For Suzhou, a 2,500-year-old city neighboring Shanghai, the current juggling act concerns a new transport method the city needs - should it be an outer ring road or an elevated metro line running across the city?

"The requirements of preservation and the needs of modern life often conflict here in Suzhou," says the city's mayor, Chen Deming. "Arguments about this conflict always occur in our urban planning."

Suzhou is one of the country's leading tourism destinations, known for its beautiful ancient houses and gardens.

"The picturesque and tranquil nature of the old city would of course not be affected by an outer ring road," says Hui Jianlin, director of the city's construction committee. "But it is less helpful to local residents, especially in rush hour, compared with a metro line." However, he says the support columns of a metro line would be a problem.

As Suzhou tries to become a modern city, this kind of argument crops up all the time, says the city council.

When they wanted to build the six-lane Ganjiang Road, Suzhou's first modern motorway, there was a chorus of disapproval about its planned route - straight across the city.

Historians, architects and tourism officials all complained, says Hui.

"They called us 'uglifiers' who trample upon Suzhou's heritage," he says. "Some even labeled us 'sinners' for undermining the city's effort to get onto the UNESCO's World Heritage List."

Locals feel differently about the matter.

"The road is really convenient, and passengers can travel all the way across the city very quickly," says Wang Jue, a 35-year-old bus conductor, who has worked for a decade on the cross-city No. 1 bus route. "Before the road was built, most of my job on the bus was soothing irate passengers, driven mad by the endless traffic jams. Back then, it took at least an hour to drive from west to east - now 30 minutes is plenty."

The construction committee says that after the road was built, traffic flow in the city increased by 30 percent.

"It also resulted in an increased sales of housing in the city center," says Wang Weilin, president of the Suzhou Economic Commission.

Suzhou, unlike many Chinese cities, presents a special problem. Most of its historic buildings are concentrated in the city center. To prevent traffic congestion in the downtown area, the city's new industrial zones were located to the east and west of the city, instead of far away from the boundaries -as is often the case where the ancient heritage of a city is spread across it.

"We have relocated most of the factories, 88 in total, out of the city center in the past five years. And no new residential building is allowed to be more than 12 meters high, nor any commercial building over 24 meters high," says Dong Cihua, office director of Suzhou Construction Commission. "Most of our buildings retain the traditional architectural style."

But here too the need to reserve the past has caused problems.

"Many of our younger citizens have moved to high-tech jobs in the suburbs, and few people want to live in old downtown houses, many of which lack private bathrooms and cooking gas. Some don't even have running water," Chen says. "We felt we would be facing an empty city in the years to come. Venice, also famous for its culture, has the same problem."

"And without people, the city would be lifeless," says Hui. He believes that people are a vital part of the mix - they give the old buildings their vigor.

So after an extensive study of various preservation methods in the country, a plan was mooted five years ago, dividing the city into 54 areas, each featuring its own character - some for living, some as scenery, and some as commercial premises.

Block No. 37 is a typical living area. Here, houses retain the Ming-style exterior with tiled roofs, white walls and carved wooden doors. But inside, the rooms are renovated for modern living, and each house has a bathroom, a kitchen, cable TV and Internet connections. Next to the complex is the Dinghui Temple and a stream runs through it.

Huang Xia, an 82-year-old woman, says she has spent all her life living in earshot of the temple's bell.

"Without the bell, my life would be empty," she says. "But before the renovation of the area, all my six children tried their best to persuade me to move with them to a new residential area. After the renovation, some of them have returned for the calm of the old neighborhood."

The ancient gardens have been another target of the city's protective action.

"Being on UNESCO's World Heritage List has brought our many gardens new sources of funding and expertise from around the world," says Han Xianyun, director of Suzhou Tourism Bureau. "What we need to do now is to maintain an environment friendly to the historical sites."

This can be quite a difficult task. For example the Humble Administrator's Garden (Zhuo Zheng Yuan), built in the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) is famous for its picturesque settings. If people stand on the eastern bank of a stream in the garden and look west, they see a pagoda three kilometers away.

"When it's sunny, the top six levels of the pagoda can be seen clearly," says Jiang Fanggeng, an official with the garden. "To preserve this 'borrowed' scene, no buildings or overhead cables are allowed to interrupt the picture. So in the past five years a dozen high buildings, which unwittingly intruded into the picture, have been pulled down."

One of those buildings was put up by the city government as, they thought, a symbol of modern Suzhou. But when experts pointed out that the 24-meter structure spoiled the view, the city took it down.

Jiang adds that all the electricity lines, which once blocked people's view, have also been buried underground.

Solutions like this seem to be Suzhou's best hope for reconciling the needs of past, present and future.

As Mayor Chen says, "The renaissance of Suzhou has seen modern living meet traditional landscape, and high-tech meet aesthetics."

(eastday.com 01/05/2001)