Such a city | The Central Axis successfully applied for World Heritage status, and we discuss the Liang Chen Plan and the style of old Beijing
2024-08-13
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Starting from Yongdingmen in the south and ending at the Drum Tower and Bell Tower in the north, the 7.8-kilometer central axis spans over seven centuries and connects the past and the future like a bond of time and space. On July 27, 2024, the central axis, praised as "the soul and backbone of the old city of Beijing", was officially recognized as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. This is not only an affectionate dialogue between the thousand-year-old city and modern civilization, but also a cherishment and inheritance of historical memory.
Beijing's Central Axis successfully applied for World Heritage status©CCTV
"The unique and magnificent order of Beijing is created by the establishment of this central axis. The undulating shapes and spatial distributions from front to back and symmetrical from left to right are all based on this central axis; the grandeur of the spirit lies in this scale that extends from north to south and runs through to the end."These are classic words from the famous architect Liang Sicheng in his 1951 article "Beijing - An Incomparable Masterpiece of Urban Planning" in the New Observation magazine.
Long before the successful application for World Heritage status, the "Liang-Chen Plan" jointly proposed by Liang Sicheng and Chen Zhanxiang already implied a farsighted vision for the protection of cultural heritage. Although this plan was not implemented in the end, the urban planning ideas and concepts contained in it had a profound impact on subsequent urban planning and became an important historical document on Beijing's urban planning.
Li Hao, "Planning Beijing: A New Study of the Liang-Chen Plan"
Li Hao, a professor at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, has long been interested in the history of urban planning in the early years of the People's Republic of China (1949 to 1960).He said that these ten years were the foundation period for urban planning, and the practices at that time formed the tradition of urban planning in China.
This issue of Such a City will take a look at the urban planners in the early days of the People's Republic of China, and look back at a period of history of exploration between ideals and practical difficulties. Behind the controversy over Beijing's "Liang Chen Plan", what are the thorny realities of the two urban construction models of "internal renovation and expansion" and "new town"? What are the implications?
Such a City | The Central Axis was successfully listed as a World Heritage Site, and we will discuss the Liang Chen Plan and the style of old Beijing
——Guests of this issue
Li Hao, Professor, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture
——This episode’s host
Hao Han, reporter at The Paper
The "New Beijing Plan" was Liang Sicheng's original idea for the "Western Suburbs New District"
Such a city:British writer Maugham once said in his essay, "Beijing is the best place to spend the rest of your life." The Beijing he described is an ancient city full of waterways, temples and green trees, which is very different from today's Beijing. Behind this change is a topic that is often discussed - the "Liang Chen Plan". The plan advocates that the ancient city style within the second ring road of Beijing, especially the inner city area of old Beijing, be preserved intact as a cultural heritage and tourist area. However, this "new city" plan was not adopted after the founding of New China. Instead, the government adopted a strategy of "internal renovation and expansion", that is, to transform the city while preserving historical relics. Combined with the background after the founding of the People's Republic of China just mentioned, why did we choose such a plan at that time?
Li Hao:At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Beijing's population was only about 1 million, and now it has grown to more than 20 million. This change is earth-shaking. In terms of land use, the vast majority of residents at that time lived within the city wall, that is, within the scope of the current Second Ring Road.
The construction land outside the city walls was very limited, with only a few buildings outside a few city gates, such as Xizhimen and Fuxingmen. Most of the construction land was concentrated within the city walls, making Beijing at that time neither large nor very crowded. Compared with Shanghai at the same time, it had a smaller population and limited land use, with obvious boundaries - the city walls, moats, and railway lines surrounding the city.
Beijing has undergone tremendous changes since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The city walls have been demolished, most of the moats have disappeared, and the ring railway is long gone. After becoming the capital, Beijing has carried out large-scale construction activities and gradually transformed into a modern city.
