This photo taken in September 1991 shows the old railway station in Jinan, Shandong Province. Photo: Courtesy of Jing Qiang

When photographer and architecture enthusiast Jing Qiang pressed down on the shutter of his camera to take a picture of Jinan's railway station in June 1992 he burst into tears. He knew that in one month, the more-than-100-year-old building - together with its stone passages, classically arched windows and belfry, which had all graced the pages of architecture textbooks at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University - would be torn down.

Authorities claimed it was to improve traffic flow, but when Jing, along with a chorus of experts, tried to persuade them not to destroy it, he was told "the German station is a symbol of colonialism."

"It was a very beautiful building with four big clocks hung at the top of the station's tower. When the big clocks were taken from the tower, the tower looked like a giant who had lost his eyes," Jing told the Global Times on Monday. "It had been the place of many beautiful and unforgettable memories for Jinan residents. I felt sad to see it disappear."

However, Jing will soon see it arise from the rubble as the Jinan authorities recently announced that now, over 20 years after they first tore it down, they are planning to rebuild it.

The reconstruction plans highlight the love-hate relationship the authorities and the public have for colonial-era style buildings, which to some stand as symbols of past oppression, but to others represent important aspects of history.

Contentious history

Designed by famous German architect Hermann Fischer, construction on the old railway station began in 1908 and was finished four years later.

Rebuilding the old station is only part of a larger project, which began on August 1, to expand the Jinan Railway Station.

The German station will occupy 2,600 square meters, accounting for just 1.7 percent of the whole project and will cost less than 30 million yuan ($4.90 million), Yin Guangwei, chief engineer with the old urban development and investment group in Jinan, told Xinhua on Saturday.

The project as a whole is expected to cost around 1.51 billion yuan and aims to relieve the increasing pressure brought from the 13 million passengers who pass through the Jinan Railway Station annually. The reconstruction of the old German station, however, is an attempt to recreate a landmark of the city, and fulfill the nostalgic desires of local residents, according to Niu Changchun, chief planner with the Jinan Urban Planning Bureau, Xinhua reported Monday.  

Jing said that the officials who tore down the original station were "narrow-minded and not confident about themselves."

"Fortunately, the current officials are open-minded," Jing said. "The rebuilding shows that they can face the mistakes of the past - no matter who made them."

These "mistakes" come in many forms, depending on who is asked.

In one example, in 2010, several buildings built by Japanese invaders between the 1920s and 1940s were demolished in Dalian, Liaoning Province, which stirred heated disputes, according to the China Youth Daily.

"In the past, people used their own political views when defining cultural relics. People would usually tear down historic buildings that bring unpleasant memories," Qu Xiaofan, a professor at the School of History and Culture at Northeast Normal University in Changchun, Jilin Province, told the Global Times.

Attitudes are slowly changing. A series of Manchurian buildings, including the Puppet Manchurian Imperial Palace in Jilin Province, were listed as national cultural relics by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in May. The buildings were defined as having a "typical colonial style" and represented the "highest level" of Asian architecture at that time, Xinhua reported.

"Colonial buildings represent a certain period of Chinese history," Zhang Shangzheng, a tourism professor with Anhui University, told the Global Times. "We should protect them according to their historical and architectural value, not according to a concept of national dignity."

Dubious copies

Even though local authorities say the new station will look just like the old German station, Jing isn't  optimistic. "The new German station will not be located in the original place and can't possibly be made from the same materials. The new one is only a copycat and won't have the original's charm," Jing said. "But, the new one will at least remind us not to make similar silly mistakes."

There have been many attempts to recreate colonial buildings. According to Qu, construction on some Russian buildings in Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, began on the eve of the war between Russia and Japan (1904-05), and continued until 1931. The buildings were torn down and rebuilt in 1980s and 1990s in a typical Chinese style."They were rebuilt in a typical Chinese style and were very ugly," Qu said. "About five years ago, the buildings were renovated. Now they look more Russian."

Even when the government wants to preserve these buildings, they aren't necessarily safe. A former British consulate built in 1910 was demolished in May 2012 in Jinan, despite the fact that the Jinan cultural relic protection department had tried to stop the demolition, Xinhua reported, adding that the consulate was listed among protected cultural relics in Jinan's Shizhong district.

Jing said the consulate was located in a military area and he learnt that it was mysteriously burned down. "People are driven by various interests. I wish both authorities and the public could be wiser," Jing said.

Symbol of variety

A city should have multiple styles and contain buildings from various periods, Zhou Xueying, a history professor with Nanjing University, told the Global Times on Monday.

"Colonial buildings should be kept as vivid education materials for posterity, and should be viewed as windows for international cultural communication," Zhou said. "A nation should face up to the tough years of its history. If it was invaded, enslaved or bullied by others, it should not hide that history but demonstrate it to the world and help its descendents remember that forever."

Zhang said that copycat buildings, unless built for religious purposes, should be avoided; however, Qu said that sometimes reconstruction was necessary for landmark buildings.

"Reconstruction efforts are to rebuild memories rather than buildings," Qu said. "We witnessed some Song Dynasty (960-1279) buildings rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Without those rebuilt works, we would never have known what the Song buildings looked like. "