Old City Analysishan Haoying

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE TRADITIONAL DISTRICTS IN THE OLD CITY OF BEIJING Hao-ying Han*, Yi Deng, Zong-bo Tan** School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China *E-mail: [email protected] **E-mail: [email protected] Abstract After the central government of P. R. China was set in the old city of Beijing half a century ago, the appearance of the old city has experiencing great changes. Traditional Hutongs and districts are fading away. Large-scale modern buildings are gradually replacing the traditional Chinese courtyard houses. Using the high-resolution satellite image, this paper tries to know the area and proportion of traditional districts still existing in the old city of Beijing through RS and GIS technology. By establishing one index of evaluation, the Traditional District Ratio, this paper also aims to draw more attention to the holistic conservation and restoration of the old city of Beijing. 1. INTRODUCTION Great changes have taken place in the old city of Beijing since the central government offices were set up in it half a century ago. More and more hotels, apartments, and office buildings have replaced the existing traditional Chinese courtyard houses. The once ubiquitous Hutongs is becoming rare to find, and the traditional districts in the old city are fading away. Generally speaking, the significance of conservation of the old city is getting more and more re-realization and endorsement after the disastrous Cultural Revolution. Thereafter, many important policies have been set up since 1990, including “The Conservation Plan for 25 Historical Areas in the Old City of Beijing”, “The Conservation Plan for the Historical and Cultural City of Beijing”, and “The Conservation Plan for the Imperial City”. However, the quantity of the existing historical and cultural resources in the old city has not yet been studied in whole, which ought to be the basis of policy-making for the conservation of the old city.

Figure 1

Location of the Inter City, the Outer City the Imperial City, and the Forbidden City.

Figure 2 Strategic Conservation Plan for the Old City

1.1. Previous policies and studies on the old city In 1990, the Beijing municipal government set the first batch of historical areas. And their detailed plans were completed until 2002. In the Conservation Plan for the Historic and Cultural City of Beijing, the gross land of 30 historical areas in the old city is 1278 hectares, 21 percent of the land area of the old city of Beijing. If the area of the historic conservation units and their control zones are calculated, the conservation areas are up to 2617 hectares, about 42% of the old city. The establishment and relative conservation plan of historical areas can be regarded as a milestone for the conservation of the old city. In the meantime, although the notion of holistic conservation in the old city has been recognized since the boundary of the historical areas of the old city was established, the restoration of historic environment outside historical areas of the old city has not been studied till now. In addition, neither has the variation of the spatial elements of traditional districts, especially the new avenues and traditional Hutongs of the old city been studied in recent years. As for the research technology, RS and GIS have already been applied in the survey and analysis of land use, but most of the studies are in the methodological level. No case study on the conservation of traditional districts with RS and GIS technology has been developed in China. Using RS and GIS technology, this paper tries to make a holistic analysis on the quantity of the traditional districts in the old city of Beijing to fill up the vacancy of previous studies, and to provide basic data for further study on the old city. 1.2. Steps and methods of analysis The major analytical steps are as follows: Getting the data of the Hutongs and avenues in the old city of Beijing since 1990 by visiting the governmental website and searching the statistical yearbooks and other official statistical publication, and drawing the recent trend of the variation of Hutongs and avenues. Calculating the area of different zones in the old city, its four administrative districts, and its 27 street committees through the Quick Bird satellite image. Analyzing the characteristic of the evolution and current condition of the traditional districts, and making a spatial perspective for the conservation of the traditional districts of the old city. The following methods are applied to make the analysis of satellite image: Making the geometric correction for the topographic map of Beijing according to its kilometric grids. Using the corrected topographic map in (1) to correct the Quick Bird satellite image. Outlining the boundaries of different zones in the old city of Beijing, including open space, water, roads, historical areas, the reconstructed areas outside historical areas, and the un-reconstructed areas outside historical areas. Outlining the administrative boundaries of the four districts and 27 street committees in the old city. Calculating the sum area of different zones in the old city, its four administrative districts, and its 27 street committees by overlapping the two maps in (4) and (5).

