An exhibition featuring old Beijing architecture is expected to help reinforce residents' desire to protect cultural relics in the capital city.

The week-long exhibition, which opened on Tuesday in Beijing, includes three major parts: "rebuilding the imperial capital,'' "recovering the metropolis built in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and "repairing the disappeared city gates and walls.''

"The Invisible City," a 30-minute long documentary, shows the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty, although some of its major architectural masterpieces disappeared long ago.

A group of photos taken in the 1930s by Liang Sicheng, one of China's greatest masters of architecture, are also on show.

The photos are about Beijing's old city gates and gate towers, which are displayed the first time, a spokesman said.

Beijing Architectural Cultural Week 2004 is taking place this week in the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall to showcase the city's historical architecture and how the urban landscape has changed in recent years.

Beginning this week, the exhibition will enable people to see the city's ancient gates and walls that were demolished decades ago.

"We have recreated them on screen today through compute-based three-dimensional technology," Zhu Xiaodi, president of the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, said at the opening ceremony held on Tuesday.

A digital movie named "the Immortal City" will be shown to visitors, telling them about Beijing's architectural history over the past 850 years.

"Based on Liang's photos, the images of the old architecture have been recreated with the help of three-dimensional technology," Zhang Yonghe, a professor from Peking University, said, the technology can help visitors obtain "an all-around view of the city's architecture in the past."

Beijing boasted the world's largest imperial palaces and city walls and gates.

Unfortunately, many of them have been damaged. Only two of its city gates remain today with 14 others demolished during its urban expanding half a century ago.

Sponsors of the exhibition are confident that it can open a door to the city's past and help people refresh their memory about the history of the imperial city over the past 850 years.

Meanwhile, "the exhibition will open a window for people to look forward to Beijing's future," Zhang added.

One of the exhibition's major purposes is to raise the public awareness of the protection of the architectural tradition of Beijing.

Source: China Daily