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Buffer zone to protect Forbidden City No Time to Lose Nearly all the Beijing residents interviewed for this article supported the buffer zone concept, but urged the government to continue refining and improving its plans. Hua Xinmin, a social activist, said, "It's good that the 'massive dismantling' of siheyuan courtyards and hutong lanes is now forbidden, but that's not enough. The government should specify, in explicit language, the names of the courtyards and lanes to be preserved, and how to preserve them." Hua, a middle-school teacher, has for years campaigned for protection of Beijing's cultural traditions. "There are no legal provisions or penalties against individuals and organizations acting in violation of the protection plans," she said. "Neither is there any mention of the oversight over the implementation of the buffer zone's plans." According to Hua, plans, after all, are "words on paper," and, "Beijing is rapidly changing, and it is already beyond recognition. We have no time to lose in translating the buffer zone's plans into real action." The conflict between economic expansion and the protection of Beijing's cultural legacy is increasingly conspicuous, so conspicuous that it prompted UNESCO to intervene. In June 2002, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the executive body of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, voiced objections to the massive dismantling of "old Beijing's" siheyuan courtyards, ongoing since the late 1980s, especially in the Imperial City. In June 2003, at its 27th session in Paris, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee expressed worries about the "increasing pressure" stemming from urban development in Beijing bearing down on protection of the city's cultural heritage. The committee suggested that the Beijing Municipal Government should establish buffer zones for each of its world heritage sites and submit a report, in writing, before February 1, 2004, to the World Heritage Centre on the progress of its work to protect these sites. In May 2004, the World Heritage Centre urged the Beijing Municipal Government to delimit, as quickly as possible, a buffer zone for protection the Forbidden City. In July, at its 28th session, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee asked that this be done before February 1, 2005. The committee hoped that by doing so, Beijing would be able to counter criticism of its city planning within the international community. Hua said it would be unfair to say that the protection of its cultural heritage has been totally ignored in Beijing. She cited a list of plans put forward for that purpose, including one published in 2000 for the protection of the Imperial City. "The buffer zone plan for the Forbidden City seems to be the most elaborate of all the protection plans published so far," she said. Buffer zones have been set up for four of Beijing's six World Heritage List sites?athe Summer Palace, the Ming Tombs, the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City. Officials and experts are now busy planning buffer zones for the Great Wall in Beijing and the Peking Man site in Fangshan District. "Mountains surrounding the two sites have served as natural buffers," Kong said. "Despite that, we think it is necessary for the sites to have legally effective buffers." Sections of the Great Wall, which snake through Greater Beijing, have a combined length of 600 kilometres. The Beijing Municipal Government recently banned construction within 500 metres of either side of them.
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