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Buffer zone to protect Forbidden City
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-08-23 09:36 Expanded Buffer
Zone
The name, Forbidden City, which is most familiar to westerners, is a short
form for Purple Forbidden City. It is where 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing
dynasties ruled China in succession from the 15th century to the early 20th. The
colour purple was associated with the stellar constellation known to the Chinese
as Ziwei, or "Purple Infinitude," which was said to be the abode of the Heavenly
Emperor, the supreme ruler of the universe. Chinese emperors were supposed to be
?°sons of the Heavenly Emperor?± and as such, were mandated by the Heavenly
Emperor to rule the earthly world.
In 1987, the Forbidden City, the largest and best-preserved palace complex in
the world, was enshrined on the UNESCO World Heritage List, along with five
other sites in the country. No buffer zone was designated for it, because China
had acceded to the World Heritage Convention just two years before, in 1985. As
a new signatory to the convention and as a privilege, the sites were added to
the List without examination by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
Nevertheless, a buffer zone is a must for any listed site under UNESCO's
standing rules.
Kong Fanzhi, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural
Relics, said, "That means the Beijing Municipal Government was still obliged to
develop a buffer zone for each of the World Heritage List sites in Beijing."
At the 28th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Suzhou, a
scenic city in East China's Jiangsu Province, in 2004, the Beijing Municipal
Government proposed two alternatives for the planned buffer zone to protect the
Forbidden City. One, a 597-hectare area, covered most of the sites where
imperial families once lived and worked, including, for example, the Winter
Palace, now a part of Beihai Park. The other called for a much larger buffer
zone of 1,463 hectares, to protect not only imperial or princely sites and
structures but also what still remains of "old Beijing," the centuries-old lanes
known as hutong and siheyuan?awalled courtyards with one-story buildings
arranged in neat squares.
According to Kong and other officials, the second
alternative won approval.
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