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Post by Jazz on Feb 15, 2009 20:31:30 GMT
'Hutong' means alleyway or small street. The hutong area of Beijing was settled by the Mongol founders of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century. The developers ploughed in and threatened the existence of these ancient and valuable areas. Now, the Chinese government is protecting the hutongs as a world heritage site.   www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/arts/design/27ouro.html |
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Post by Jazz on Feb 15, 2009 20:42:12 GMT
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Post by Jazz on Feb 15, 2009 20:50:03 GMT
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Post by Jazz on Feb 15, 2009 21:04:25 GMT
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Post by Jazz on Feb 15, 2009 21:13:14 GMT
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Post by Jazz on Feb 15, 2009 21:23:26 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2009 19:28:41 GMT
I am relatively certain that I would love China if I went there, but the idea continues to overwhelm me. The only thing of which I am certain is that I would want to start with Shanghai.
I am not counting Hong Kong or Macau which are not fully integrated into the country. I've been to Hong Kong 14 times and Macau twice.
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Post by tigronette on Feb 18, 2009 10:12:06 GMT
Yes, the government is finally protecting hutongs in BJ after having knocked down more than 75% of them!!!
I kid you not, the first time I went there (1990), nearly all of the town centre and quite a bit of the suburbs were like this. With every subsequent visit, a new area had been knocked down and while I agree that some of the hutongs were atrociously run-down, the real estate speculation that went on has destroyed so much of the city. I'm happy that they are at last deciding to preserve what little is left.
What happened in Shanghai is worse...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2009 10:16:18 GMT
It was the same in Singapore. It took them until the late 1980's to suddenly realize that they were tearing down what little charm was left in the city. They have now managed to save a few scraps.
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 19, 2009 8:27:04 GMT
Hasn't it been like that everywhere? Look at the bombed out cities of WWII in Europe. The Chinese are doing what the Thais, Koreans and Japanese did before them. Cambodia is following and I'm sure India will be next.
While I hate artificial capitals, I think that might be the way to go.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2009 14:40:14 GMT
In the 21st century, do countries even require a physical capital anymore?
Quite a bit of Europe has been painstakingly preserved, but that of course is a luxury of rich countries.
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Post by tigronette on Feb 20, 2009 10:18:09 GMT
Well it's quite sad that in China they preserved a lot of colonialist architecture which, lovely as it is, can be found in many countries, as opposed to the buildings in local style which were often unique to a specific city. I studied Chinese at uni in the early 90s and even then, my (European) professors had these theories about how Chinese urban architecture wasn't really worth anything. Of course, everyone's changed their minds about this now.
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