www.yangon-excelsior.com The Yangon Excelsior is a wonderful example of how colonial era heritage buildings throughout Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and former capital, can be restored.

1. UPWARD SLOPE
By PRIME SARMIENTO in Hong Kong
prime@chinadailyapac.com
F
or the 30-something business consultant
JeffOliveira,winterholidaysmeanhitting
the slopes of the Altay Mountains in the
Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
UnliketheFrenchAlpsorAspeninColorado,the
northwestern Chinese province is hardly known
amongavidskiers.ButOliveira,whohasgrownup
skiing in his Boston hometown and other places
in North America, would rather spend the winter
season in Xinjiang than in other popular ski des-
tinations.
“Peoplelikemyselfwantthatnoveltyofskiingin
a place that’s off the radar of the international ski-
ing community,” he told China Daily Asia Weekly.
The novelty factor, however, is just part of Xin-
jiang’s allure. Oliveira keeps returning to Xinjiang
every year as he likes its “world-class terrain and
snow”. He is in fact organizing a group tour this
December, bringing skiers from North America to
explore remote areas in Xinjiang.
But Xinjiang is just one of several Chinese des-
tinations now attracting both local and foreign
skiers. A Beijing-based think tank expects more
tourist arrivals spurred by China’s hosting of the
2022 Winter Olympics.
The China Tourism Academy (CTA) expects
tourist numbers to rise to 340 million in the 2021-
22winterseason,fromabout170millionin2016-17,
according to a Xinhua News Agency report.
CTA also forecast winter tourism revenues to
rise from around 270 billion yuan ($39 billion) in
2016-17 to 670 billion yuan in 2021-22, an annual-
ized growth rate of 20 percent.
By then, the winter tourism boom will be associ-
ated with a combined output of 2.88 trillion yuan
in tourism and other sectors, Xinhua said.
Meanwhile, a report in January by Chinese tech
giant Tencent and internet consultancy Analysys
estimated that tourism related to winter sports
activities will generate 40 billion yuan worth of
revenues by 2020.
>> SKIING, PAGE 4
China’s winter tourism industry to see soaring visitor numbers
and revenues in the lead-up to the 2022 Winter Olympics
INSIDE
Magic of China’s
highway network p16-17
Rethinking restoration
inYangon p27
Cover Story
More Chinese putting on skis,
page 5
Blending sports and tourism,
page 6
ASIA WEEKLY
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2. By LOW SHI PING in Yangon
For China Daily Asia Weekly
T
he Steel Brothers was
a British conglomerate
that operated in Myan-
mar in the late 1800s,
involved in areas
including forestry, mining, oil and
agriculture.
It did so well it built itself a head-
quartersinYangon,alongBoSunPat
Street, in the 1870s.
Opened in July, the building has a
cleaned-up facade that is gleaming
white. Inside, the past melds beauti-
fully with the present, with stuccoed
decorations framing contemporary
designelements,plushfurnitureand
funky light fittings.
And there are many such build-
ings — in excess of 2,000 in the six
townships that make up Yangon’s
downtown.
One of the largest is the grandi-
ose Secretariat. The Victorian-style
building was once the home and
administrativeseatofBritishBurma.
It later gained notoriety as the place
where independence hero General
Aung San — father of Myanmar’s
current civilian leader Aung San
Suu Kyi — was assassinated in 1947,
alongside six ministers.
Along the riverfront stands the
sizable Small Claims Court, built
in 1931, currently being converted
intoanotherhotel,tobemanagedby
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.
But there are also smaller build-
ingsownedbythelocalsandindivid-
ual shophouses standing alongside
each other, forming row after row
in the city.
Unfortunately, rather than view-
ing the buildings as unpolished
gems, developers have been eager to
demolish these to build new, often-
times characterless structures in
their place.
The primary reason is cost — it is
better for the bottom line to demol-
ish and construct from scratch,
rather than undertake a restoration
process.
Thetimemayberipeforarethink.
“By preserving a heritage build-
ing,wearenotonlysavingthephysi-
cal structure of a building, but also
conserving a historical and cultural
identity of a city, a social character
of a neighborhood, and the sense
of pride and ownership of a family,”
said South African national Mark
Horton, director of restoration at
Doh Eain, a Yangon-based social
enterprise.
“Moreover, historic buildings
have an attraction for (the) thriving
of small businesses and tourists —
contributing to (the) local economy,”
he said.
DohEainhelpsprivate,smallheri-
tage building owners restore their
properties to the original condition.
In doing so, the company helps to
raisetheirvalue,enablingthemtobe
rented out at a higher price.
One example is a house on 47th
Street in downtown Yangon. Led by
Horton, it underwent a significant
change, including a new set of win-
dows and repositioned mezzanines
in the original building to allow in
maximum natural light.
