Refashioning History

Jerry Chan | Oct 8, 2007 3:50 pm | Add a comment | 1036 reads

Fall breezes have brought more changes in store for the capital cityscape, including the anticipated unveiling of the renovated Qianmen-Dashilan’r area just south of Tiananmen Square.

The China Daily reports that by year’s end, visitors will be able to stroll along an 845-meter-long pedestrian-only strip lined by some 300-odd shops comprising over 80,000 square meters of retail space – a scenario, for better or worse, that parallels the commercial and tourist development around Shichahai and Nanluoguxiang in recent years.

The RMB 300 million (USD 40 million) makeover has been going on since May, and developers aim to revitalize the area – which dates back to the Ming dynasty and was once home to restaurants, opera houses, shops and brothels alike – into one of the city’s top tourist destinations by refashioning the buildings based on photographs of the area from the 1920s and 30s.

Another related project, set to unveil in early 2008, is the nearby Legation Quarter – a swanky development in a group of five former legation buildings at the southeast corner of Tiananmen Square (bordering the western end of Dongjiaominxiang) that will include high-end shops, “a Daniel Boulud restaurant, a repertory theater, a contemporary art center and an outpost of the London nightclub Boujis,” brought to you by the same group behind Beijing’s CourtYard Restaurant and Shanghai’s M on the Bund.

But these changes have not been without their costs due to the controversial razing of several blocks of historically significant hutongs and courtyard homes to make way for the new strip. Nevertheless, when the dust has settled and tourist buses start rolling in, don’t expect much complaining from local retailers and commercial venues who will, as the development of Shichaihai indicates, be too busy counting their newly made cash.

Link and Sources:
China Daily:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/05/content_6153290.htm
International Herald Tribune:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/22/travel/trbeijing.php
legationquarter.com:
http://www.legationquarter.com
New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/world/asia/12beijing.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&oref=slogin
DanweiTV:
http://www.danwei.org/danwei_tv/the_carnal_history_of_the_eigh.php
Beijing-2008.org:
http://images.beijing-2008.org/65/00/Img214080065.jpg
Chinaheritagenewsletter.org:
http://www.chinaheritagenewsletter.org/005/_pix/qianmen.jpg