Restoration of old buildings IELTS Writing P2

The restoration of old buildings in major cities throughout the world often involves numerous government expenditure. This money will bring more benefits if it is used to provide new housing or road development. To what extend do you agree or disagree?

At present, increasingly a number of the old buildings need be restored, which would cost much more revenues by the government. At the same time, some people say that would bring more benefits to the citizens and society if give up to fix the old buildings and use the money to developing the infrastructure. But in my opinion, I do not agree with this since the old buildings not only include the value of culture and history but also have numerous business potential.

In term of the value of culture and history, people should not underestimate the value of the old buildings since most of them have a number of historical meanings and experiences, especially on the aspect of national culture, for instance, Hangzhou is an intermediate city which is located in east-south of China. This city has a plenty of historical buildings and landscapes such as the West Lake or the Wansong library, and Hangzhou government did not abandon or destroy those old buildings, while they were repair and reinforce it. Now, you could find a wild range of traditional skill or things in Hangzhou, particular in the old building area, such as traditional food, clothing, toys or services. On the other side, we would lose those traditional cultures or skills if we replace it with skyscrapers and business areas.

Except for the value of culture and history, the old buildings also have huge economic potentials. For example, Suzhou which is a capital city of Jiangsu province, and most of the people do not know why this small city could be the capital city. Because, in their view, it does not have the complete industry system, huge population or prosperous business areas, but have the old and shabby house. However, the truth is that the Suzhou government restore and renovate a lot of the old building for tourism, which makes the city become a famous travelling city, therefore, approximately 120,000,00 tourists to visit the Suzhou city per year, which bring enough money and job opportunities to the local people, afterwards, the Suzhou government use the revenues to develop the infrastructure such as road and housing.

Totally, the old buildings would not be a burden for us if we could much better to protecting, utilizing or understanding this.