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)