Village protection plan preserves ancient culture

Awareness is growing of the need to save age-old settlements that embody traditional lifestyles, as Hou Liqiang and Li Yingqing report from Dali, Yunnan province.

Once, all the houses in Zhoucheng village were traditional properties, with three rooms and a screen wall forming a courtyard, an age-old architectural characteristic of residences of the Bai ethnic group.

Now, just four houses in the village, home to 2,500 households in Dali city, Yunnan province, still maintain the traditional values, while the others have either lost their traditional structures and decor as a result of renovation work, or have been demolished to build new houses. The process took just 10 years.