Chinese city to trim tall buildings

Hangzhou. Photograph: Alamy

Many Chinese cities have raced to the top, vying with each other to build the tallest and shiniest skyscrapers. Hangzhou is going in a radically different direction - down. It plans to lop floors off exclusive hotels, a television tower and other lakeside buildings in an attempt to win coveted Unesco world heritage status.

The 2,000-year-old city in Zhejiang, east China, is famed as one of the country's most beautiful. But urban development has blighted its scenery, leading officials to prune some of the latest additions to its landscape.

China applied 12 years ago for the area around West Lake to be named as a heritage site to boost tourism. It is often packed with domestic visitors at peak season, but is less well-known to foreign travellers. Unesco requires historic sites to be kept intact, and the 40m yuan (£4m) resizing plan is the latest element in Hangzhou's attempts to beautify the site.

The China Daily newspaper said all buildings more than 24 metres (79ft) tall on the lake's eastern shore would be shortened. A notice posted on the city government's website said it would require taking floors off lakeside complexes, including the seven-storey east wing of the Shangri-La hotel, where suites cost thousands of pounds a night.

Wang Shuifa, who will head the redevelopment project, told the official China News Service news agency: "We have hired foreign firms to draft detailed plans of how to reduce the height of the Shangri-La, whose owners will be compensated."

A spokeswoman for the 382-room hotel told Associated Press: "We haven't received any order or notice about it. We're also very concerned and will pay close attention to this." Other structures named in the notice include the Huabei hotel and a television tower.

Hangzhou is fabled throughout China for its beauty. One saying observes that in the heavens there is paradise, while on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou. Another urges people to be "born in Suzhou, live in Hangzhou, eat in Guangzhou and die in Liuzhou".

Wang Chuanyue, a professor of architecture at Peking University, said increasingly numerous tall buildings were making the lake look smaller, detracting from its beauty. Planners also intend to remove some smaller commercial buildings around the lake.

Only Italy and Spain boast more world heritage sites than China. It has 37, including the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.