As the Communists assumed power in 1949, they inherited one of civilization’s singular urban artifacts: the vast, intact, medieval cityscape of Beijing, an integrated object of environmental art whose architectural parts, such as the Forbidden City, were set in alignment to the poles of the Chinese cosmos. Modernization, dogma, and the influence of Soviet anti-conservation advisors would cause numerous historic assets to be bull-dozed. The broad avenues of the old city were zoned for ad hoc high-rise development and the historic milieu was fractured. Even the legendary massive walls of Old Beijing were removed and those who objected were purged in the Cultural Revolution—which, after the fall of the Gang of Four, was acknowledged by the government as a senseless tragedy.