Beijing has been China's capital for over 800 years. The city is now undergoing massive renovations involving the demolition of large numbers of dilapidated houses. People living in run-down courtyards are moving to new flats with the help of the municipal government.

Here in the heart of Beijing, the local government is facing an architectural problem. Skyscrapers overshadow endangered clusters of single-story courtyards, or hutongs.

More than a hundred years ago, this courtyard house used to be the residence of Kang Youwei, a famous scholar in the late Qing Dynasty. Today, a hundred families live here and share just one block of toilets, which, for some, is several hundred meters away.

One Beijing Resident said, "We have been longing for the relocation for years. A little rain turns into a disaster here because water leaks into our rooms. There is nothing worth keeping here."

On Wednesday morning's news briefing, the municipal government vowed to help the 5 million families living in dilapidated houses improve their quality of life.

Low-income families now can choose to buy or rent cheap flats, which seem to be the best solution to this problem.

However, Beijing isn't getting any more attractive with all these skyscrapers. And it's important to retain some of the city's old, historical flavor.

Head of this neighborhood committee says the scholar's house will be kept, but most others will soon disappear. Then, the question remains: how to blend the old and the new? And it's a question that will be answered in the near future.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2004)