Do any East/Southeast Asian cities have historic districts? (country, places, people)

[eschaton]

In my travels in Asia, I've noticed that you see very little that's old compared to places in Europe, the Middle East, or even Latin America. You basically have a spectrum which runs from brand-spanking-new highises to grimy buildings which look to date from the 1950s at the earliest, with very little left from an earlier time.

Now, I know that much of Asia urbanized far, far later than Europe. But I still wonder if there's anything on a smaller scale like the old city of Dubrovnik - a dense, intimate, and walkable urban core which has been protected from redevelopment.

Edit: To be clear, I'm not talking about temples or things like the Forbidden City in Beijing. I'm talking about places people live.

[strad]

Depends on how you define historic. Lots of cities have historic cores left over from the old colonial days.

Malacca, Malayasia


Georgetown, Malaysia


Macau


Shanghai


And then there are places like

Lhasa


Kyoto


Even Beijing still has some of the old hutongs

[Jesse44]

Not East or Southeast Asia, but:

Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India:

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...otel-white.jpg

Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, India

http://www.indianaturewatch.net/imag...4c72aec8f1.jpg

These are of course leftovers from the British during the Raj in the 19th and 20th centuries. I don't know if any native South Asian things besides temples still sit in any city centres that I know of. To be honest, I don't even know what that would look like, though.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by eschaton

In my travels in Asia, I've noticed that you see very little that's old compared to places in Europe, the Middle East, or even Latin America. You basically have a spectrum which runs from brand-spanking-new highises to grimy buildings which look to date from the 1950s at the earliest, with very little left from an earlier time.

Now, I know that much of Asia urbanized far, far later than Europe. But I still wonder if there's anything on a smaller scale like the old city of Dubrovnik - a dense, intimate, and walkable urban core which has been protected from redevelopment.

Edit: To be clear, I'm not talking about temples or things like the Forbidden City in Beijing. I'm talking about places people live.

Where did you go? South Korea, which was destroyed by the Korean War in the 1950s? Or Hiroshima which was destroyed by a nuclear bomb? Or some Japan cities that were destroyed by earthquakes (like Kobe) and rebuilt up?

Asia is absolutely filled with old, dense, intimate, walkable urban cores all over the place.

[Bettafish]

Shanghai has a lot of buildings (in use ) from 100 years ago or earlier. Probably no other city in the far east.

[stevania01]

in Indonesia there are a lot of Dutch heritage buildings in our country especially buildings during the reign of Dutch colonial . oh I just found out that the history of the city of Jakarta is Japan who had been give the name " Jakarta / Djakarta " which had previously been named the Batavia city..

Colonial Buildings ( JAKARTA )

List of colonial buildings and structures in Jakarta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Central Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia | REDTOP Hotel & Convention Center Jakarta

[Tiger Beer]

There are tons of colonial buildings throughout Asia.....everywhere. So, I'm a bit compared the OP mentioned in comparison to South America.

[Greysholic]

Maybe Qingdao has a German district? I've heard good things about that city, like the most pleasant city in China and whatnot.

Many Japanese cities have historic cities. Nara, Kyoto, Kamakura etc.

Jiufen here is more or less an old town(?) too.

[xeric]

Great photos everybody! I'm particularly entranced by the picture of Jiufen (above).

[Greysholic]

^That picture is really good photography, it usually doesn't look this good.