“Things are often better off when they are left alone, they have their own charm. Why do we have to make changes, just to get the opposite result?” Wu says.
Residents living in the hutongs, who know the stories behind the historical buildings, have their own ideas of how to rejuvenate the streets they are familiar with.
In the western district of Xuanwu, where numerous former homes of famous revolutionaries and intellectuals are located, residents say renovating the century-old houses and creating a heritage trail could bring in tourism incomes.
“We should make the most of our historical roots,” says hutong resident Hu Jinhua.
The Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau, while expressing hopes to protect the historical residential areas, says its hands are often tied because it can only protect individual buildings that are officially designated historical relics.
“Ordinary courtyard houses and hutong's come under the jurisdiction of the ministries of construction and planning ... . If they were under the Cultural Relics Bureau, demolition would be prohibited,” says Deputy Director Kong Fanzhi.
But as it is, the residents can only lament the demise of the heritage that they are so proud of but will soon have to sacrifice to make way for new property development.
“I feel this is part of the blood that flows in my body — it is not just a property, but the elixir of China's culture and the pride of our country's wisdom,” says the despondent Li.
“Now we're just like a floating leaf in the sea — completely helpless,” she says, sitting next to an aged carved wooden door frame, a poignant reminder of the house's glorious past.
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