An ancient gate that has been missing for half a century from the auspicious Dragon’s Vein line that runs through the heart of Beijing is to be rebuilt.
The Gate of Earthly Peace, or Di’anmen, was demolished in 1955 to improve traffic flow at a time when Mao Zedong encouraged the dismantling of the ancient city wall and even proposed the destruction of the Forbidden City that has been home to emperors for centuries.
Since then, swathes of Beijing have been demolished in a race to replace single-storey courtyards lining ancient shaded alleys with more profitable projects, including glitzy apartment and office blocks — all low-rise in line with rules that forbid any buildings from overlooking the leadership compound that lies beside the Forbidden City.
Explaining his decision to re-build the gate, Kong Minshi, the head of the city’s Cultural Relics Department, said: “As part of our preservation of the city’s central axis we will protect a number of historic monuments and more than 100 ancient relics will be restored in the next five years.” His budget of 150 million yuan (£15 million) may limit his ambitions.
The Gate of Eternal Stability, the southernmost of the nine gates straddling Beijing’s sacred north-south axis — which is regarded by feng-shui masters as ensuring a harmonious flow of energy and thus the power of a dynasty — was rebuilt in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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The Gate of Eternal Stability, or Yongdingmen, had been used by emperors since 1553 to enter their capital from the south, the most auspicious direction, but was pulled down to make way for a ring road in 1957.
Luo Zhewen, 86, the leading expert on the Great Wall and other architectural heritage sites, told The Times that the cosmological significance of rebuilding the Di’anmen gate was crucial: “Missing one gate from the nine on the axis is not good. Nine is a very lucky number in Chinese culture. We think nine represents perfection, the ultimate.”
The former site of the Gate of Earthly Peace lies a stone’s throw from the home of the late leader Deng Xiaoping and is now a broad crossroads, site of frequent traffic jams and famed for a roast chestnut store on one corner and a tiny shop selling stinky fermented tofu, or beancurd, on another.
The chestnut store, where queues wind around the block throughout the year, may have to disappear to make way for the reconstruction. Officials say it may have to be placed a little to the south of its original site to avoid blocking the road.
China has a long history of rebuilding the gates and palaces in Beijing. The city’s most famous was burnt to the ground in 1644 when marauding rebel Li Zicheng overthrew the Ming dynasty and rebuilt as Tiananmen, or the Gate of Heavenly Peace.
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But one leading activist battling to halt the destruction of old Beijing was not enthusiastic. He Shuzhong, founder of Beijing Heritage Cultural Protection Centre, told The Times: “I don’t think rebuilding Di’anmen is particularly valuable...Halting new demolition is more important than rebuilding projects.”
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Source: Times research