2. THE RECENT TREND OF THE VARIATION OF HUTONGS AND AVENUES Hutong is the basic element to make up of the traditional district of the old city. However, the exact number of traditional Hutongs in the old city is always an enigma. There are so many versions about it because different ways of calculation are applied. Therefore, official data issued by the municipal government were expected to be introduced to the relevant studies as a major reference. In 1990, the official statistic data on the number of Hutongs in different street committees were publicized for the first time, with the aid of the fourth nationwide census in 1990. From the statistics, we can find that there were altogether 2226 Hutongs and 195 avenues in the old city in 1990, when the historical areas were first established. In 2002, shortly after the end of the fifth nationwide census, the newest official statistic data showed that the number of Hutongs and avenues had experiencing a great change. In 2002, the number of avenues in the old city increased to 206; at the same time, that of traditional Hutongs decreased to 2047. That means, one avenue was built and 15 Hutongs disappeared in each year from 1990 to 2002. In comparison with fact that the number of avenues and Hutongs kept increasing from the Ming Dynasty to the foundation of People’s Republic of China, the change of the number of Hutongs were tremendous in this period. In the four administrative districts in the old city of Beijing, the number of avenues increased most in Dongcheng District with 10 new avenues built; the number of Hutongs decreased most in Xicheng District with 120 Hutongs wiped away. Of the administrative area of 27street committees in the old city, the highest number of new avenues built was 8 in the administrative area of Donghuamen Street Committee; the highest number of Hongtongs demolished was 90 in the administrative area of Fengsheng Street Committee. The traditional districts are facing the menace of fading away. Table 1 The Variation of the Number of Avenues and Hutongs

Table 2 The Proportion of the Variation of the Avenues

in the Old City (1990—2002)

and Hutongs’ Number in the Old City (1990—2002)

50

30%

0

20%

-50

10%

-100

0%

-150

Streets

Hutongs

-10% Streets

Hutongs

-200 Dongcheng District

Xicheng District

Chongwen District

Xuanwu District

The Old City

-20% Dongcheng District

Xicheng District

Chongwen District

3. REMAINS OF TRADITIONAL DISTRICTS IN THE OLD CITY IN 2002

Xuanwu District

The Old City

3.1. Land classification from the satellite image

Figure 3 Traditional Courtyard Houses

Figure 4 New Large-Scale Buildings

Figure 5 Adjacent New and Traditional Districts

In order to know how much area of the tradition districts still existed in the old city, we made statistics through the newest satellite image for the first time

in

November

2002.

The

high-resolution Quick Bird satellite image provided

us

a

precise

view

of

the

heterogeneous spatial texture in the old city of Beijing.

The traditional districts with

fine-grained fishbone-structure road system and traditional courtyard houses are evidently Figure 6 One Part of the Quick Bird Satellite Image

intermixing with the reconstructed area with the geometrical large-scale spatial pattern.

Corresponding to current conservation policies, we regard the 30 existing historical areas as one kind of zone. Therefore, after locate the large-scale water, open space, and roads in the old city, we can classify the rest area into three zones: historical areas, reconstructed areas outside historical areas, and the un-reconstructed areas outside historical areas. Besides the identification on the satellite image, some site investigations are also taken to make sure the boundaries of different zones are correctly outlined.

Legend

Land Use

Area

Proportion

(sq.

in the Old

km.)

City(%)

Historic Area

14.80

Un-reconstructive Land

8.86 14.13

(Outside Historic Land) Reconstructive Land

23.61

22.80 36.36

(Outside Historic Land) Green Space and Squares

5.39

8.59

Water

2.22

3.54

New Road and Other Use

8.63

13.76

Boundary of the Old City Boundaries of Street Committees

Figure 7

Land Classification of the Old City of Beijing in 2002

The present policies in various zones are much different in the old city of Beijing. In the historical areas, strict conservation policies have been made on the building height, building density, plot ratio, and

architectural style. As for the water area and open space, although there is no uniform policy on the conservation and control of real estate development, some specific plan has already been made, for instance, the conservation plan of The Temple of Heaven. In addition, those areas are easy to identify and consequently easy to prevent irresponsible reconstruction to private use, for instance, apartments and hotels. In the un-reconstructed areas outside historical conservation areas, no clear policies have been adopted to safeguard these traditional districts. Therefore, neglected by the municipal government and the conservation groups, such area is most venerable to the powerful real estate development in future. 3.2. Indexes of evaluation Although the old city of Beijing is just one small part of the modern Beijing City, it has a total area of 62.68 square kilometers, and its permanent residents came up to 1.64 million in 2002. In such a large city, the four administrative district governments and their inferior 27 street committees usually fulfill the urban management function. Therefore, indexes of evaluation should be established to calculate the quantity of historic districts not only in the whole old city, but also in its four administrative districts and in the administrative areas of its 27 street committees. In this paper, the Traditional District Ratio is used to indicate the quantity of traditional districts that need proper conservation.

