QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE TRADITIONAL DISTRICTS IN THE

OLD CITY OF BEIJING

Hao-ying Han*, Yi Deng, Zong-bo Tan**

School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
*E-mail: hawk96@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
**E-mail: tan-zb@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract

After the central government of P. R. China was set in the old city of Beijing half a century ago, the
appearance of the old city has experiencing great changes. Traditional Hutongs and districts are
fading away. Large-scale modern buildings are gradually replacing the traditional Chinese courtyard
houses. Using the high-resolution satellite image, this paper tries to know the area and proportion of
traditional districts still existing in the old city of Beijing through RS and GIS technology. By
establishing one index of evaluation, the Traditional District Ratio, this paper also aims to draw more
attention to the holistic conservation and restoration of the old city of Beijing.

1. INTRODUCTION

Great changes have taken place in the old city of Beijing since the central government offices were set up
in it half a century ago. More and more hotels, apartments, and office buildings have replaced the
existing traditional Chinese courtyard houses. The once ubiquitous Hutongs is becoming rare to find,
and the traditional districts in the old city are fading away.

Generally speaking, the significance of conservation of the old city is getting more and more
re-realization and endorsement after the disastrous Cultural Revolution. Thereafter, many important
policies have been set up since 1990, including “The Conservation Plan for 25 Historical Areas in the
Old City of Beijing”, “The Conservation Plan for the Historical and Cultural City of Beijing”, and “The
Conservation Plan for the Imperial City”. However, the quantity of the existing historical and cultural
resources in the old city has not yet been studied in whole, which ought to be the basis of policy-making
for the conservation of the old city.

Figure 1 Location of the Inter City, the Outer City Figure 2 Strategic Conservation Plan for the Old City
the Imperial City, and the Forbidden City.
1.1. Previous policies and studies on the old city
In 1990, the Beijing municipal government set the first batch of historical areas. And their detailed
plans were completed until 2002. In the Conservation Plan for the Historic and Cultural City of Beijing,
the gross land of 30 historical areas in the old city is 1278 hectares, 21 percent of the land area of the old
city of Beijing. If the area of the historic conservation units and their control zones are calculated, the
conservation areas are up to 2617 hectares, about 42% of the old city. The establishment and relative
conservation plan of historical areas can be regarded as a milestone for the conservation of the old city.

In the meantime, although the notion of holistic conservation in the old city has been recognized since the
boundary of the historical areas of the old city was established, the restoration of historic environment
outside historical areas of the old city has not been studied till now. In addition, neither has the variation
of the spatial elements of traditional districts, especially the new avenues and traditional Hutongs of the
old city been studied in recent years.

As for the research technology, RS and GIS have already been applied in the survey and analysis of land
use, but most of the studies are in the methodological level. No case study on the conservation of
traditional districts with RS and GIS technology has been developed in China.

Using RS and GIS technology, this paper tries to make a holistic analysis on the quantity of the
traditional districts in the old city of Beijing to fill up the vacancy of previous studies, and to provide
basic data for further study on the old city.

1.2. Steps and methods of analysis

The major analytical steps are as follows:

Getting the data of the Hutongs and avenues in the old city of Beijing since 1990 by visiting the
governmental website and searching the statistical yearbooks and other official statistical publication,
and drawing the recent trend of the variation of Hutongs and avenues.

Calculating the area of different zones in the old city, its four administrative districts, and its 27 street
committees through the Quick Bird satellite image.

Analyzing the characteristic of the evolution and current condition of the traditional districts, and making
a spatial perspective for the conservation of the traditional districts of the old city.

The following methods are applied to make the analysis of satellite image:

Making the geometric correction for the topographic map of Beijing according to its kilometric grids.

Using the corrected topographic map in (1) to correct the Quick Bird satellite image.

Outlining the boundaries of different zones in the old city of Beijing, including open space, water, roads,
historical areas, the reconstructed areas outside historical areas, and the un-reconstructed areas outside
historical areas.

Outlining the administrative boundaries of the four districts and 27 street committees in the old city.

