In a city that gets younger by the day, Beijing's historic courtyard homes have long been seen as worthless relics that too often find themselves on the wrong end of a bulldozer.
But a surge of interest by investors, especially foreigners, is providing a new lease on life for the former homes of the ancient city's nobility and elite merchants.
Australian lawyer Tom Luckock has bought two neglected siheyuan -- or "four-sided courtyards" for their orientation around a central space -- within the past year, restoring their former glory with a modern yet historically faithful renovation.
PHOTO: AFP
"I could have bought a flat in a new apartment block, but you're just buying a piece of air in a dodgy building when you could get a piece of history," he said.
Thousands of the single-story homes were built in the neighborhoods surrounding the Forbidden City, former home of China's emperors and now a vast museum in the center of Beijing.
With their courtyards, threshold carvings and up-sloping eaves, the siheyuan recall the languid grandeur of China's last dynasties.
They have dwindled, however, as first the Communist government and now profit-minded property developers have sought to remake the ancient city.
Estimates of the number remaining range widely from a few thousand to as many as 15,000, all tucked off the maze-like residential alleyways where local vendors still roam, touting such services as knife-sharpening in sing-song fashion.
After years of apparently rampant destruction to make way for wider roads, commercial developments and modern apartment blocks, experts say the siheyuan are now coming back into vogue.
Accelerating sales have pushed prices up from between 6,000 and 10,000 yuan (US$780 to US$1,300) per square meter five years ago to as high as 40,000 to 60,000 yuan today, said Yuan Chengguo, a property agent specializing in siheyuan.
One sold last month for US$14.3 million, which state media called a record. Among the famous names that now own siheyuan are media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Foreigners, led by Americans and Japanese, are betting on further investment gains as the 2008 Olympics approach, while others have been lured by a landmark new law offering more protection for private property owners, agents say.
"Foreigners are getting more and more interested and make up about half of our clients now," Yuan said.
But plenty of patience and cash, as well as a strong stomach for risk are required.
It took Luckock over two years to land the first property, since many are occupied by several separate families, a major obstacle to deal-making.
"There's no way you'll get 10 or 12 families to agree on a price," Luckock said.
He has paid cash -- about 4,000 yuan per square meter for the first property of 190m2, and more than twice that for the second one -- since Chinese banks do not offer mortgages on siheyuan.
He bought the second property in his girlfriend's mother's name to avoid foreign-ownership restrictions, then spent four months removing a group of illegal squatters.
Then there's the risk, ever-present in Beijing, that the government or developers could exploit murky land-ownership rules to take over properties like his for a song.
But in reusing as much of the original bricks, roof tiles and woodwork as possible, he has unearthed bits of history, including bricks bearing imperial seals and 1960s Cultural Revolution-era slogans such as "oppose imperialism" and "reject revisionism."
"Your risk threshold has to be quite high, but if you're prepared to accept that, it's a pretty exciting adventure and hopefully there's a nice return at the end of it," said Luckock, who rents out one property -- to a French tenant for US$3,000 a month -- and plans the same with the second.
About half of Beijing's narrow old-city alleyways, known as hutongs, have been leveled since the Communist takeover in 1949, leaving about 1,200 to 1,500, said an advisor to the independent non-profit group Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, which works to raise awareness of historic properties.
Untold numbers of siheyuan have gone, too.
This year is a crucial one as large property developers are jump-starting projects ahead of an expected 2008 ban on new construction to cut down on pollution during the Olympics, they said.
But the picture is not entirely gloomy.
"A lot of [hutongs] are gone, and it's a shame. But there's still a huge amount left and we wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't a lot left to fight for," said James Stent, a banker and advisor with the group.
Foreign interest may provide siheyuan their best defense against the wrecking ball, says Hua Xinmin, a siheyuan activist who says today's forward-looking Chinese society equates "historic" with "outdated."
Hua is working to set up a system in which existing Chinese siheyuan owners can raise loans from foreign travel companies to renovate their properties.
They would then be marketed as "home stay" accommodation for foreign travelers, with the August 2008 Olympics as the start.
"The best thing would be to save these properties while keeping original Chinese owners in them. Otherwise, there will be no more Beijing people in the hutongs anymore," she said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique