Top10: Fading Away

As Web-based stores are overflowing with revenue, Beijing's Disanji Bookstore, China's largest private bookshop, and the Guangzhou branch of Sanlian Bookstore announced closures in January and July, respectively. Although many people still believe that bookstores are needed, more people prefer to spend their spare time watching television, surfing the Web, listening to their iPods, talking on cell phones, and instant-messaging their friends. Reading books seems to have become far away from people's daily life.

A wooden box with various razors, scissors, brushes and a chair -- the very simple equipment was once all a street-side barber needed. However, in the days of modern beauty salons everywhere, traditional street-side barbers are rarely seen in China.

And just as the street-side barbers, dozens of traditional Chinese trades like cotton bouncing, iron forging, fountain pen repairing and rice puffing are also hard to see.

Baodu (quick-fried tripe) Feng, once a supplier of oxen and sheep tripe to the imperial kitchens, had to close its store in Beijing’s Qianmen Street after only half a year as it could not afford the high rent.

Similarly, many kinds of traditional Beijing snacks such as Cheese Wei and Jellied Tofu Bai also face the problem of less profit, lack of competitiveness as well as difficulty in transmission. A survey shows that Beijing snacks are disappearing at a frightening rate of 20 percent to 30 percent every year and its categories have declined to fewer than 30 from more than 600, under the impact of various styles of cooking springing up in Beijing.

Rapid urbanization and city reconstruction have brought great changes to Guangzhou's landscape since the early 1990s. And what went with it are the great changes in place names, despite the city trying to protect the cultural heritage and local lifestyle.

According to statistics, 1,031 old place names in Guangzhou disappeared between 1991 and 2000, and in the last 10 years, more familiar ancient place names have faded away.

There seems to have been a surge of interest in traditional Chinese festivals since more days were awarded on Tomb-sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-autumn Festival starting from 2008, but in reality many people see it just as a chance to eat good food rather than celebrate the original meaning of the event.

Meanwhile, younger generations are also willing to join in Western-based festival celebrations such as Valentine’s Day and Christmas for a good time. As time passes, the true meaning behind the original time-honored Chinese festivals may fade away from people's memories.

In recent years, modern Chinese coins have become rare in circulation, but they began to heat up in the collector's market.

A one-cent coin produced in 1955, 1957 and 1992 would be worth 30 yuan ($4) and a two-cent coin produced in 1992 would be worth 70 yuan ($11) in today's collector's market in China.

In the modern city of Beijing, the biggest attraction for people is not the row upon row of tall buildings or wide roads extending in all directions, but the narrow alleys traditionally called hutongs that twist and turn deep, and the warm and beautiful Siheyuan, courtyards dwellings, that scatter the quiet alleys. They are believed to be the representative of ancient Beijing culture.

However, within the city's development and reconstruction many hutongs have been replaced by high-rise buildings. Some senior citizens are worried that a period of history in ancient Beijing and its proud unique culture will fade away along with the disappearance of the hutongs.

The Great Wall has always been well known as a long and indestructible wall, winding its way like a giant dragon across the mountains. However, this great image exists only in the well-protected sections of the Great Wall such as Badaling, Mutianyu and Shanhaiguan. Most of other sections lie in remote mountains and deserts, eroded by thousands of years of rain, snow and wind, and swallowed by sand?

A survey showed that only about 20 percent of the 6,300-kilometre wall is in reasonable shape, another 30 percent is in ruins, and the rest has disappeared permanently. And it may continue collapsing and disappearing in the near future unless protection efforts are improved.