As the capital, the city needs to meet many functional requirements, not just historical and cultural protection. It can be said that as the capital, Beijing has inevitably sacrificed many historical features and cultural heritages in the process of development. If the capital is located in other cities, such as Xi'an, facing the same development pressure and functional requirements, it may also face similar situations. Therefore, Beijing's fate is not a special case, but reflects the unique responsibilities and challenges of being a capital.
When political and national defense demands conflict with historical and cultural protection, the latter often becomes the weaker party. This is a helpless but common situation.
The term "Liang-Chen Plan" originated after the reform and opening up, when Chen Zhanxiang first mentioned the plan he and Liang Sicheng jointly proposed in an interview. This plan was later commonly referred to as the "Liang-Chen Plan". Specifically, this plan was jointly submitted to the central government by Liang Sicheng and Chen Zhanxiang in February 1950, with the title "Suggestions on the Location of the Central People's Government Administrative Center".
"Suggestions on the Location of the Central People's Government Administrative Center" Home Page © "Architect"
The proposal was accompanied by two diagrams depicting the location of the administrative center, which was a plan. The proposal was submitted in February 1950. In fact, Liang Sicheng had already had the idea of building the capital administrative district in the western suburbs a year earlier, in early 1949. The reason for this idea is closely related to the background of my country's capital construction. On January 31, 1949, after the peaceful liberation of Peking, the central government came to Beijing from its station in Xibaipo, Hebei, to study the future work, office and residence of the central government in Beijing. The first thing they considered was the new urban area in the western suburbs, which is now the Wanshou Road and Wukesong area.
The reason for paying special attention to this area is that it was the first place occupied by the People's Liberation Army. When Beijing was peacefully liberated, many areas within the city walls had not yet been completely controlled by the People's Liberation Army, and the People's Liberation Army was stationed in the western suburbs. During the Anti-Japanese War, after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937, the Japanese began to build their own area in the western suburbs, calling it the "Western Suburbs New Street Market." They built many roads and houses over a period of eight years.
A simplified diagram of the urban plan of Beiping. © Beiping Urban Plan Design Data Collection 1 (Beijing: 1947)
After Japan surrendered in 1945, these areas were occupied by the Kuomintang army. Later, during the Battle of Pingjin, the Chinese People's Liberation Army recaptured them in early 1949. The Western Suburbs are strategically located close to the scenic Western Hills and have a pleasant environment. At the end of March 1949, after the CPC Central Committee moved from Xibaipo, Hebei to Beijing, it was initially stationed in the Xiangshan area of the Western Suburbs until September of the same year when it moved to Zhongnanhai.
After the CPC Central Committee moved to Beijing, it immediately launched a series of construction projects in the new urban area. One of the most famous projects was the "New Six Institutes". The so-called "New Six Institutes" refers to the residential and service facilities built for the then members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau at that time included Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Ren Bishi. Each of them was allocated a residential building, plus a service building, a total of six buildings. These buildings are located in the Wanshou Road area and still retain their iconic features, reflecting the central government's emphasis on the construction of the Western Suburbs New District.
In April 1949, the then competent authorities, the Beiping Construction Bureau and the Central Government Construction Office, invited a group of experts to a discussion, including Liang Sicheng. He actively supported the construction of the Western Suburbs New District and led teachers and students of Tsinghua University to conduct in-depth research.
On May 8 of the same year, the Beijing Municipal Construction Bureau convened a group of well-known experts and celebrities to hold an urban planning symposium. One of the main topics was the construction of the new urban area.At this meeting, Liang Sicheng delivered a long speech. As one of the participants who spoke the most and with the richest content, he systematically expounded on the idea of building the capital's administrative district in the western suburbs. Therefore, the initial formation of this idea was at this urban planning symposium, that is, May 8, 1949. This means that this idea did not start in February 1950, but was formed before the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the central government moved into Zhongnanhai.
