KEY POINTS:
The bulldozers have moved in, but in Beijing's historic Qianmen neighbourhood, pockets of holdouts are refusing to move.
Among them are the Zhengs, who are suing their local district despite knowing they have no chance of winning their case and keeping their home.
The Zheng family have lived
in their courtyard house in Qianmen, the city's commercial heart under the Qing dynasty and just a stone's throw from Tiananmen Square, for nearly 70 years.
But the warrens of hutongs, or lanes, are due to give way to a pedestrian mall of modern shop buildings designed in "traditional" style, part of a city-wide makeover that has razed old neighbourhoods officials say are decrepit and dangerous.
"In this situation, we may have no other choice but to go," said Zheng Zhongyan, 51. "But at the very least you have to give reasonable compensation."
Across China, disputes between residents and property developers have become commonplace, not least in Beijing, where the Government hopes to project the face of a modern cityscape when the world arrives for the Olympics in August.
District officials say redevelopment of the Qianmen area is desperately needed.
Sewerage systems date back to the last dynasty, which ended a century ago, houses are fire hazards, lanes too narrow for fire trucks, and living space cramped - on average less than 5sq m per person.
"So this whole project is to improve the living conditions of Qianmen and to protect its historic character," said Guan Shusheng, who heads the office charged with reforming unsafe houses in Chongwen District.
But none of the displaced residents will be invited to move back into the renovated district. Instead, they are offered compensation and apartments elsewhere.
The Zhengs are almost alone in their hutong, most of their neighbours having accepted the compensation offered and moved on. Houses all around them stand half-demolished and the usual neighbourhood bustle has given way to bulldozers and men in yellow hard hats. Already the Zhengs have lost a suit brought against them by the developer for holding up the project. Zheng Zhongyan's parents live in a tiny section of the old house, the rest reduced to a warren of rubble and half-destroyed walls.
The district defends the demolition.
"There are still some families that are demanding much more than what the scope of law and policies allow," said Zhou Qiulai, chief of Chongwen's legal office. "But we cannot let them hold back the whole programme."
He also denied the Zhengs' claims that they had been harassed and their property vandalised. "Some people have been groundlessly hyping up the issue, and they even made up facts to distort the image of the project," Zhou said. The heart of the dispute with the district lies in who owns their home and what is fair compensation.
Zheng's grandfather bought the property in 1941, but after the Communists took power, it was partitioned and the Government put tenants into the subdivided courtyard. During the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, their ownership permit was confiscated.
Over the past two decades, the Zhengs have slowly taken back their home as the other families moved out.
But they say the Government recognises only about one-fifth of the old courtyard as their property.
"The so-called compensation can't really be called compensation," said Zheng's father, 76-year-old Zheng Zhanlin. "It's almost like robbery."
- REUTERS
