Beijing arts quarter set for makeover

Beijing once house many art and crafts neighbourhoods

Beijing's small arts and crafts neighbourhood is to be turned into a new cultural trading centre under a multi-million dollar renovation.

Liulichang - a small, low-rise street just south of Tiananmen Square - will be revived under a $1.2bn scheme.

Chinese art commands high prices from investers

The street dates back to imperial times, when the city once had many neighbourhoods housing communities of artists, artisans and traders.

Modern development has dispersed and destroyed all these guild neighbourhoods.

Only Luilichang survived the purges of Chairman Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution when much of China's classical culture was destroyed.

The plan, announced by the Beijing municipal government, will receive 25% of its backing by Hong Kong developers.

Cultural market

Liulichang - or glazed-tile street - has been the gathering place of art and book dealers for over 400 years.

Scholars came here to browse and buy in a street of modest courtyard houses fronted by small shops.

The city has seen many narrow streets and traditional buildings torn down in recent years

The project plans to retain what remains of the traditional architecture but two high-rise buildings, housing businesses promoting arts, will be added.

Liulichang will also be linked with surrounding back streets to create an eight-street cultural market, the Beijing Evening News reported.

City district official Tang Dasheng told the China Daily that the "large-scale cultural museum" will display a courtyard, garden and other examples of ancient Chinese architecture.

An oriental antique art mansion and cultural heritage bookstore - set to become the country's largest - are also planned.

E-commerce

Mr Tang said e-commerce was also included in the project, with plans for online art auctions.

The Starbucks chain in the Forbidden City has upset some critics

The high-rise part of the plan may dismay some critics who have already seen the Starbucks chain create a coffee bar in the Forbidden City, and Kentucky Fried Chicken open its doors at the foot of the Great Wall.

Liulichang will also have to shake its reputation for state-supervised prices and too many fakes.

The Chinese media have carried articles over the past year warning that the fakes were driving business away.

The integrated arts market plan also faces the challenge of the acknowledged trade in smuggled antiques from illegal digs all over China.

For most collectors though, the real hub of Chinese antiquities trading is not China, but Hong Kong.