Archives of the Urban Planning Symposium on May 8, 1949 (topics discussed at the symposium, first page) © The Architect
Statistics of speeches at the Urban Planning Symposium on May 8, 1949 Note: The left axis represents the number of words in the speech, and the right axis represents the number of speeches. Some participants did not speak at the time. © The Architect
It should be noted that the so-called debate with the Soviet experts took place after they arrived in Beijing on September 16, 1949, while Chen Zhanxiang, another co-author of the "Liang-Chen Plan", did not come to Beijing for the first time and meet Liang Sicheng for the first time until October 27, 1949.Therefore, the original conception of the "Liang Chen Plan" was entirely Liang Sicheng's personal idea, and had nothing to do with Soviet experts, Chen Zhanxiang, or the central government's entry into Zhongnanhai.
To explore the source of Mr. Liang Sicheng's idea of building a new western suburbs district in 1949, we can study it from the perspective of academic history, starting from the two factors of the actual conditions and policy background at that time.
At the beginning of 1949, the "Western Suburbs New Street Market" previously built by the Japanese in the western suburbs had already formed a certain scale, with complete infrastructure such as roads, facilities, and parks and green spaces. These conditions provided a good starting point for the new district in the western suburbs, and it would be a waste if they were not utilized. In terms of policy support, the central government tended to choose the western suburbs as the base for the new regime. The property rights of this area are clear. It was originally owned by the Japanese, then taken over by the Kuomintang, and then transferred to the Communist Party with the defeat of the Kuomintang. Therefore, there is no complicated demolition problem here, which is convenient for rapid commissioning. Therefore, during the discussion of the construction of the new urban area from April to May 1949, Mr. Liang Sicheng held a positive attitude towards the potential of the area. In today's terms, this work can be regarded as an urban renewal project, that is, transforming the places used by the enemy in the past into service facilities for the new regime.
At the urban planning symposium on May 8, 1949, the Beijing Urban Planning Committee (hereinafter referred to as the "urban planning committee") was established on May 22, based on the proposals of the experts attending the symposium. The main task of the urban planning committee was to carry out the planning of the capital, and Liang Sicheng was formally authorized to lead the teachers and students of Tsinghua University to be responsible for the planning of the western suburbs new district. This planning project was called "New Beijing".
Soviet experts and the Liang-Chen Plan: the collision of two urban visions under urgent reality
Li Hao:After the New Beijing Plan was officially announced in the People's Daily the next day, the authorization news was widely publicized. Liang Sicheng immediately began to lead a team of teachers and students from Tsinghua University to carry out the planning work of the Western Suburbs New District. On September 1 of the same year, the Beijing Urban Planning Committee held its first committee meeting. At the meeting, Liang Sicheng reported on the interim results and exhibited dozens of planning maps.
This means that after several months of hard work, Liang Sicheng and his team have achieved preliminary planning results. However, in the same month, the situation of capital planning changed significantly, which directly affected the planning direction of the Western Suburbs New District and became a major variable for Liang Sicheng to build the capital administrative district in the Western Suburbs.
There are two main factors for this change. First, Soviet experts arrived in Beijing on September 16, 1949, and went to Shanghai on November 28. This group of Soviet experts, known as the "Municipal Experts Group", focused on assisting Shanghai. The reason for focusing on assisting Shanghai is that Shanghai, as the largest city in New China, is not only populous, but also an economic center. It has long been influenced by Western powers, and the Communist Party is worried that various problems may arise after taking over. This group of experts was the result of China's request to send them when Liu Shaoqi led a delegation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to visit the Soviet Union in June 1949, and was brought back by Liu Shaoqi when he returned to China.
The Soviet experts, who were originally intended to assist Shanghai, also provided consulting assistance to Beijing before going to Shanghai. Although their main task was not to directly participate in Beijing's planning work, when discussing municipal construction such as the development of roads, sewers and water supply systems, they inevitably involved overall urban planning. Soviet architectural expert Balenikop put forward his own views on Beijing's urban planning.
