Courtyard wrongly demolished: expert

The demolition of a courtyard, on Qinlao Hutong in Nanluoguxiang, was wrongly conducted as it was not included in the government plan for the construction of an underground parking lot, said cultural heritage campaigners yesterday.

The courtyard at No.37, next to protected courtyard No.35, was recently found demolished on its southern side when it should not have been, according to official plans, Xie Chensheng, a cultural relics expert, told the Global Times yesterday.

A 200-square-meter, five-level underground parking lot, with more than 100 spaces, is planned at Nanluoguxiang to address the area's parking issues. The project covers the underground space of two courtyards at No.28 and 30 Qianyuanensi Hutong, according to a public notice issued by the Municipal Commission of Urban Planning on May 25 last year.

According to local residents, the destruction of Courtyard No.37 started in November last year at the same time as the parking lot construction commenced. Yesterday, the courtyard was partly demolished, with only half of its original residents still remaining.

"The demolition team came and asked me to move to an apartment, but I refused," an elderly resident surnamed Huang told the Beijing News. Neither the commission nor the Jiaodaokou sub-district administration, in Dongcheng district, would comment on the project or the demolition.

"We can't offer you any information now as we're not clear about it either," said Zhao Junming, media department employee with Dongcheng district government.

There was no response yesterday from Beijing cultural heritage protection authorities.