I have lived in China for five years, now.  Back when I began my decade of wandering, at the beginning of the millennium, I had just had sold my eighteenth century estate, which I owned, restored and turned into an art inn, before that concept had even been coined.  Since I moved to China, I have seen countless old buildings that could be really cool, if they were restored and made into nice contemporary living spaces.  However, the vast majority of Chinese people and, apparently, the state, topped off by a new rich class, prefer a flashy new apartment with a high price tag to restoration of something old.  We say vast majority because, finally, after living here for five years, I have discovered an old section of the city where people are taking old several story houses and redoing them: some tastefully and to original character; others bastardized .  All the same, we are actually going to set up our gallery, there.

More generally, however, much of the old city of Guangzhou, which is mostly old, is getting a facelift, especially, in areas that will be seen by many visitors when driving or walking around the city during the upcoming Asian Games, next November.  Indeed, I believe that the stimulus package, much of which was directed to infrastructure, and the extremely loose credit stance of Chinese banks, this past year, combined with the desire to put up a good front for the coming games.

Mind you, it is not a real restoration of the town but, merely, a face list, and extremely facial, at that.  Old buildings, including the old up to ten story boxy cement and tile apartment blocks, as well as the early 20^th century buildings with sloped tiled roofs, are getting face lifts on the faces facing major streets, avenues, and raised highways; if you go around to the rear of the building or go inside, you will find that nothing has changed.  In addition, just about every major street has been dug up and put back together more nicely, over the past year, and is continuing.  Subway lines that were supposed to have been done several years ago have finally bee completed, and bus islands are being built on an avenue near one of the stadium complexes, downtown, which, itself is dotted with cranes busily rebuilding the athletic event complex.  In other areas, ground that had been broken but was long awaiting construction to start has suddenly spring tall buildings that are already nearing completion within the several months sine I had been to those parts of town [Guangzhou is a town of 10 million people and covers at least 10 square miles or more, in my rough estimate].  Other areas that used to have cute but dilapidated older structures have been completely razed and new buildings are already going up.

    

Westerners see pictures of China, they usually are shown the tall buildings that have sprung up in major cities, mostly over the past two decades or less.  However, most of China, even most of the interiors of those picture postcard skyscraper cities, are old smaller buildings, mostly in great need of repair.  It is a shame, to someone, like me, who appreciates the art of older buildings and who has restored a two hundred year old country estate to its original glory, to see such great old structures go to waste or become lost forever.  It is shameful, in my opinion, to see the kind of face lift that is now on-going: saving face for those places likely to be seen by visitors, leaving the rest to continue to rot.  Looking at what has been done, on its face, it will probably last no longer than a few years, at most.