What may look on the surface like colorful lines on a city map, may be the ultimate victory of culture over money.

Although there is still room for improvement, new Ministry of Construction regulations put a definite emphasis on preserving historical and cultural streets, blocks and buildings.

"The protection of urban cultural heritages mainly lies in the preservation of historical streets," said Wang Jinghui, a senior engineer of the Chinese Academy of Planning and Design.

As of February 1, new "purple lines" on city planners' construction maps will play a key role in preservation efforts. The lines will help plan around historical and cultural streets during China's fast urbanization process.

According to a ministry official, the move is a fresh one. Cities will be expected to set specific protection areas, marked with purple lines, for historical streets, blocks and buildings. All construction activities in these areas should be supervised.

The government had already introduced "red lines" to highlight areas where public infrastructure facilities are and "green lines" for areas dedicated to greening programs.

Historical and cultural streets and buildings are nominated on the basis of their rich historical and cultural resources, the Ministry of construction official said.

According to the new rules, damaging, demolishing and restructuring historical buildings; altering the traditional style of old buildings, and illegal occupation or destruction of gardens, grasslands, lakes, roads all fall under the regulation. Also included are clauses to protect ancient and rare trees.

The new rules are a response to the excessive emphasis put on economic growth by some areas, the official said. That has led to limitless over-exploitation of relics without any restraint and planning.

"A civilized society should preserve the past," said James C. Jao, a senior architecture consultant invited by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

Unified regulations would end the status quo that gives each individual city the power to set its own control mechanisms, Jao said.

The need to protect heritage buildings is great. In Beijing alone, the municipal government selected 25 historical and cultural blocks for special protection, officials said.

Between 2003 to 2008, the Beijing municipal government plans to allocate 120 million yuan (US$14.5 million) towards cultural relics, according to a regulation adopted by the city in May, 2003.

In fact, the Chinese Government has endeavored for several decades to protect famous historical and cultural cities. The government later expanded those efforts to include historical towns and villages, experts said.

(China Daily February 2, 2004)