Traditional District Ratio= (Historical Areas + Un-reconstructive Area outside Historical Areas) / Total Land Area Table 3 Traditional District Ratio in the Old City and its Four Administrative Districts in 2002 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Dongcheng District

Xicheng District

Chongwen District

Xuanwu District

The Old City

The analysis of the satellite image shows that the Traditional District Ratio of the old city of Beijing was 38% in 2002. Of the four administrative districts in the old city of Beijing, Dongcheng District had the highest rate of 54% and Chongwen District had the lowest rate of 16%. Of the 27 street committees in the old city of Beijing, Jiaodaokou Street Office had the highest rate of 89% and Longtan Street Office had the lowest rate of 0%. Table 4 Traditional District Ratio in 27 street committees in 2002

100% 80% 60%

白纸坊

街 牛

广安门内

树 椿

陶然亭

桥 天

大栅栏

坛 天

体育馆路

潭 龙

东花市

门 前

崇文门外

二龙路

盛 丰

西长安街

桥 厂

福绥境

新街口

山 景

交道口

四

建国门

东

东华门

朝阳门

北新桥

安定门

40% 20% 0%

LEGEND 0

1%—20%

21%—40%

41%—60%

61%—80%

81%—100%

Boundaries of Street Committees

Figure 8

Traditional District Ratio in 27 street committees in 2002

4. CONCLUSION The recent trend of the variation of Hutongs and avenues shows that the spatial form of the old city of Beijing is experiencing rapid change. In the meantime, a large number of traditional districts still exist by 2002. Moreover, 14.13% of the land area of the old city has not been included in the historical areas, which has been and will continue to be the major battlefield between conservation and reel estate development in future. According to the characteristics of the traditional districts, it is still possible to make holistic conservation of the old city of Beijing. However, the conservation of the old city of Beijing is very urgent. Several strategies could be applied according to the characteristics of the old city of Beijing: (1)The historic appearance and style of the old city of Beijing could be restored on the basis of the conservation of the existent traditional districts. (2)The conservation of the old city of Beijing should not limit in the historical areas, but also pay attention to the traditional districts of un-reconstructed areas and the open spaces outside historical areas. (3)Several evaluation indexes, such as Traditional District Ratio, could be applied as the reference to make conservation policies. Consequently, a preliminary physical plan could be put forward as follows: (1)To set open space, historical areas and the rest traditional districts into the conservation areas and make proper and effective conservation policy in them. (2)To restore the reconstructed areas to the traditional form. (3)To keep monitoring the change of the traditional district ration in the old city, its four administrative districts and 27 street communities.

LEGEND

LEGEND

Historical area

Conservation Area

Non-reconstructive Area (Outside Historic Land)

Restoration Area

Reconstructive Area (Outside Historic Land)

New Roads

Green Space and Squares

Boundaries of Street Committees

Water New Roads Boundaries of Street Committees Figure 9 Current Land Classification and Proposed Land Classification

REFERENCES Beijing Academy of Urban Planning and Design. The Conservation Plan for the Imperial City. 2002 Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning. The Conservation Plan for 25 Historical areas in the Old City of Beijing. Beijing: Beijing Yanshan Press. 2002 Proceedings of the study on Beijing City Planning (1946-1996). Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press. 1996 Tan, Zongbo, and Rui Liu. The Changing Old Beijing City: A Brief Review on Its Conservation and Development. Proceedings of the 8th Inter-University Seminar on Asian Megacities. Beijing. 2003 The Editorial Board of Beijing Historic Construction Materials. The City Construction Materials of Beijing since the Establishment of P. R. China. 1992 The Conservation Plan for the Historic and Cultural City of Beijing. 2002