Chinese Baroque buildings to open to tourists

China's largest and most intact buildings in the "Chinese Baroque" architectural style favored in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have been renovated and will open to tourists at the beginning of 2014, local housing authorities said on Tuesday. These works of architecture, located in Daowai District of Harbin City, capital of Heilongjiang, are a combination of the Baroque style and Chinese elements such as crane and peony designs, according to Jiang Fan, a local historian. Built about a century ago and covering 288,300 square meters, the buildings adopt Western baroque style for their exterior design, while retaining the traditional layout of Chinese courtyards inside, Jiang added. The renovations started in 2007. As well as being open to tourists, some of the buildings are expected to be used as commercial districts, according to the housing security and real estate management bureau of Harbin.