Under these circumstances, a subtle competitive relationship formed between the opinions of Soviet experts and the planning research work that Liang Sicheng was entrusted to carry out. Liang Sicheng was originally responsible for the planning project in Beijing, but the arrival of Soviet experts and the planning suggestions they put forward were different from Liang Sicheng's plan, which had a significant impact on his work.
The working methods of Soviet experts followed their own process, first investigating and understanding the local situation, and then asking the central leadership for policy instructions. On October 6, 1949, shortly after the founding ceremony, the head of the Soviet expert group and architectural expert Baranikop and others held talks with Peng Zhen, then secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, asking whether Beijing would develop industry and his views on Liang Sicheng's "New Beijing Plan". Peng Zhen made it clear that Beijing would definitely develop industry, and pointed out that Liang Sicheng's plan was limited to academic research and had not yet become a formal government plan. Peng Zhen's statement on October 6, 1949 had an adverse impact on Liang Sicheng's planning scheme and became an important factor affecting the "Liang-Chen Plan" after September 1949.
Another influencing factor was the timing of the founding ceremony. Initially, Mao Zedong and others did not expect the new China to be officially established on October 1, 1949, and they had originally planned for a later date. However, the situation developed rapidly, prompting the central government to decide to hold the founding ceremony ahead of schedule. From the decision to hold the founding ceremony on October 1 to the official holding of the ceremony, there were only about 10 days. In such a short period of time, in addition to organizational preparations, it was also necessary to ensure that the Central People's Government had the necessary office conditions, including the establishment of an organizational department, staffing, and determining office space.
Under such urgent circumstances, dozens of central government agencies in the capital finally chose to set up offices in the old city of Beijing, including the relocation of the CPC Central Committee from Xiangshan in the western suburbs to Zhongnanhai. This decision brought greater pressure to Liang Sicheng's "New Beijing Plan". The original idea of the central government was to set up a new administrative center in the Wanshou Road area in the western suburbs and commissioned Liang Sicheng to plan it. However, the actual situation was that the central government directly started office activities in the old city.
Liang Sicheng had deep feelings for the historical features of Beijing's old city, and he believed that the ancient city was facing a huge threat. In September 1949, he wrote to Nie Rongzhen, the mayor of Beiping, calling for an end to this trend. But on the other hand, this situation was inevitable at the time, because there was no other suitable place for the central government agencies to work except the old city. Even though there were some gardens such as Beihai, Xiyuan, and Nanyuan, they were not suitable as office places.
After September 1949, the "New Beijing Plan" chaired by Liang Sicheng could no longer be implemented because the central government agencies were directly located in the old city, and the plan was actually aborted.
On November 14, 1949, Soviet architectural expert Barannikov made a special report on Beijing's urban planning and put forward a series of suggestions. At this meeting, Liang Sicheng and Chen Zhanxiang, who had just arrived in Beijing, clearly expressed their opposition and disagreed with the Soviet experts' suggestions. The debate between the two sides was very intense.The focus of the debate was mainly on two aspects. The first was the location of the capital's administrative organs. Mr. Liang Sicheng advocated setting up the capital's administrative organs outside the city, especially in the western suburbs, while Soviet experts suggested using the vacant land and vacant houses in the Tiananmen Square and Chang'an Avenue area for construction. The second was the height of the building. Soviet experts suggested that the capital's administrative organs built in the Tiananmen Square and Chang'an Avenue area could be up to 5 stories high. Mr. Liang Sicheng insisted that traditional Chinese buildings could only be built up to 3 stories at most, so he did not agree to build high-rise buildings. After the debate, Soviet experts formed a written proposal to express their academic views.
Barannikoff's outline of Beijing's zoning plan © Provided by the interviewee
During the Spring Festival of 1950, Liang Sicheng and his team worked overtime to write a report, the "Liang-Chen Proposal", and submitted the "Suggestions on the Location of the Administrative Center of the Central People's Government" to the Central Government in March 1950. This was later called the "Liang-Chen Plan."