Calculating the sum area of different zones in the old city, its four administrative districts, and its 27
street committees by overlapping the two maps in (4) and (5).
2. THE RECENT TREND OF THE VARIATION OF HUTONGS AND AVENUES
Hutong is the basic element to make up of the traditional district of the old city. However, the exact
number of traditional Hutongs in the old city is always an enigma. There are so many versions about it
because different ways of calculation are applied. Therefore, official data issued by the municipal
government were expected to be introduced to the relevant studies as a major reference. In 1990, the
official statistic data on the number of Hutongs in different street committees were publicized for the first
time, with the aid of the fourth nationwide census in 1990. From the statistics, we can find that there
were altogether 2226 Hutongs and 195 avenues in the old city in 1990, when the historical areas were
first established.

In 2002, shortly after the end of the fifth nationwide census, the newest official statistic data showed that
the number of Hutongs and avenues had experiencing a great change. In 2002, the number of avenues in
the old city increased to 206; at the same time, that of traditional Hutongs decreased to 2047. That
means, one avenue was built and 15 Hutongs disappeared in each year from 1990 to 2002. In
comparison with fact that the number of avenues and Hutongs kept increasing from the Ming Dynasty to
the foundation of People’s Republic of China, the change of the number of Hutongs were tremendous in
this period.

In the four administrative districts in the old city of Beijing, the number of avenues increased most in
Dongcheng District with 10 new avenues built; the number of Hutongs decreased most in Xicheng
District with 120 Hutongs wiped away. Of the administrative area of 27street committees in the old
city, the highest number of new avenues built was 8 in the administrative area of Donghuamen Street
Committee; the highest number of Hongtongs demolished was 90 in the administrative area of
Fengsheng Street Committee. The traditional districts are facing the menace of fading away.

Table 1 The Variation of the Number of Avenues and Hutongs Table 2 The Proportion of the Variation of the Avenues
in the Old City (1990—2002) and Hutongs’ Number in the Old City (1990—2002)

50 30%

0 20% Streets Hutongs

-50 10%

-100 0%

-150 -10%
Streets Hutongs
-200 -20%
Dongcheng Xicheng Chongwen Xuanwu The Old
Dongcheng Xicheng Chongwen Xuanwu The Old
District District District District City
District District District District City

3. REMAINS OF TRADITIONAL DISTRICTS IN THE OLD CITY IN 2002

3.1. Land classification from the satellite image

Figure 3 Traditional Courtyard Houses Figure 4 New Large-Scale Buildings Figure 5 Adjacent New and Traditional Districts

In order to know how much area of the tradition districts still existed in the old city, we made statistics
through the newest satellite image for the first
time in November 2002. The
high-resolution Quick Bird satellite image
provided us a precise view of the
heterogeneous spatial texture in the old city
of Beijing. The traditional districts with
fine-grained fishbone-structure road system
and traditional courtyard houses are evidently
intermixing with the reconstructed area with
Figure 6 One Part of the Quick Bird Satellite Image
the geometrical large-scale spatial pattern.
Corresponding to current conservation policies, we regard the 30 existing historical areas as one kind of
zone. Therefore, after locate the large-scale water, open space, and roads in the old city, we can classify
the rest area into three zones: historical areas, reconstructed areas outside historical areas, and the
un-reconstructed areas outside historical areas. Besides the identification on the satellite image, some
site investigations are also taken to make sure the boundaries of different zones are correctly outlined.

Legend Land Use Area Proportion

(sq. in the Old

km.) City(%)

Historic Area 14.80 23.61

Un-reconstructive Land 8.86
(Outside Historic Land) 14.13
Reconstructive Land 22.80
(Outside Historic Land) 36.36
Green Space and Squares 5.39 8.59
Water 2.22 3.54
New Road and Other Use 8.63 13.76
Boundary of the Old City

Boundaries of Street Committees

Figure 7 Land Classification of the Old City of Beijing in 2002

The present policies in various zones are much different in the old city of Beijing. In the historical areas,
strict conservation policies have been made on the building height, building density, plot ratio, and
architectural style. As for the water area and open space, although there is no uniform policy on the
conservation and control of real estate development, some specific plan has already been made, for
instance, the conservation plan of The Temple of Heaven. In addition, those areas are easy to identify
and consequently easy to prevent irresponsible reconstruction to private use, for instance, apartments and
hotels. In the un-reconstructed areas outside historical conservation areas, no clear policies have been
adopted to safeguard these traditional districts. Therefore, neglected by the municipal government and
the conservation groups, such area is most venerable to the powerful real estate development in future.

