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Beijing recently launched a research campaign that will study the history and culture of its traditional hutongs, with the ultimate goal of establishing an Internet database where citizens can access the information, local media reported yesterday.

A launch ceremony was held Monday to celebrate the much-anticipated project.

Beijing Municipal Archives will lead the campaign, with the first collection of hutong documents expected to be online within the year. The Internet database has been designed as a virtual hutong compound where people can simply input an address to find out information of any historic events or famous figures related to a specific hutong.

Hutongs are ancient city alleys in Beijing, which once numbered in the thousands. Now, with only a few hundred left, experts are concerned that their legacy is disappearing with the buildings as an increasing number fall under the wrecking ball.

Li Jianping, secretary-general of the Beijing History Research Committee, told China Central Television (CCTV): "The configuration of today's Beijing hutongs is a relic of the Yuan Dynasty, a period dating back over 800 years. The culture from that time is reflected in these hutongs, establishing a long history."

Experts say documenting hutongs is necessary to preserve the ancient capital's culture.

"We will first start with existing hutongs, then move on to those that have been torn down. We'll publish our research results step by step as we go through various phases," Wang Lanshun, an expert with the Beijing Municipal Archives, told Beijing Youth Daily.

"If we lined up all the documents that we have in our archive, it would definitely stretch at least 15 kilometers," Wang added.

She said most of the documents are records from the old city that relate to the hutongs' history, including 3,600 volumes of old files from the period before the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. When the results are published, a batch of rare photos and maps will also be available online.

In addition to its collection of documents, the committee is also carrying out field surveys as part of the campaign to find more information about hutongs. 

(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, March 14, 2007)