As a strong advocate for the protection of China's ancient cities, Ruan Yisan often scolds people.

"Only scolding can strike in the mind of people who want to destroy ancient towns for ugly buildings and wide streets," says Ruan.

A professor with the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Shanghai-based Tongji University, Ruan is known for his tough personality and perseverance, which have helped save a number of ancient towns from falling victim to urban construction.

In order to stop real estate development in Lijiang, Ruan says he spent a lot of time and energy persuading local officials, often ending up in quarrels.

As a road was once designed to be built passing a corner of Zhouzhuang, Ruan planned to risk his life by lying down to block construction vehicles. In the end, he won.

As tourists became unsatisfied with Zhouzhuang for being too commercial and too crowded, Ruan devised a tourism control plan that recommended closure of at least one-third of the stores. Some local residents could not understand and still bear grudges against him.

The ancient city of Pingyao in Shanxi Province and the old town of Lijiang in Yunnan Province have been kept almost intact thanks to Ruan's efforts. Both towns were added to the World Heritage List in 1997.

Ruan takes pride in the protection of six ancient towns scattering the southern areas of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which include Zhouzhuang and Tongli of East China's Jiangsu Province. Now visitors can still see these towns on water, which date back to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

But Ruan is not satisfied with the protection status. "More should have been better preserved," he says.

Protection status

The State Council first designated 24 locales as "cities of historical and cultural renown" in 1982. So far 101 cities have been bestowed that status, which is both an honour and an obligation to better protect them.

"But less than 10 of the renowned cities have been well preserved by now," Ruan says.

He divides the 101 cities into four levels according to their protection status.

The top level is represented by cities such as Pingyao and Lijiang. "These cities are strictly planned, preserving the old city and building a new district beside the old city for development," says Ruan, adding that Suzhou also does a good job in protection.

"Suzhou has been careful with protecting the old city's style and features. It has controlled the development inside the old city and meanwhile two new districts are built for economic development," he says.

Beijing and Xi'an are listed at the third level.

"The two cities have protected a few sections, but the whole pattern of the ancient cities has disappeared," he says.

A majority of the renowned cities are at the fourth or worst level.

"Cities like Zunyi, a revolutionary base in China's modern history, and most provincial capital cities like Shenyang and Nanchang have totally failed in protection. What they have preserved are just a few spots in the ancient cities. But an ancient city needs to show people at least sections, not just a few spots," says Ruan.

Who is to blame

The professor says people's ideas about urban construction and heritage protection are partially to blame for the poor protection.

In the 1980s when the country began to reform and shifted its emphasis to economic development, Ruan says he and his colleagues tried to offer free planning for a few towns, but most refused them.

"Most of the town leaders do not attach importance to cultural and historical heritage protection at all. What they want is growth in economic figures," he says.

After being turned down many times, Ruan and his colleagues found towns with convenient transportation conditions were trying to pull down ancient city walls and build wider streets to accommodate more development.

On the other hand, towns with no easy access were preserved.

"Zhouzhuang of Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, has been preserved because it took four days in the 1980s to reach the town from Shanghai. Buses could not take you there; you needed a ship ," says Ruan.

But the well-preserved ancient look has made the isolated town famous across the country.

"You think wider streets will bring about development easily. That is possible! But we need to make good planning first," he said.

"It is really wise that the Suzhou government has issued a document, which says how well a town is protected is as important a factor as economic figures in evaluating an officials' performance."

Luo Zhewen, an expert on ancient architecture, agrees.

"Making a protection plan first and then a tourism development plan can co-ordinate the relationship between protection and development," he said.

Efforts to protect ancient cities and develop tourism can actually complement each other, he added.

On one hand, developing tourism depends on the cultural and historical resources. If they are destroyed they cannot be restored, which means a huge loss for tourism development.

On the other hand, protected heritages need tourism as a channel to educate people about culture, arts and history and to fulfill social benefits, says Ruan.

"Cities of cultural and historical renown are permanent. People must be there on the scene to see, to feel, and to be educated," he says, while stressing the importance of protection.

He cites Wulingyuan of Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province, as a bad example.

Added to the World Heritage List in 1992, Wulingyuan used to have a striking landscape.

However, it was orally warned by the World Heritage Committee in 1997 for building hotels and restaurants inside the area, which experts believe causes significant negative impact to the landscape and endangered plant and animal species.

If the buildings were not removed from the area, Wulingyuan could have been removed from the list, Luo recalled.

Measures have been taken to demolish all the buildings and replant the flora, but it has cost much more than it gained from overload development.

"It is of course necessary to build hotels and restaurants for tourists, but we must place them in a proper place," Luo says.

He applauds the method of building new districts beside ancient towns, where facilities can be built to cater to tourists.

(China Daily 07/21/2004 page5)