3.2. Indexes of evaluation

Although the old city of Beijing is just one small part of the modern Beijing City, it has a total area of
62.68 square kilometers, and its permanent residents came up to 1.64 million in 2002. In such a large
city, the four administrative district governments and their inferior 27 street committees usually fulfill
the urban management function. Therefore, indexes of evaluation should be established to calculate the
quantity of historic districts not only in the whole old city, but also in its four administrative districts and
in the administrative areas of its 27 street committees. In this paper, the Traditional District Ratio is
used to indicate the quantity of traditional districts that need proper conservation.

Traditional District Ratio=

(Historical Areas + Un-reconstructive Area outside Historical Areas) / Total Land Area
Table 3 Traditional District Ratio in the Old City and its Four Administrative Districts in 2002

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%
Dongcheng Xicheng Chongwen Xuanwu The Old City
District District District District

The analysis of the satellite image shows that the Traditional District Ratio of the old city of Beijing was
38% in 2002. Of the four administrative districts in the old city of Beijing, Dongcheng District had the
highest rate of 54% and Chongwen District had the lowest rate of 16%. Of the 27 street committees in
the old city of Beijing, Jiaodaokou Street Office had the highest rate of 89% and Longtan Street Office
had the lowest rate of 0%.

Table 4 Traditional District Ratio in 27 street committees in 2002

100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
安定门

北新桥

朝阳门

东华门

建国门

交道口

新街口

福绥境

二龙路

西长安街

崇文门外

东花市

体育馆路

大栅栏

陶然亭

广安门内

白纸坊
东

牛
 LEGEND
0 1%—20%
21%—40% 41%—60%
61%—80% 81%—100%
Boundaries of Street Committees

Figure 8 Traditional District Ratio in 27 street committees in 2002

4. CONCLUSION
The recent trend of the variation of Hutongs and avenues shows that the spatial form of the old city of
Beijing is experiencing rapid change. In the meantime, a large number of traditional districts still exist
by 2002. Moreover, 14.13% of the land area of the old city has not been included in the historical areas,
which has been and will continue to be the major battlefield between conservation and reel estate
development in future.

According to the characteristics of the traditional districts, it is still possible to make holistic conservation
of the old city of Beijing. However, the conservation of the old city of Beijing is very urgent. Several
strategies could be applied according to the characteristics of the old city of Beijing:

(1)The historic appearance and style of the old city of Beijing could be restored on the basis of the
conservation of the existent traditional districts.

(2)The conservation of the old city of Beijing should not limit in the historical areas, but also pay
attention to the traditional districts of un-reconstructed areas and the open spaces outside historical areas.

(3)Several evaluation indexes, such as Traditional District Ratio, could be applied as the reference to
make conservation policies.

Consequently, a preliminary physical plan could be put forward as follows:

(1)To set open space, historical areas and the rest traditional districts into the conservation areas and
make proper and effective conservation policy in them.

(2)To restore the reconstructed areas to the traditional form.

(3)To keep monitoring the change of the traditional district ration in the old city, its four administrative
districts and 27 street communities.
 LEGEND LEGEND
Historical area Conservation Area

Non-reconstructive Area (Outside Historic Land) Restoration Area

Reconstructive Area (Outside Historic Land) New Roads

Green Space and Squares Boundaries of Street Committees

Water

New Roads

Boundaries of Street Committees

Figure 9 Current Land Classification and Proposed Land Classification

REFERENCES
Beijing Academy of Urban Planning and Design. The Conservation Plan for the Imperial City. 2002
Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning. The Conservation Plan for 25 Historical areas in the
Old City of Beijing. Beijing: Beijing Yanshan Press. 2002
Proceedings of the study on Beijing City Planning (1946-1996). Beijing: China Architecture & Building
Press. 1996
Tan, Zongbo, and Rui Liu. The Changing Old Beijing City: A Brief Review on Its Conservation and
Development. Proceedings of the 8th Inter-University Seminar on Asian Megacities. Beijing. 2003
The Editorial Board of Beijing Historic Construction Materials. The City Construction Materials of
Beijing since the Establishment of P. R. China. 1992
The Conservation Plan for the Historic and Cultural City of Beijing. 2002