What’s involved?

As a CHP member you are joining a passionate community of supporters who are helping a vital cause: preserving China’s cultural heritage. As a member, you be helping fund CHP’s vital work, while also receiving great benefits from CHP and several local participating businesses.

Where will my money go?

If you donate ¥350 to become a Silk Member (less than ¥1 per day)
Your donation could help CHP produce 140 Heritage Trails to help create awareness of Beijing’s lesser known but historically rich cultural heritage sites, many of which are vanishing each day.

If you donate ¥1000 to become a Gold Member (just ¥2.7 per day)
You could help CHP purchase two weaving looms to assist the Menglian community revitalize their traditional weaving culture, while also empowering Menglian women and providing the impoverished area an additional income.

If you donate ¥10,000 to become a Jade Member (¥27 per day)
Your generous support could help CHP organize three crucial public education events and improve the community’s understanding about the importance of protecting China’s rapidly disappearing cultural heritage.

These are just a few examples of how becoming a member will help fund CHP’s large range of vital projects and programs that are preserving China’s cultural heritage today and into the future. Heritage does matter, and together we can protect China’s cultural landscape

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If you would like to become a CHP member, or have any questions about being a member or renewing your membership, please contact info@bjgchp.org or +8610 6403 6532

The Telegraph by Peter Foster, Thursday 9 September

A 'hutong' in central Beijing Photo: AFP/GETTY

Plans to redevelop the crooked courtyard houses and narrow hutong alleyways around the ancient Drum and Bell Tower met with stiff opposition after they were announced in March, with conservationists warning of the destruction of one the last living architectural jewels in the city.

China’s state media reported that the plans had been “shelved”, to the delight of conservation groups. “The Time Cultural City is a thing of the past,” an anonymous deputy director of the local district government said.

The plans for an underground shopping complex and a themed ‘Time City’ had dismayed conservationists who feared the end for an area that has been a vibrant part of Beijing since the days of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) when the two towers were used to mark time in the city. Read more»

Global Times by Li Shuang, Tuesday 9 September

The Bell Tower, as seen from the Drum Tower Monday Photo: Wang Zi

Controversial plans to redevelop the historic Gulou Drum Tower hutong area into a tourism attraction have been placed on hold after the merger of Dongcheng and Chongwen districts into a combined new Dongcheng district government.

Extensive plans to “restore” Gulou into something dubbed “Time Cultural City” by the former Dongcheng district director Yang Yiwen have all been shelved, according to a government insider who requested anonymity.

“The Time Cultural City is a thing of the past,” an anonymous deputy director of the new Dongcheng district was quoted as saying in a Beijing Times report Monday.

While the authorities maintain Gulou’s future is unclear, culture heritage preservation experts were celebrating Monday what they characterized as new hope for one of the city’s last remaining pieces of authentic hutong culture. Read more»

Recently the State Council approved plans to merge Old Beijing’s administrative districts from four to two. Dongcheng will merge with Chongwen to become the new Dongcheng, and Xicheng will combine with Xuanwu. This change will have a direct impact in the protection of Beijing Old City, but with two districts still splitting Old Beijing in half it will not be easy for the local governments to achieve cultural heritage preservation goal.

As the core of China’s capital city, Old Beijing attracts worldwide attention. Old Beijing takes up sixty-two sq. kilometers in size, a small fraction of Beijing’s 17,000 square kilometers. The population of the area within the Second Ring has shrunk from its peak of 1.8 million in the 1980s to its current less than 1.4 million. The government plans to further reduce the number of residents to 1 million by 2020, while the total population of Beijing is expected to hit 21 million at the end of this decade.

Based on cultural value, land use, and population density, among other conditions, Old Beijing is a unique area of the city that has long been in need of unified management.

Over the past few decades, the four separate districts that oversee Old Beijing have operated independently under four local governments under their own understanding, planning, and capacity in urban development and cultural preservation standard. All local governments still have achieved the same result – the destruction Old Beijing, the city’s greatest contribution to humankind. Read more»

China Daily by Cheng Yingqi, Wednesday 4 August

BEIJING – China’s top cultural heritage administrator has condemned the massive reconstruction of old cities across the country as a “disaster” for the protection of historical cultural relics.

“Bulldozers have razed many historical blocks,” lamented Shan Jixiang, head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) in an online speech on Monday.

“Much traditional architecture that could have been passed down for generations as the most valuable memories of a city,” he said, “has been relentlessly torn down.”

Shan said that many Chinese cities are heading in the wrong direction by massively demolishing architectural gems even as urbanization is causing development problems in urban and rural areas alike.

Official figures underscore Shan’s assertion. The most recent data issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development indicates that China has built 2 billion square meters of new houses every year — consuming 40 percent of the world’s building materials.

“The protection of cultural heritage in China has entered the most difficult, grave and critical period,” Shan warned.

No official statistics exist as to the number of potential cultural heritage sites destroyed in demolition across the country. Read more»