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While centuries-old crowded and shabby residences will be gone forever, the Qianmen district, one of the last remnants of old Beijing, will keep its unique cultural flavor after the upcoming urban renovation.

Recent China Daily, a leading Chinese English newspaper, quoted the Beijing Municipal Development Planning Commission as saying that the renovation expected to start later this year will make it a priority to maintain the area's well-known cultural heritage of quadrangles, lanes and the ancient retail center of Dazhalan.

In the 1.45-square-meter target area, all construction in the designated "protection zone of historical and cultural heritage" will be refurbished and take the original form of quadrangles along lanes in the renovation, which will give 20,000 local urbanites living in the area a better living environment with convenient utility and facilities.

The final renovation design will be available before September.

So far, of the registered 35,000 rooms in the Qianmen District, none is "complete and suitable for human dwelling" in the strict sense and over half are classified by local authorities as unsafe and "dangerous."