Beijing Hutong Conservation Plan - Tibet Heritage Fund

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3.4 Present condition of remaining historical buildings
Since 2001, in cooperation with Tsinghua University’s Architecture Department, THF
conducted a study of the remaining historical buildings in Beijing’s old city area. The first phase
has been the identification of intact historic neighborhoods, remaining historic buildings and
high-rise construction within the second ring-road.
Many of the remaining historic buildings are concentrated within the 25 protected areas, but
THF felt that historic neighborhoods should be preserved on a wider scale, as original city
quarters rather than in the form of fragmented lanes and buildings area. Land use was also
identified by the study as an important aspect for preservation, to retain the different
characters of the areas studied.
The ‘Conservation Planning of 25 Historic Areas in Beijing Old City’ supplies official data
analysing the land use:
Total size of the 25 protected areas: 1038 hectares (10.38 square kilometers)
The population: 285,000 people (95,000 families)
Population density: 275 people / hectar
15%
2%
7% 6%
24%
46%
Residential
Public infrastructure
Industrial
Road
Green space
Others
Current Land Use Area (hectares)
Residential 490ha (47%)
Public infrastructure 247ha (24%)
Industrial 17ha (1.5%)
Road 154ha (15%)
Green space 69ha (6.5%)
Others 61ha (6%)
25 conservation historic areas
5 additional conservation historic areas
Beijing Old City conservation areas
The data shows clearly that almost half of all land in the historic areas is residential in function. In order to preserve the current balance, the present land-use
proportion should be retained.