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Saving Beijing's ancient landmarks

2014-11-19 09:04 China Daily Web Editor: Si Huan
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Chen Yunlin (left), former president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits; Chen Lihua (center), founder of the Red Sandalwood Museum of China in Beijing; and Zheng Xinmiao (right), former director of the Palace Museum, look at a model of Yongdingmen Gate made of sandalwood at the National Museum of China in October 2013. Photo provided to China Daily

Chen Yunlin (left), former president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits; Chen Lihua (center), founder of the Red Sandalwood Museum of China in Beijing; and Zheng Xinmiao (right), former director of the Palace Museum, look at a model of Yongdingmen Gate made of sandalwood at the National Museum of China in October 2013. Photo provided to China Daily

The walls and gates encircling Beijing were mostly demolished in the 1960s, closing a door on an important part of the imperial city's history.

Beijing had nine inner city gates and seven outer city gates. Today, only two of the original inner city gates, Zhengyangmen and Deshengmen, remain. Yongdingmen was the only outer gate that was rebuilt in 2004.

However, a current project to re-create the walls and gates is restoring those ancient memories brick by brick, using precious red sandalwood and ebony.

The reconstruction project, initiated by Chen Lihua, a self-made billionaire based in Beijing, and her Red Sandalwood Museum of China, is half finished with nine gates completed. The massive project, which started 10 years ago, is expected to be completed in the next two years with 16 gates re-created.

On display at the MGM Art Space, Macau, through March 22, Red Sandalwood Art Exhibition of Old Beijing City Gates features sandalwood miniatures of Yongdingmen, which translates as the Gate of Eternal Stability, and the Temple of Heaven.

"I have a dream to restore old Beijing's memory. The miniature city gates and walls are a cultural legacy for future generations," says Chen, who is also an active advocate of culture.

Chen, 73, set up the first private red sandalwood museum in China in 1999. Since then she has devoted herself to the project of replicating the lost city walls and gates. Growing up in Beijing and having seen the city walls and gates in her childhood, Chen says she has a special feeling for the project.

All the gates and walls are being built one-tenth the size of the original structures. Andingmen, one of nine gates in ancient Beijing's inner city, is about 3.5 meters tall and weighs about 6.5 tons. The gate tower and watchtower are made of sandalwood while the city walls are being built from ebony, the color of which is similar to bricks of the old walls.

Chen has a factory in a Beijing suburb, equipped with a team of more than 200 red sandalwood sculptors and experts. She says she'd love to spend all her time and money on her dream of restoring Beijing's imperial landmarks.

All the models are structured using mortise-and-tenon joints, without a single nail, in what was an essential technique for traditional Chinese buildings. It's also a simple but strong method to join pieces of wood.

"It's a combination of history, architecture, art and culture-a great project," says Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum.

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