Vanishing Beijing – Why Preservation Matters

Hutongs are a symbol of Beijing’s urban life, with over 600 years of history behind them. Yet much noise has been made over their destruction in the name of ‘economic development’. Is this just simply an inevitability in the march toward ‘modernisation’, or are there alternatives?

Join us on this Monday as Napatra from the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP) talks about the dilemma of preserving the backbone of the city’s history while embracing the need for urban rejuvenation.

Monday 26 July

8:30pm

Tim’s Texas BBQ

Silk No. 2 Building

14 Dongdaqiao Lu

(5 minutes north of Yonganli Station,

3 minutes south of The Place)

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center’s (CHP) mission is to support communities to protect their cultural heritage throughout China, and to fight for the protection of China’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage in a time of rapid economic development and social change.

CHP was recently quoted in the New York Times on the topic of Hutong preservation – for further details, please refer to http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/world/asia/21beijing.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1