While Beijing is a great old city rich of cultural heritages, I find it hard to understand why the Central Axis can be nominated as a new World Heritage item.

The nomination contains these sites:  Yongding Gate, Temple of Heaven, Temple of Agriculture, Tian'anmen Square complex, Imperial Ancestral Temple, Altar of the Land and Grain, the Forbidden City, Jingshan Hill, Bell Tower, Drum Tower, Nanluoguxiang, Yandai Bystreet historic area, and the Beihai water system.

The Forbidden City is already listed as World Heritage (Imperial Palaces); Temple of Heaven is also listed as an independent item; Beihai water system is part of The Grand Canal.  We don’t need to give them another world heritage honor to emphasize their importance.

Imperial Ancestral Temple, Altar of the Land and Grain are royal temples connected to the Forbidden City,  and similarly Jingshan Hill is also a royal garden connected to the Forbidden City.   They all can be an extension of Imperial Palaces.

Temple of Agriculture is near by Temple of Heaven at the south, and they are for the same purpose basically:  Praying to the Sky (Heaven, same word in Chinese) for good weather in order to have good harvest (Agriculture).  Thus Temple of Agriculture is better to be an extension of Temple of Heaven.

The government demolished Beijing City Wall and only left behind a few gates.  While Yongding Gate is great, does it still have sufficient OUV?  At least Xi’an and Nanjing have the whole city walls and gates conserved.

Bell Tower and Drum Tower exist in all Chinese old cities.  Nothing special with the ones in Beijing.  Nanluoguxiang and Yandai Bystreet historic area are now touristic places with full of tacky bars and shops.

What left in the list is Tian'anmen Square complex… Oh, right, isn’t it great to have Tian’anmen Square, Great Hall of the People, Monument to the People’s Heroes, and Mausoleum of Mao Zedong all these political icons to be listed as World Heritages?  A great propaganda to her people!

Let’s see if UNESCO will help the Chinese Communist Party to get this task done.