The governments must pay attention to the protection of historic buildings during China's urbanization. Otherwise, the new cities in China will lose their sense of history as valuable historic relics disappear, said an editorial in South Metropolis Daily (excerpts below).

Two historic buildings in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, were demolished by two real estate companies, and the city government concluded it was not an accident. The government criticized the supervisory departments and fined the responsible companies $80,000 each.

Although the two companies promised to rebuild the buildings, the losses are irreversible. Local residents had appealed to city departments to conserve the two buildings before the companies demolished them. But the authorities, including the city government, was indifferent until the buildings disappeared.

We cannot find any regrets or any intention to prevent such incidents from happening again in the government's report on the case. The report simply explained how complicated the situation is and how much effort the government had put into solving differences between different parties.

The governments must respect historic buildings during China's urbanization. What the real estate companies demolished cannot be retrieved again.

A city without history and culture is not an ideal place to live.