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The Imperial Granary, built 600
years ago, now offers Kunqu Opera every weekend.(Photo: China
Daily)
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Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, March 24 -- With the emergence of new buildings like the CCTV
Tower, Bird's Nest and T3, Beijing is metamorphosing into a modern city at an
unprecedented speed. At the same time, however, there is also a countercurrent
of going back to old houses in the city.
Nowadays you can go to a concert of traditional folk music
at the Mawood Theater or a Kunqu opera at the Imperial Granary, both converted
from buildings of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). You can also see an art
exhibition or enjoy dinner at one of the Michelin-starred restaurants at the
Ch'ien Men 23, the United States Embassy in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911),
or go to a rock gig at the Yugong Yishan Club, which was part of government
house in the 1920s.
"I like old buildings because they have more
character and you can embrace history there," says Handel Lee, executive
chairman of the Ch'ien Men 23 (www.legationquarter.com), which is to the
southeast of the Tian'anmen Square, at 23 Qianmen East Street.
Handel Lee, executive chairman of the Ch'ien Men 23.
Today, the five neo-classical buildings have been
developed into a trendy compound for dining, shopping, art and entertainment,
including six restaurants, an art gallery and a studio theater.
"The idea is to revitalize these historical buildings to
provide a place for people to enjoy a combination of past and current Chinese
lives, an experience one can only get in China," says Lee, an American-Chinese
who was born in 1961 in the US and has been living in China since 1991.
Ch'ien Men 23 is the third project that Lee has developed
in China, after the Courtyard Gallery, housed in a traditional Chinese courtyard
just outside the Forbidden City, and Three on the Bund, a complex of
restaurants, fashion stores and art gallery in a historical building on
Shanghai's Bund.
"While trying our best to protect the historical
buildings, we are also trying to make them come back to life," Lee says.
(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)
