Changing face of old city of Yan´an 

Source: CCTV.com

10-23-2006 14:29

The city of Yan'an is usually associated with shabby cave houses and scenes from the past. But as our reporter Liu Ming finds out, things are changing in this cradle of the Chinese revolution.

The Yangjialing Cave Hotel is the largest cave dwelling in the world.Unlike the ancient brick and sand cave houses in Yan'an, these rooms, built in 2002, are made of stones.Cool in summer and warm in winter, they're a good example of Yan'an updating its tradition.

Zhu Yimin, Village Party branch secretary of Yangjialing village said, "Many people have visited the cave houses where Chairman Mao once lived. But they have never lived in one. So I came up with the idea of building this cave hotel. The decoration and furniture are in the Northern Shaanxi Style."

In the past, cave houses were connected with poverty and bad living conditions. But now, they're a valued heritage of Yan'an.

And it's not just cave houses that have been modernized.