The demolition of two historic buildings in Guangzhou on Monday and Tuesday has led to a public outcry.

The buildings, named Jinlingtai and Miaogaotai, were built in the 1940s at the junction of Shishu Road and Guanlu Road in the city's Yuexiu district.

"It's a shame the buildings were torn down after standing for more than half a century," said Han Yan, a 28-year-old resident in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.

Wang Hongyu, a 27-year-old from Beijing, said it is irresponsible that the government insisted on selling a piece of land with such value to the developer, and called for the demolition to be slowed down.

"The merchant won't give up the profit at hand," he said. "The ruins where the old building stood should be well protected so as to warn later generations and remind us of the shame of pragmatism guided by economic interest."

Miaogaotai was the former residence of Cantonese Opera performer Xue Juexian, who made great contributions to the development of the art.

Guangzhou's urban planning authority issued a notice to the land resource authority and the developer last May to postpone the development of the area where the two old buildings were located, according to sources with the Guangzhou Urban Planning Bureau. The bureau issued an announcement on Thursday condemning the demolition. It has stressed the significance of maintaining the architecture due to its historic and cultural value, and said it has done a lot of work in an attempt to protect the buildings.

The land development rights for the two buildings lasted until last September, according to sources with the Guangzhou land resources authority.

The two buildings, which were evaluated as historic sites that deserved preservation last May, were auctioned for commercial development use in 2007.

Yuan Qifeng, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University, said the buildings should have been redeveloped for public use to raise developers' awareness to better preserve historic buildings.

Contact the writers at qiuquanlin@chinadaily.com.cn and zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 06/14/2013 page5)