Everyone has their own perceptions of Beijing, residents and visitors alike.

They may have been formed from wandering through its small, quaint hutong, or along the bustling Wangfujing Street, or crawling in traffic along the Third Ring Road.

Now the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall, just east of the Old Beijing Railway Station, offers its own unique perspective of the ancient city.

Among all the items on display, the most compelling is a huge aerial photograph in the eastern section of the exhibition hall's third floor - which is 10 times as big as a medium-sized apartment.

Standing on the giant aerial photograph, which is printed on nearly 1,000 lit glass floor panels, is a wonderful experience.

"I've never looked at Beijing like this before. It gives me a clear understanding of how the places where I live, work and play fit into the overall scheme of Beijing, a city I love so much," said Yang Yuan, 23, who visited the exhibition hall in late April.

Huang Kailing would be gratified if he heard Yang's remarks.

Deputy curator, he practically glows with pride when he talks about the exhibition hall. It opened in September and has been gaining popularity among both tourists and Beijing residents since.

The photograph, and the giant model of Beijing urban master plan that is placed at the center of the photograph, are museum highlights.

The 302-square-meter model, at a scale of 1:750, shows the facelift Beijing is going to be given by 2008, when the Chinese capital will host the Olympic Games.

Planned Olympic venues, for example the National Stadium, dubbed "the bird's nest," and the National Swimming Center, dubbed "Water Cube," stand out in the model with their innovative and impressive exterior design.

Most of the venues are gathered around the Olympic Park in the north of the city.

Skyscrapers and other architectural complexes that are currently under construction, such as the new China Central Television building, can also be seen in the model.

Huang said it took more than 150 workers about a year and more than four million yuan (US$482,000) to build the model.

The deputy curator said it was produced with such finesse that even the wood between panes of glass in the windows has been added.

While models of the master plan and the aerial photograph and smaller models depict today and tomorrow's Beijing, the exhibition hall also makes efforts to capture the city's past.

The old city was in fact built according to a well-thought-out plan.

An imaginary 7.8 kilometer-long central axis line running from south to north splits the city into two approximate halves, each of which was built with symmetrically arranged pairs of gates.

Although most of these gates have now gone, their names remain.

Landmark structures of the "old Beijing," such as the Bell Tower, Drum Tower, Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, are all along this axis.

Luckily the chess board layout of the city has been recorded by a 10-meter-high, 9-meter-wide bronze relief sculpture called the "Old City of Beijing," which hangs in the stairwell.

The sculpture shows the overall layout of Beijing in 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded. The ancient city walls, as well as more than 118,000 houses, 60,000 trees and lakes and rivers, are clearly shown.

Huang said it was produced by China's largest bronze-casting factory in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province.

It cost more than 1 million yuan (US$120,480) to make the sculpture, which consumed 9.7 tons of bronze. It is divided into 45 pieces, each of which is 1 meter wide and 2 meters long.

At the entrance of the museum there is a bronze statue called "The Gulf of Beijing."

The work depicts the geographic features of the small plain Beijing is located on, which is surrounded by mountains from three sides and looks like a gulf.

The western section of the third floor elaborates the historical development of Beijing over the past 3,000 years, and items that are unique to Beijing, such as siheyuan.

In getting exhibits together for the section, Huang said, the museum consulted many experts on folk customs to retain the essence of local culture.

Two short films are also being shown regularly in the western section of the fourth floor, with one film - "The City of Immorality" - about Beijing's history and the other about the city that will take shape in 2008.

History of the exhibition hall

Huang said the idea behind the display of Beijing yesterday, today and tomorrow was conceived by the municipal government many years ago.

The original intention was to select a venue for the Olympic Games and transform it into an exhibition hall after the event finishes.

"But this kind of exhibition hall is also necessary before the Games, because every year tourists are flooding in. As well as that, a place where the models of the Olympic Games venues can be displayed is needed," Huang said.

The location of the new museum was another subject for dispute. Some suggested building an underground exhibition hall under Yongdingmen Gate, which is on the southern end of old Beijing's axis.

The suggestion was later vetoed because traffic in the area is already overcrowded, and also because an underground venue will require more maintenance fees and cause greater inconvenience.

"Then we thought of the current location, which was a commercial building then. It is near the southeastern corner of Tian'anmen Square, and thus is also a location of great significance," said Huang.

He said the hall serves as a platform for both domestic and overseas scholars to exchange academic ideas, and as somewhere to stimulate public passion for understanding and loving the city more.

(China Daily May 16, 2005)