Doh Eain also has what it calls
“alleyway projects”, converting back
lanes more commonly used as gar-
bage dumps into valuable neighbor-
hoodspaceswherechildrencanplay,
and people can sit outside and relax.
Founder Emilie Roell, a Dutch-
woman who has been living in
Myanmar for the past five years,
said: “We work on conservation and
urbanregenerationdirectlywithand
for the residents of Yangon, deliver-
ing user-centered design and res-
toration/construction projects that
preserve and improve historical,
cultural, natural and social assets.”
Fortunately, Doh Eain, which
launched in 2015, is not the only
voice in this growing chorus that
encourages the preservation of Yan-
gon’s built environment.
An important advocacy group in
the city is the Yangon Heritage Trust
(YHT), which has a vision of making
Yangon one of Asia’s most livable
cities.
Director of the trust, Daw Moe
Moe Lwin, said YHT hopes to com-
bine heritage with urban planning
to create a better future for the city.
“It is more than just saving colo-
nial architecture. It is about advo-
cating that in the process of urban
development, heritage buildings
need to be emphasized,” she said.
“How do we integrate everything
within planning, design and urban
solutions? We spend a lot of time
giving advice to the government and
decision-makerstocreatepolicieson
saving our urban heritage.”
In addition, YHT oversees urban
heritage projects, provides advice
on renovation, supports the techni-
cal training needed to execute these
projects, and does public outreach
work, such as organizing walking
tours and street festivals to raise
awareness.
While the 6-year-old YHT cannot
boast any qualitative successes to
date, Daw Moe Moe Lwin said the
heritage real estate market is stable,
despite property prices declining in
general.
Needless to say, challenges are
plentiful, chief of which is develop-
ment and economic progress. This,
coupled with the lack of a legal
framework to protect the built heri-
tage, poses a major threat.
“We need to have statutory listing
andstrongprotectionmeasures,”she
said. “The new government is trying
to manage development, so there is
hope. These are assets we have and
can be easily lost if no attention is
given.”
Horton, Doh Eain’s director of res-
toration, shared another challenge
— the lack of skilled labor. Much of
the know-how of conservation and
restoration is passed down between
generations, but it is hard to find
these families because the sector is
so informal.
There is also the need for greater
coordination and communication
between organizations.
At the municipal level, the Yan-
gon City Development Committee
(YCDC) has its own list of major,
important heritage buildings.
This, Horton said, does not match
exactly with YHT’s, which is cur-
rently being compiled and compris-
es mainly small- and medium-scale
buildings.
“If their lists don’t match, you end
up with something that happened
rightacrossfromouroffice.Abeauti-
ful heritage building over 100 years
old, on YHT’s list but not on YCDC’s
list, was demolished,” revealed Hor-
ton.
Assomeonewhocyclesaroundthe
city a lot, Horton said he becomes
more “anxious”, as he can see there
is so much more to be done.
Horton admitted that things have
improved from when he first arrived
in 2014, thanks to factors like the
YCDC setting up a heritage commit-
tee.
“It is clear that the government
nowunderstandsitsimportance,”he
said.“Ifthereisademolitionpropos-
al, it speaks to YHT for their advice,
which they did not do before. They
get it now.”
As a trained architect herself, Daw
MoeMoeLwinisawarethatheritage
should not get in the way of develop-
ment, but should not be sidelined
either.
“To be a livable city, you need to
link with the past, as well as (know)
how to improve the quality of your
urban environment. This means
having quality architecture from the
past, and new quality architecture.
“We are also interested in making
theurbansurroundingscomfortable
with transportation networks and
making the city more walkable.”
She revealed that she has noticed
the younger generation developing
an interest in Yangon’s heritage.
“We are seeing more master’s stu-
dents doing research relating to this
topic.”
Ultimately,shehopesthatheritage
will become part of the planning
vision and system.
“There are actually a lot of oppor-
tunities to capitalize. You just need
to take them.”
Heritage trust and social enterprise work to preserve historic buildings,
conserving the identity of Myanmar’s largest city
Artists from Doh Eain, a Yangon-based social enterprise, paint an alleyway. Doh
Eain helps convert back lanes into neighborhood spaces where children can
play, and people can sit outside and relax.
The Victorian-style Secretariat building in downtown Yangon was once the administrative seat of British Burma.
PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY ASIA WEEKLY
27CHINA DAILY ASIA WEEKLY October 15-21, 2018 Travel | LIFE
The Yangon Excelsior is a won-
derful example of how colonial
era heritage buildings throughout
Myanmar’s largest city and former
capital can be restored.
Yangonrestoration
reflectsnewvision
Almost 150 years later, that same
building — now part of the city’s
heritage — has been painstakingly
restored and adapted to become the
74-room Yangon Excelsior boutique
hotel.