Preservation of traditional buildings with heritage value in Asian cities with colonial backgroud - Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong cases

Traditional European Architecture had marked a deep footprint to a number of Asian cities during the 19th Century as the pace of colonial expansion intensified. Cities such as Tianjin, Qingdao, Dalian, Shanghai, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong or Singapore, still have a significant amount of traditional buildings remained inside the cities under an acceptable condition. The past twenty years have been a fast-moving era. In the name of development many of these traditional buildings with heritage value were knocked down to give way to modernization or any reasons which developers can name. Hong Kong may be the most suffered city where majority of her traditional buildings have been removed for rapid social or economical developments. Fortunately, no matter due to a well-awareness of this heritage or slowness in the development of a city, a large amount of old buildings can still be found in a lot of Asian cities that able to reflect the old glories of an era of tasteful architecture. This paper tries to review what are still remaining in the Asian cities in particular in some fast developing one including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong which both were under strong British influence. The paper would also highlight what these cities have done as a strategy to preserve this heritage from an urban development prospective. Copyright © 2007 IAHS.