Film Screening: From Hutong to Highrise

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laslonyc

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Film Screening at the Storefront Libary: From Hutong to Highrise: The Transformation of Beijing, a documentary by Jasper Goldman and Beatrice Chen. Friday Dec 4 6:00pm
(20 minute film, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Beatrice Chen).

Beijing, the capital of China, is changing with unbelievable speed. The city is replacing its historic urban fabric of narrow lanes (hutong) and courtyard houses (siheyuan) with highrise buildings and highways. This quest for modernization is destroying Beijing?s heritage and extinguishing an historic lifestyle. From Hutong to Highrise documents a vanishing way of life and urgent debate between residents, preservationists, urban planners and developers over the future of the city.

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About the Storefront Library:
The Storefront Library is a temporary library located at 640 Washington Street in donated commercial space in Boston?s Chinatown. The community has been without a library since 1956. By visiting the Storefront Library, you can show your support for the development of a future, permanent library branch in the neighborhood. More info at www.storefrontlibrary.org
 
Hutong=fancy term for slum. Most aren't historic (all those outside the 2nd ring road), and those that are are being preserved (highrises aren't allowed inside the 2nd ring road). I doubt any of you would want to live in one, despite its supposed "historicness"
 
Is this hutos like COOL COOL house in Peebuddy ESSEX useum? That SO cool with 2stories cortyard and tile roofings and CHAIRman MOE poster. NICE wood and carved things. It make SUPER NICE condo in the warmer climates. BUT. Not so much in COLD Boston or the Manchurian places!!!! NOT need Red Book auteur either.
 
^ Not that any of that was serious, but not many hutongs (in Beijing at least) have two-story structures. Almost everything in the center of the city built before 1950 is one story high, which was a huge shock to me when I visited. I believe the Peabody-Essex Museum's house is from somewhere closer to Shanghai, where taller houses are common.
 
BarbaricManchurian said:
Hutong=fancy term for slum. Most aren't historic (all those outside the 2nd ring road), and those that are are being preserved (highrises aren't allowed inside the 2nd ring road). I doubt any of you would want to live in one, despite its supposed "historicness"
Click to expand...

I actually saw some very cool hutongs in Beijing. There was one (off the street that runs between the Forbidden City and the Drum Tower) that was being colonized by very hip-looking record stores. There were a couple others with nice cafes and very florid restoration/decoration.

I stayed in one in another part of the city that was fairly raw though. Traffic jams of bicycles and cars causing hours of honking (they're really no more than one lane wide), stuff getting made/washed outside by people squatting, also in the way of traffic (it didn't help that a sewer line was being built down it), dirt and dust flying everywhere. The fact that the hutongs are mostly lined by blank walls does not help make them any more hospitable. I can't imagine living in one of the houses without plumbing and needing to traverse the hutongs to use the crowded public bathroom all the time.

I'm surprised you say that there are no tear-downs allowed inside the 2nd Ring Road though. I definitely saw some new demolition going on for the new subway stations, and there were plenty of new towers jutting off Chang'an St. in what must have been former hutongs at one point, though I admittedly don't know what was there before the new construction.
 
well, skyscrapers (more like midrises) are allowed along the 2nd ring road, but none are allowed further inside. Also, a few hutong have been demolished in the past in the core (when they cared less about historic preservation), but that has stopped generally except for necessary projects such as subways (http://www.maply.cn/dis/attachments/day_090715/20090715_81cf287dec9e96180baaAMsFwybOY6PU.jpg beijing subway plan) and a few frivolous projects such as the National Theatre. There was actually a huge restoration project completed at Qianmen Jie, some might call it a bit "disney" but the street was restored to what it looked like in the early 20th century
 
I guess I'm thinking specifically about the "Financial Street" area around Taipengdao Street, which is inside the Second Ring Road. Do you know if that was created before the ban on demolitions?
 
actually that looks to be along the Second Ring Road, at least from my viewing on Google Earth. It does extend somewhat inward, however, I'm not a good enough expert on Beijing to know what was there before.
 
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