In a conscious bid to save the city's "unrecognized" historical buildings, the local government will launch a thorough investigation, which it hopes will ensure their protection from renovation projects.

The move will be jointly launched by several departments, including the Shanghai Urban Planning Administration Bureau and the Shanghai Commission of Cultural Relics Management, officials said.

So far, the city has 398 "authorized" ancient buildings and 11 areas which are under municipal protection.

However, an estimate by Tongji University reveals that the city has at least 10,000 to 20,000 sites of historical interest.

But it has no regulation to protect these unheralded ancient sites, Chen Youhua, a chief engineer of the Shanghai Urban Planning Administration Bureau, said.

That means even if some vintage buildings are found in an area under renovation, they could be forced to make way for modern buildings despite their historical value.

To tackle the problem, "our bureau will soon organize a group of specialists to examine how many heritage buildings -- including typical Shikumen lanes, hospitals and storage houses -- the city possesses. The mission may well take many years," Chen said.

Once the historical buildings are recognized, real estate developers, on whose land they are located, will have to either change or adjust their development plans, he said.

On October 16, Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu and Mayor Han Zheng inspected several key historical areas in downtown, highlighting the importance of retaining ancient structures in urban planning.

"The old buildings are not only the city's symbolic landscaping attraction but best represent its history as a combination of Western and Eastern cultures," Chen said.

While the government is taking measures, a group of teachers and students from Tongji University are also voluntarily researching old buildings in central downtown.

Ruan Yisan, a professor of Tongji's architecture and urban planning department who leads the team, said: "We just want to help the city government to count how many treasures it has."

Ruan also said it's important for the government to utilize more social funds in pre-serving historical buildings. "In many foreign countries, it is individuals, not governments, that take essential responsibility for protecting historical structures while the latter only provides some preferential tax policies to support and encourage the protection," he said.

Shanghai's proliferation of old buildings reflects a diversity of past overseas styles when it was once home to many foreign traders.

(Shanghai Daily October 28, 2003)