In 1950 the architectural historian Liang Sicheng, with Chen Zhanxiang, proposed preserving the old walled city of Beijing intact and building a new administrative centre to its west, sparing the walls and historic fabric. The leadership instead chose to make the old city the political heart of the new state, demolishing the city walls and gates through the 1950s and 1960s and driving roads through the centre. Liang's defeat became an emblem of conservation lost to the productive, monumental socialist capital.
The rejected "Liang-Chen plan" is the classic Chinese case of heritage versus the state-led remaking of the capital, still invoked in debates over Beijing's form.
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