There has been all sorts of speculation about the future of Gulou and how it is going to be redeveloped. Back in March a meeting held  to form a dialogue with residents of Gulou by the Cultural Heritage Protection Centre (CHP) was cancelled last minute by the government. The plans for the Gulou redevelopment have also disappeared from the CHP website. You might be wondering why Im blogging about this well Gulou is probably my favourite area of Beijing it’s the place I usually go out on weekends as it has lots of little bars tucked away in hutongs and was the first place  my camera I really explored in China back in 2005. Not a great deal has changed in the area since then. Yes a few less hutongs maybe and of course shops have changed hands but in essence its the same place. It is one of the last remaining areas of Old Beijing and was supposed to be protected by the government. Well if the reports are true the demolition will start in June and it will become another hideous Disneyfied area like Qianmen (scroll down for before and after images). Supposedly  the government has earmarked 500 million yuan for the project which includes plans for an underground museum of time.

Gulou was once used to broadcast the time before wristwatches. The concept of  time and how time has affected the hutongs around Gulou interests me ,specifically the way in which trees have grown and become integrated into the hutong and how natural and man made structures coexist. I have started a project to try and document this in series of long exposure images shot at dusk.