Drum Tower plan shelved
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The Time Cultural City plan could not be found on the 2011-2030 development plan of the newly merged Dongcheng district people's congress at the end of August.
"The plan has been put on halt," said Dongcheng district spokeswoman Lü Lu Monday. "It's unclear what is to follow at this point.
"The living conditions of that area are not very good. The district government will work out a solution, but we're still in the process of merging at this moment."
With the merger of old Chongwen and Dongcheng districts into a new Dongcheng district officially completed with the election of new directors on August 26, Drum Tower demolition rumors have almost entirely died off.
"We haven't heard anything about the Time Cultural City since June," a worker with the Zhonglouwan Hutong residents committee said Monday.
Cultural heritage preservation experts see this as a chance to reconsider the development plan for the area.
"The halt buys us some time to really think about what's best for both the residents and preserving history," said Zhang Pei of the Beijing Cultural Heri-tage Protection Center.
"The residential area around the towers are as precious as the towers themselves and really should not be demolished," said Li Luke, a professor of architecture history at Tsinghua University.
"There must be a way to move the residents out to better housing conditions and preserve the hutong at the same time."
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