ABSTRACT

Historic preservation, heritage conservation and urban regeneration are three different but interrelated practices that are increasingly being recognized as critical to the future of Chinese cities in the 21st century. This chapter examines the detailed evolution of the preservation and conservation process of townscape heritage in China. The Cultural Revolution was a critical low point in heritage preservation in China and resulted in the abandonment of efforts to establish a legislation system for historic preservation. Indeed, one of the major goals of the Cultural Revolution was to bring an end to the Four Olds, which were Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits and Old Ideas from the imperial period. The practice of urban renewal or urban regeneration in China has pursued a different trajectory to that of the West due to its unique political and economic circumstances. In China, methods of urban conservation are integral to the development of urban planning and have therefore been derived principally from land-use planning.