Guangzhou's long history used to give headaches to city planners.

As the forerunner of China's market economy, the capital city of Guangdong Province sometimes found its ancient relics and old houses inhibited commercial expansion.

In the 1980s the municipal government gave top priority to demolition, engaging in the non-stop task of pulling down old houses and communities to make room for real estate developments or public facilities.

The practice resumed two years ago, but this time only the walls that once kept the city's numerous ancient relics out of public view are being broken down.

The goal is to transform Guangzhou into a city of museums with no walls.

"We finally realized the ancient heritages in the city still connect with people, and these sites can still inject vigour and strength into the city," said Chen Zhuoning, deputy secretary of Guangzhou's Yuexiu District.

Statistics from Guangzhou Cultural Bureau show the city has a great number of key protective cultural relics, including 19 of the national level and 41 of the provincial level.

Yuexiu District, which enjoys a history of more than 2,200 years, is said to be the oldest district in the city and contains the essence of local culture.

In the district there are a number of key cultural relics, of which six are under State protection, nine are under provincial-level protection and 26 are under municipal-level protection.

Most of these relics were either fenced by high walls or randomly-constructed buildings and not easily accessed by the public. A number of them are located inside institutes and schools, keeping general viewers from paying regular visits.

At the end of last year Chen's district decided to develop all the traditional sites in Yuexiu District into "no-wall" museums over the next seven years to better protect the relics and enhance the district's cultural development.

"The no-wall museums allow local residents to have access to and a better understanding of the city's history and traditional culture," said Chen.

Cheng Cunhao, director of the Museum of Guangzhou, agrees. He highly praised the district government's decision, saying the no-wall museums represent the city's balance between economic and cultural development.

Street of relics

Beijing Road in Yuexiu District was generally regarded as a relatively new commercial street, but in fact it has a long history.

This is reflected by the "1,000 years' relics street," which opened two years ago.

A great number of old bricks and stones were discovered when the road underwent reconstruction.

Archaeologists determined that all the bricks and stones were made during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (AD 907-960) when Guangzhou was the capital of South Han Kingdom (AD 907-971).

Soon the district government decided to build a glass box on the street in order to display those bricks and stones.

The glass-box street was soon opened to local residents, providing easy access for them to learn more about the history of the commercial street while at the same time protecting the relics.

"Only when these relics are open to residents can they present their traditional values," said Chen.

According to archaeologists' research, the "1,000 years' relic street" indicates Beijing Road has been the main street running through city from north to south ever since the South Han Kingdom.

Wood-structured relics in the South Han Kingdom were also found in the street when archaeologists conducted research on the stones and bricks two years ago.

Guangming Plaza, a huge shopping mall to be built along the street, is designed with a room of 700 square metres at the centre of the first floor to display the wooden relics. The room will open to the public this August.

People can visit the room from the aisle of every floor when they are shopping in the plaza once it is completed.

"The room was originally designed to be another shop, but we realize we should do something to protect relics from ancient cites," said Chen.

According to Chen, more than 50 million yuan (US$6 million) will be invested to build the display room.

Like the "1,000 years' relics street" and the wooden artifacts in Beijing Road, many other relics are open to the public.

According the Guangzhou Cultural Bureau, some relics in the city are located in schools, such as Changdi Zhenguang Middle School.

The school has two key relic sites which have a history of more than 300 years.

One is the Chaozhou Assembly Hall and the other is Yuzhang College, both of which were built during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

(China Daily 05/19/2004 page5)