A part of the old street in Lichuan county, Jiangxi Province. Photo: Zhang Zhilong/GT

Some houses have already been demolished for the construction of fire access passage, according to the local government. Photo: Zhang Zhilong/GT

Lichuan county in Jiangxi Province, a two-hour drive away from the capital Nanchang, has carried on quietly this past age, without attracting too much attention to itself. It has always taken great pride in its old street, lined with two-story traditional houses.

But now a secretive government plan to renovate the old street has residents concerned about whether the government is determined to actually protect the street, or simply wants to knock it down and start again. Local intellectuals are worried that the street will be left without any resemblance to the past and residents living in the traditional houses along the street will be forced out.

This concern started in May when Lichuan first announced new plans to protect and transform the old street. Part of the ancient city of Lichuan that accommodates 23,000 people, the old two-story houses are divided into business and housing and are still very much in use. The street that is being targeted contains over 100 well-preserved houses, some over a century old and others built before 1949. The project wants to restore hundreds of houses that were built in the Ming or Qing dynasties centuries ago, decorating some of them with the flair of historic celebrities and restoring 100 stores, according to Jiangxi Daily.

The county government said it made the move after receiving suggestions from Li Zhen, a well-known expert on ancient building protection and a professor with the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tongji University in Shanghai.

Lessons to be drawn

Five years ago, as Tu Jiwen, a retired official with the county's standing committee of the local People's Congress, recalls, the local government was still hesitant on whether to demolish the old street.

Tu was invited by the local government to discuss the fate of the old street in a meeting back in 2008.

"That was the first time and last time I was invited," said Tu to the Global Times. .

The original purpose then was to tear down the old buildings and develop the area into a business street, Tu recalled.

Tu and most other participants of the meeting were strongly opposed to the plan, explaining that the streets had too much cultural and historical value to be so bastardized. At the time, their suggestions were adopted.

As the plans went into limbo, Tu went on a media offensive, writing several articles in Jiangxi Daily and People's Daily, seeking to bury them once and for all.

In an article entitled Don't ruin the old street in our times, published in People's Daily in 2011, Tu expressed deep regret about the demolition of the ancestral Deng temple, a well-known local family.

The site of the temple is in ruins now, surrounded by other buildings that remain intact. Tu insists that this fate should not be repeated.

Tu's concerns are shared by Huang Shaoqing, a local high school Chinese teacher. Huang is another self-appointed protector of the area, which he has studied this for decades.

Huang said that the destruction of the Deng temple indicates the flippant attitude of the local government toward history. Huang claims the Ming Dynasty-era temple was the only one of its kind in Jiangxi. But the local government was short of money in the mid-1990s and sold the temple off to a local businessman for 200,000 yuan ($32,000). He demolished it and took away its relics, according to Huang.

"For years, people condemned this, but the leader who was in power then has now been promoted," sighed Huang.

But the temple's destruction is now done and dusted. What is of active concern to local and national historians is what the government will do with the old street. Seeking to dodge the question, the local government has obfuscated, focusing time and time again only on the need to build fire access passages in the old area of the city and vaunting the building of new residences.

Fu Jian, an engineer involved in the project, stressed the necessity of building fire access passages, since small-scale fires often break out in such structures.

The county's publicity department told the Global Times that they are to build three fire access passages along the street, each six meters wide. They explained that the old street was too crowded and that the fire engines can't enter the street.

Fu told the Global Times that residents who live on the planned route of the fire passages will need to move out and will be relocated in new buildings nearby.

"This will also help reduce the population living in the old street since it's too crowded, which is not good for the protection of the old buildings," said Fu.

However, when pressed for further details, Fu stalled and refused to answer how many residents would be relocated in total and how many would stay, simply saying he didn't have such figures available.

Fu also repeated that these actions are to better protect the old street. But he could not comment further on the progress, since the project is now just tearing down a few buildings where the fire accesses are to be built.

Divided opinions

The government plans have not been rejected entirely by those who are directly concerned.

When asked by the Global Times what they would do if their old houses are demolished, most people seemed to care more about what kind of new houses they would get instead of the fate of their current homes.

"So long as the living conditions are better than now, I'm willing to leave," said a middle-aged woman surnamed Ning, who has lived in the old street for over 20 years. She rents two rooms and a kitchen in an old house, which accommodates about 10 families in total according to Ning.

She said that most residents living in the old houses are elderly who are used to being here but that young people prefer modern homes.

Other residents complained about sub-par sanitation and roof leaks, adding that they were not too bothered about the fate of the old houses. About half of the residents rent rooms directly from the local government, for only 1 yuan per square meter per month.

"The construction of fire access passages is necessary, and so is demolition to certain extent," Ruan Yisan, a well-known expert on the protection of ancient buildings at Tongji University, told the Global Times.

But the condition of such demolitions must be based exactly on the set plans by professional experts, Ruan emphasized.

It's understandable that local governments want to develop tourism by protecting ancient buildings, but the question is how best to protect these elements, Ruan said.

He warned that there are stated rules for rebuilding old houses, and that they should be followed to the letter.

As far as Huang is concerned, the local government should be cautious. He advises that the old street should be rebuilt to look as it did before, not as a commercial showcase of fake relics.

"The value of the old street will be far greater in years to come if done properly, instead of being altered forever for nothing more than a temporary financial boost," Huang declared proudly.

Other examples

The old street in Lichuan is lucky compared with many others in China which have disappeared completely as the country is "modernizing" itself by demolishing old buildings.

In Baishazhou, Hubei Province, over 20 houses that were older than Lichuan were demolished in 2004. The old street, almost a kilometer long, was left in ruins.

The real estate developer saw no wrongdoing, believing these relics did not deserve to survive, a view likely shared by local officials.

What happened in Baishazhou is fairly typical. Many old streets are demolished before their value is realized either by the local government or by their residents. They do not possess the official status of cultural relics and thus have no protection against demolition.

The destiny of Taohuawu in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province is similar to that of Baishazhou. In the name of "protecting and making use" of relics, many old buildings in Taohuawu were demolished in 2012.

Not all examples are horrid though. The towns of Wuzhen in Zhejiang and Zhouzhuang in Jiangsu have become known for having had their traditional styles well-preserved. Which model the Lichuan government will follow remains to be seen.