"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 recently.

So far, 25 such historic streets or communities in Beijing are protected under laws that prohibit real estate development projects .

But in light of 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 under protection at different levels, but for millions of valuable old houses, the role of the law is rather limited.

The 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 hoped that 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)