——- Chinese sites’ inclusion on UNESCO list adds new luster to human civilizations
BEIJING: Tom Wolters, a Dutch landscape architect who has been living in Beijing for over 20 years in a traditional courtyard house, or siheyuan, near the former imperial city, said the inscription of the Beijing Central Axis on the World Heritage List did not come as a surprise to him.
Wolters and his family fell in love with Beijing when he got the chance to work as a co-director of a China-European Union cooperation project in 2001. Three years after they arrived, they decided to settle down in the city with a history of over 3,000 years.
He said when they moved to the courtyard house, their Chinese friends asked why they choose to live there instead of buying a nice villa in the suburbs, which was the trend at the time.
“We were so lucky to find a traditional courtyard house (siheyuan). We liked it so much,” Wolters said.
He also witnessed the impressive upgrading of the old Beijing city over the years.
“Many courtyard houses are saved, protected and preserved, and the historic streetscape of hutong (alleyway) has been restored by demolishing illegal structures, such as added floors and rooms, and there is strict control of building regulations,” he said.
Running north to south through the heart of historical Beijing, the Central Axis consists of former imperial palaces and gardens, ancient sacrificial structures, and ceremonial and public buildings.
Together they bear testimony to the evolution of the city and exhibit evidence of the imperial dynastic system and urban planning traditions of China.
On July 27, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization announced the inclusion of the Beijing Central Axis: A Building Ensemble Exhibiting the Ideal Order of the Chinese Capital, on its World Heritage List during the 46th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in New Delhi, India.
A day earlier, it was also announced during the session that two Chinese natural heritage sites, located in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Shandong province, were included on the World Heritage List.
Saying that cultural and natural heritage are the country’s treasures, President Xi Jinping has called for efforts to take this UNESCO inclusion as an opportunity to better protect, preserve and make use of them so as to renew their glamour in the new era. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
