| |
|
|
Members of the Beijing People's Political Consultative Conference
and other experts and scholars are moving to better protect
old houses and streets in the capital city by pushing for the
creation of new laws.
"More and more such houses are being threatened due to
the fast urban development, and the current protection areas
prescribed by the government are far from enough," Wang
Jinlu, a member of the Beijing People's Political Consultative
Conference, said at a seminar held yesterday.
So far, 25 such historic streets or communities in Beijing are
protected under laws that prohibit real estate development projects.
But in light of the thousands of old houses and hundreds of
historical streets built in the city during the past 3,000 years
of urban history, the number of protected communities seems
quite small.
Indicating that current laws concerning the protection of old
houses are not enough, Wang suggested that the Municipal People's
Congress enact a local law preserving well-known historic and
cultural sites.
China's current cultural relic law, enacted in 1982, is mainly
concerned with the protection of certain structures that are
ranked at different levels on a list, but for millions of valuable
old houses, the role of the law is rather limited.
This lack of laws leads some cultural relic protection agencies
to only obey opinions of higher officials, said Wang, also former
director of Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau.
In China, the people's political consultative conferences are
organs designed to supervise governments on different levels
and provide suggestions, but they do not have legislative powers.
Wang's sentiments were echoed by his colleague Tang Kemei.
Tang said that she wished the Beijing municipal government could
insert clearly written protections of old houses into the city's
10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05).
Li Zhun, general engineer of the Beijing Urban Planning Commission,
admitted that his commission's work is not enough to protect
all old houses, but he stressed that protection concerns should
be balanced by the concerns of urban development, such as the
management of traffic conditions.
(China Daily 09/02/2000)
|
|
|
|