Liang Chen Plan (1950.2) © Provided by the interviewee
In terms of the central government's decision-making, in December 1949, after the Soviet experts' report meeting, the relevant departments of Beijing also conducted some research and submitted a report to the central government, expressing Beijing's position of supporting the opinions of Soviet experts.According to relevant information, in February 1950, the Central Committee implemented Chairman Mao Zedong's instructions, which were that the main organs were in the city and the secondary organs were in the new urban area. This means that Mao Zedong did not completely oppose the construction of the capital's administrative organs in the western suburbs, but he believed that the secondary organs could be placed in the western suburbs.
According to relevant historical materials, the Central Committee had already decided on this matter in February 1950, but this decision was not directly communicated to Liang Sicheng and Chen Zhanxiang. Therefore, after February 1950, they were still writing reports and submitting them to the Central Committee. This debate continued for some time.
Around December 1951, Liang Sicheng and Chen Zhanxiang changed their attitudes, and the important background of this change was the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. During the war, the capital carried out a thought reform movement, and Liang Sicheng and others also reflected on it, and finally supported the central government's decision to build the capital's administrative organs in Tiananmen Square and Chang'an Avenue.
The demolition of Beijing's city walls has no direct connection with the Liang-Chen Plan itself
Li Hao:In fact, the debate on the capital planning had ended at the end of 1951 and was not continued. However, after the reform and opening up in 1982, with the announcement of the first batch of historical and cultural cities in my country, Beijing was ranked first among the 24 national historical and cultural cities, and the issue of Beijing's historical and cultural protection has attracted unprecedented attention. Many people began to question whether the damage to the old city of Beijing could have been reduced if Liang Sicheng's suggestions on the "New Beijing" had been adopted. This topic has once again sparked widespread discussion.
In my research on the Liang-Chen Plan, I discovered an important fact: the issue of the Beijing city wall that many people are concerned about is actually irrelevant to the Liang-Chen Plan. Although whether the city wall should be demolished was a controversial issue around 1949, in the discussion of the Liang-Chen Plan, Soviet and Chinese experts did not discuss whether the city wall should be demolished.There is a very important document that I found in the Central Archives, which is a proposal document submitted by Liang Sicheng and others to Chairman Mao Zedong. There are two annexes attached to the document, one of which was written by Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin and Chen Zhanxiang. I call this annexe "Liang Lin Chen Commentary". In this document, the word "city wall" does not appear, indicating that the demolition of the city wall was not involved in the discussion of the "Liang Chen Plan".
Liang Lin Chen Comments © Provided by the Interviewer
In the late 1960s, due to the tense international relations, China was facing the threat of war from many aspects. In order to prepare for war, Beijing began to build a subway. The first subway line built was Line 1 in the east-west direction, which was designed to extend to the west mountain direction to ensure that the city residents and leaders could be quickly evacuated to safer areas in the event of enemy bombing. Therefore, the primary purpose of building the subway was for military defense considerations.
During the construction of the subway, the city wall was demolished because the subway construction technology at that time was relatively backward, and the main method used was open-cut construction. This method requires excavation of the ground for subway construction, but under the technical conditions at that time, the technical conditions for underground excavation were not yet available. In order to avoid large-scale demolition problems, using the city wall and moat as the subway construction path became a feasible option. Doing so can not only reduce the demolition cost, but also use the space of the city wall and moat to complete the construction of the subway.
Therefore, when talking about the "Liang Chen Plan", people often miss the old city wall of Beijing, but in fact the demolition of the city wall has no direct connection with the "Liang Chen Plan" itself. This is an illusion.
——Production Team
The Paper·Urban Think Tank·Research Institute
The Paper reporter Hao Han and intern Liu Ying
(This article is from The Paper. For more original information, please download the "The Paper" APP)
