China

Fuzhou sets example in preserving past with 4,746 cultural heritage sites


City follows lead laid down by Xi during his tenure

Born and raised in a century-old mansion he inherited from his late grandfather, Chen Fan has always managed to find solace and inner peace in the heart of a bustling city.

His home lies deep in an alley in Sanfang Qixiang, a highly popular tourist attraction in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province.

There, Chen drinks tea under a starlit sky, free from the urban din, including noise from traffic.

“We are living in a prized asset in our city, with our home representing the quintessence of ancient buildings in Fuzhou,” he said.

Chen’s family is one of 162 still living in the ancient neighborhood, which was formed during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) before flourishing in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). The area was once home to more than 400 prestigious figures from Chinese history.

Families in the neighborhood are the biggest beneficiaries of a protection and renovation campaign spanning decades.

It was spearheaded by President Xi Jinping when he served as secretary of the Communist Party of China Fuzhou city committee, the city’s top official, from 1990 to 1996.

With many of the mansions in a bad state of repair, along with a lack of coordinated protection efforts and a threat from real estate developers, Xi led a citywide campaign to safeguard Fuzhou’s most-valued relics by rolling out protection and renovation plans.

In 2002, while serving as governor of Fujian, Xi wrote in the preface to the book Fuzhou Ancient Buildings:

“Economic development is an important part of a leader’s responsibility, so is the protection of ancient buildings, traditional neighborhoods, cultural relics and famous cities. Work on the two fronts is of equal importance.”

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The book was written by Zeng Yidan, a history scholar and former head of the Fuzhou Cultural Heritage Administration.

Some two decades later, protecting cultural heritage has become a national policy priority, the latest example being a plan approved by the top leadership for the core area of Beijing.

Meticulous measures are being adopted to protect this area and widen the protection of ancient neighborhoods, including hutong, or alleyways, and former residences of well-known people.

According to local officials and experts, Xi’s tenure in Fuzhou reflected his long-standing focus on protecting cultural heritage, and he led the way for his successors in the city to continue this work.

Wu Yujian, head of the Fuzhou Cultural Heritage Administration, said a series of important measures adopted by Xi during his time in the city laid the foundation for such work. Local officials have acted on his vision, made persistent efforts “and brought us to where we are today”.

Fuzhou now boasts 4,746 cultural heritage sites, including 25 under national protection. Last year, the World Heritage Committee selected the city to host its 44th session this year, a move widely seen as recognition of Fuzhou’s remarkable achievements on cultural heritage protection.

Years of protection

Chen, the resident, recalls encounters with Xi in the 1990s-a time when Xi was showing keen interest in the ancient mansions in Sanfang Qixiang during his trips to the neighborhood.

The area, one of the nation’s largest preserved old-town districts, once boasted more than 200 examples of ancient architecture and was hailed as a “museum” for buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

However, in the 1990s, many of the mansions were subdivided into squatter homes. Alterations were made to their original structures, and some were on the verge of demolition as the city stepped up real estate development.

One of the ancient buildings under threat was the birthplace of Lin Zexu, the late scholar, official and a native of Fuzhou who led the fight against opium smuggling during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Lin Qiang, a descendant, said in an interview with Study Times that Lin Zexu’s birthplace, former residence and teaching room were occupied by different organizations and individuals in the early 1990s, with the building in a poor state of maintenance.

He recalls Xi paying his first trip to the Lin Zexu Memorial Hall soon after the latter began his work in Fuzhou.

In the coming years, Xi chaired a number of special meetings on renovation and heritage protection.

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Lin Zexu’s birthplace, another heritage site, was protected from developers after Xi chaired a meeting in 1996, which decided to form a special leading group to look at renovating the site.

The city government allocated funding of 12 million yuan (S$2 million) to compensate developers. Xi also spoke at a ceremony to mark the start of renovation projects.

The Lin family will never forget the close attention Xi paid to the restoration of Lin Zexu’s former residence and cemetery, Lin Qiang said.

