ABSTRACT
Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution mobilized Chinese people to destroy the "Four Olds"–old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. Meanwhile, the Plan's only concession to heritage preservation was to regulate the maximum height of buildings in the historic center, questionably assuming that heritage authenticity could be preserved merely by controlling building volumes. Beijing, of course, is the capital of the People's Republic of China and with a population of nearly twenty-two million, it is the third largest proper city in the world. As with Beijing, there is more or less constant pressure in Xi'an to redevelop traditional residential areas to make way for new retail and commercial districts and a rapidly growing population. The Xi'an case demonstrates that under certain restrictive conditions, local communities can have a voice in their redevelopment even in authoritarian states but also that market pressures, tourism, gentrification, and like processes can easily overwhelm community input.
