# Cultural Revolution Destruction of Chinese buildings?



## travelworld123 (Sep 24, 2008)

im not sure if this is the right section to post this thread but:
i'm not too sure here, but did the cultural revolution destroy much of china's cities or was it just destroying cultural traditions and religions? did it actually affect buildings and cities?


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Many Hutongs in Beijing were unfortunately destroyed and apparently a few are still wanted for development of more appropriate buildings.


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## fragel (Jun 16, 2010)

^^ The disappearance of hutongs has nothing to do with the CR. Also I won't use the word 'destroy', damage would be more appropriate. Most damage during the CR happened to religious buildings and antique architectures that were related to Confucius.


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## binhai (Dec 22, 2006)

Svartmetall said:


> Many Hutongs in Beijing were unfortunately destroyed and apparently a few are still wanted for development of more appropriate buildings.


Nothing to do with CR, in fact Hutong were expanded during CR because they didn't have enough money to build proper commieblocks. Now Hutong are being destroyed but for the most part it's not a big loss, most are glorified slums and the few that are historically significant are being saved (check Google Earth, almost all of Beijing within the 2nd ring is Hutong still)


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## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

Even if some are preserved China does the same mistake Germany did in the 1950s. Razoring the old parts of the cities and transforming them into anonymous concrete deserts.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

BarbaricManchurian said:


> Nothing to do with CR, in fact Hutong were expanded during CR because they didn't have enough money to build proper commieblocks. Now Hutong are being destroyed but for the most part it's not a big loss, most are glorified slums and the few that are historically significant are being saved (check Google Earth, almost all of Beijing within the 2nd ring is Hutong still)


My bad - I didn't read about it being destruction in the cultural revolution (despite, in hindsight reading the title, that was stupid)... I just thought it was a general "loss of Chinese historical buildings". 

I know there are still a number within the second ring - my girlfriends family lives in one not far from Tienanmen Square.


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## travelworld123 (Sep 24, 2008)

actually, you can discuss destruction during cultural revolution or just normal destruction lol, doesn't matter. maybe i should make a thread on the destruction of old chinese buildings in general and them making way for new developments.

so the cr didn't take away the hutongs, but did the cr take many of beijings old buildings down - not necesarily the the hutongs, but just beijings general old city? or any other place in china


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## Huhu (Jun 5, 2004)

travelworld123 said:


> actually, you can discuss destruction during cultural revolution or just normal destruction lol, doesn't matter. maybe i should make a thread on the destruction of old chinese buildings in general and them making way for new developments.
> 
> so the cr didn't take away the hutongs, but did the cr take many of beijings old buildings down - not necesarily the the hutongs, but just beijings general old city? or any other place in china


Many religious buildings (shrines, temples, churches, mosques, etc.) were vandalized as they were primary targets of the "Four Olds" campaign, and some were probably destroyed or heavily damaged. Much of the loss during the Cultural Revolution in terms of material things were artifacts, books, artwork, records, antiquities, and the like; now lost forever.

Some critical historical sites such as the Forbidden City in Beijing were preserved by Premier Zhou Enlai.


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## pokistic (May 8, 2007)

Can someone post photos of these buildings that were demolished?


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## NCT (Aug 14, 2009)

The top-notch buildings were actually mostly occupied by government and party workers. :yes:


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## YelloPerilo (Oct 17, 2003)

The gov. should move out of Zhongnanhai and make it a public park.


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## travelworld123 (Sep 24, 2008)

lol, what is even there

from google earth it just looks like a thin strip of land and then a giant lake


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

Any change to the 'old ways' could be described as a Cultural Revolution and as in any revolution theres destruction. For instance the Victorian age which changed entire continents almost beyond any recongnition saw a widespread destruction of Georgian elegance, with the end of WWI new ideas of modernism were begining to emerge, though these together with consumerism and uber capitalism truly took hold in the 50s and 60s and that resulted in a destruction on an epic scale.


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