A summary from a special meeting on protecting cultural relics, chaired by Xi in March 1991, reads, “The protection of historic cities and cultural heritage is a matter of paramount importance during the course of urban development.”

At that meeting, city officials approved decisions to protect and renovate the former residence of Lin Juemin, a revolutionary in the Qing Dynasty.

More important, they approved a document on protecting the residences of historic figures and other heritage sites in Sanfang Qixiang and elsewhere in Fuzhou.

The document stipulates that no organizations or individuals, without authorization from the city government, can demolish or rebuild ancient buildings.

Under Xi’s leadership, the authorities in Fuzhou set up the first city-level administration on protecting cultural heritage and also formed the city’s first archaeological team. Funding for the restoration of cultural relics was raised from 80,000 yuan in 1990 to 1 million yuan in 1991.

Wu, the official, said, “The measures and approaches piloted by Xi in Fuzhou were groundbreaking and have shielded the city’s cultural heritage from possible damage amid intense urban development over the years.”

He said Fuzhou is an important “breeding ground” for Xi’s thoughts on protecting cultural heritage, and over the years, city officials have followed his pioneering example.

Liu Qingzhu, a researcher with the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the emphasis Xi placed on protecting cultural heritage was groundbreaking in the 1990s, when the country was making all-out efforts to develop the economy.

“Since China’s reform and opening-up in 1978, many cities have turned to demolition to make space for new metropolises. But Fuzhou, especially during the 1990s, did brilliantly in protecting its ancient towns,” he said.

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Tangible benefits

Xi also wrote in the preface to Fuzhou Ancient Buildings, “With economic expansion, the government should bolster protection of historic cities, cultural heritage and ancient buildings, while a well-protected historic city can also better attract people and unite its residents.”

The argument put forward by Xi has been fully vindicated in the case of Sanfang Qixiang.

In 2007, Fuzhou launched a major program to restore the ancient mansions in the neighborhood, with their old facades being maintained in the renovation work.

The city also launched programs to relocate administrative units, factories and tenants in the area.

Property owners such as Chen refurbished their homes at their own expense, with the authorities covering the cost of redeveloping roads and other public facilities.

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Residents living in buildings where property ownership was not clearly defined, and where owners were unable to afford restoration work, were relocated by the authorities to affordable housing programs.

The renovation program reshaped residents’ lives. The arrival of sewage facilities meant families had flush toilets and no longer had to worry about frequent summer flooding.

The neighborhood is now Fuzhou’s top tourist attraction. Last month, it received 30,000 to 45,000 visitors a day, despite the Covid-19 pandemic hitting the tourism industry hard.

Last year, Sanfang Qixiang received more than 11.18 million tourist visits, which produced income of 163 million yuan.

As of last month, local authorities had allocated 4.55 billion yuan to resettlement programs and neighborhood renovation.

The city’s GDP rose from about 10 billion yuan in 1990 to 939.2 billion yuan last year.

Uniting the nation

Liu, the researcher, said Xi has taken the importance of protecting cultural heritage to an unprecedented level since being elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee in November 2012.

Itineraries for Xi’s nationwide inspection trips also reflect his emphasis on protecting cultural relics. He has toured museums in areas including Beijing, Shaanxi and Anhui provinces, and Guangxi Zhuang and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions.

Last year, he visited the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang, his first stop on a four-day inspection trip to Gansu province, where he attended a seminar with scholars at the Dunhuang Academy.

This year, he inspected the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi province, in May, where he stressed that cultural heritage assets are nonrenewable, irreplaceable resources and that protecting them should be a top priority.

Liu said another important reason Xi has placed significant emphasis on protecting and exploring cultural heritage is because of its central role in uniting the people.

“China has an uninterrupted, time-tested civilization of 5,000 years and it is imperative that we further explore it,” Liu said.

“Heritage is a reminder that people should not forget their cultural roots, and that history can bind a nation’s hearts together.”



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