It then erected 13 groups of antenna poles, each 50 meters high,
covering a total area of more than 100,000 square meters.
"Tiantan's construction philosophy stresses the relationship
between heaven and man. View obstruction is therefore taboo here,"
said Yao An, vice head of Tiantan Park.
The presence of antenna poles held up the park's renovation
project in 2000.
Since the 1990s, park administrators have been negotiating the
radio station's relocation, but talks haven't made remarkable
headway.
Last month, a modern building was discovered inside a newly
revamped courtyard at Ditan Park. The courtyard is now a private
residence and is no longer open to visitors.
In Ritan Park, the bell tower, one of the park's main ancient
buildings, is now home to a yoga center.
Shan Jixiang, head of the State Administration of Cultural
Heritage and also a CPPCC member, submitted a proposal to this
year's National People's Congress (NPC) and CPPCC sessions,
requesting private occupiers of The Four Altars vacate the
premises. He suggested that the Beijing municipal government place
the protection of the altars as well as the management of their
surrounding environment on its general agenda.
The Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan)
In 1993, on the pretext of solving a funds shortage, the
administrative department of Yuanmingyuan Park rented a quadrangle
composed of seven rooms on an islet in the middle of Fuhai Lake at
50,000 yuan (US$6,024) a year to twin crosstalkers, Li Bocheng and
Li Boliang.
The deal had been kept a secret until May 21 this year. The
park's administrative department declared on May 24 that they had
reached an agreement with the twins to terminate the contract
before its expiry.
In fact, many other issues plague the park. Since 1949, the Old
Summer Palace, for some reason, slipped through the gaps of the
administration and was largely abandoned. With no proper controls
or security in place, squatters from 27 villages of Sijiqing
Township in the Haidian District set up home in the park.
In 1999, in a bid to remove the squatters, the municipal and
district governments spent a total of 720 million yuan (US$86.8
million) in relocation and compensation costs. As further
compensation, more than 1,000 of the squatters were employed as the
park's permanent staff members. This led to an expanded staff of
about 1,700 overnight, which placed a heavy economic burden on the
park's administration.
The Summer Palace (Yiheyuan)
The October 13, 1999 edition of Hong Kong's Huasheng Bao
carried an article titled "British and French Moneybags Settle Down
in Yiheyuan," revealing that the park had rented out space to
foreigners.
In 1998 alone, Jieshou Hall, which used to be a residence of
Jiang Qing, wife of the late Chairman Mao Zedong, was hired by a
Singapore businessman; Wujinyi Pavilion by a Frenchman; and a
quadrangle west of Guangrunlingyu Temple by a Singapore
company.
Although the municipal government put a stop to such rental
agreements, a general investigation carried out last month found
that out of the palace's total area of 70,000 square meters, 26,100
square meters of them are still occupied by government units.
Na Genzheng, a great grandson of Empress Dowager Cixi
(1835-1908) of the Qing Dynasty, came to work at Yiheyuan's housing
office in 1992. Two years later, he began negotiations with
Yiheyuan branch of Haidian District Post Office for the return of
the Beichaofang Chamber. The lease to the post office was signed in
1922.
The talks turned out to be extremely difficult, lasting four
years.
In 1998, with the intervention of the municipal government, the
chamber was finally returned after 76 years, in time for the
palace's application for world cultural heritage status.
"Today, of those being rented or occupied, about 70 percent
still cannot be recovered for various reasons," Na said.
Yiheyuan's Zaojian Hall, for example, has been out of bounds to
tourists and park staff members since it was taken over by the
municipal government shortly after 1949. It's used as a recreation
center for retired cadres now.
As early as in the 1980s, Aisin Gioro Pujie, younger brother of
the Qing Dynasty's last emperor Puyi, submitted a proposal to the
then NPC and CPPCC sessions, calling for Zaojian Hall's return. But
his proposal has never been approved.
When Beijing was made the capital in 1949, the city didn't have
many premises for official use, said Jia Kailin. This is why a
number of ancient buildings were occupied with the approval of the
authorities concerned. In other words, the occupation of the
cultural and historical sites itself is a "lawful" action to a
certain degree.
Ancient buildings form the core of the nation's rich cultural
heritage, bearing witness to the rise and fall of the ancient
capital. Yet, people and enterprises occupying them seem to have no
regard for them as precious legacies.
It is also regrettable that, in today's China, only a handful of
experts and scholars are canvassing for the protection of cultural
heritage sites. He Shuzhong, head of the State Administration of
Cultural Heritage's Law Enforcement Department, has suggested that
the government establish legal measures to effectively regulate and
control the situation.
(China.org.cn by Shao Da, June 6, 2005)