Chinese city struggles to preserve its legacy

Harbin

WHEN he first arrived in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin in 1984 to attend university, Bu Chong was stunned to see an imposing, European-style building on campus with tall columns, arched doors and elaborate reliefs. "I'm from the countryside," he said, "and I'd never seen anything like this."

For Gao Hong, a local businesswoman, such structures are not at all surprising. They were standard features of the Harbin she knew as a child, a city constructed in the late 19th century as a Far Eastern outpost of imperial Russia, a base for the Chinese Eastern Railway in what was once known as Manchuria.

But the two have witnessed something in common: the old architecture being demolished to make room for expanding roads and cookie-cutter high-rise blocks. "At least a third of these old bui…