Beijing, what can I do for you?
Beijing is an ancient city with a history of 3,000 years. This city was a treasure in the history of Chinese architecture. But now, scattered old buildings are sandwiched between high-rise buildings and commercial streets, which seem incompatible and embarrassing.
From the Yuan Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, the building development of Beijing was very mature. The magnificent palaces, spacious houses, the well-proportioned layouts, and the glazed tiles on the roof show the majesty of this imperial capital. Beijing once reached the highest level of urban construction in the world in the same period.
Until the founding of New China, The party and government began to rebuild the city. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong, Beijing, as the political and economic center of New China, the old walls were demolished and a new world was established.
In 1950, two architects proposed a plan to preserve the old city, that is Liang-Chen Proposal. This plan proposes not to build new buildings in the old city, but to set up another city center as the government’s administrative center. Unfortunately, this plan was not implemented.
At that time, maybe the Chinese government’s abandonment for old buildings in Beijing was an ambition for the future of the new China. But the architectural aesthetics that belonged to Paris and Rome did not belong to Beijing ultimately.
