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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-08/24/content_368319.htm
New map to locate historic buildings
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2004-08-24 09:38
The city government is planning to launch a map of heritage buildings, officials of the Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau said yesterday.
They said they will try to include English on the map and set an affordable price.
"Hopefully this map will be a helpful tool for both locals and visitors to understand the city's heritage buildings," Wu Jiang, a deputy director of the bureau, told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
He said the map is a necessary step to better protect the city's historic houses.
Still, work is only in the preparatory stage.
Thus far the city has authorized 398 historic buildings and 12 areas under municipal protection.
The buildings have various functions including department stores, banks, hospitals, office buildings and churches.
Among them: the former residence of Eric Moller on Shaanxi Road S.; the former site of Shanghai Race Club, which is now the Shanghai Art Museum on Nanjing Road W.; the Community Church on Hengshan Road; and the former site of Shanghai Office of the Inspectorate General on Fenyang Road.
According to the bureau, the city will soon grant another 200-plus historic buildings municipal protection. Officials want to put the city's more than 600 historic buildings on the future map.
The idea is popular with scholars and students at universities, but they also expect the new map to be affordable for residents.
"Sure, the map will enhance the locals' awareness about protecting the city's heritage buildings. It will also give them quick and good information about the valuable historic houses," said Lin Weihang, a doctoral student of architecture at Tongji University.
"But the price of this map can not be too high."
He also suggested the government continually update the map, particularly to add new sites of old residential lanes.
An estimate by Tongji University indicates the city has at least 10,000 to 20,000 sites worth of municipal protection, particularly residential buildings.
Only about 5 million square meters of old residential lanes - mostly "shikumen" alleys - remain in the city. In 1949, the number was four to five times more, experts said.
"At such speed, the rest of the old lanes will die out within the next decade," said a Tongji University researcher.
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