Shaanxi Province, a treasure-trove of ancient cultural artifacts, has installed a hi-tech burglar alarm system to better protect its valuable relics.

Provincial officials started with the Pingling Mausoleum, the tomb of the sixth emperor and empress of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 24), where a device called a Ground Wave Detection and Alarm System was installed to monitor the tomb and surrounding area, said Zhou Kuiying, director of the Relics Protection Department of the Shaanxi Provincial Administration of Cultural Heritage.

"The device is China's first alarm system to fight against robberies of ancient tombs. It divides the tomb into 28 sections and monitors them 24 hours of a day. Any changes in the ground wave caused by illegal excavation will be detected, setting off an alarm," the director told China Daily yesterday. "The system makes it easy to notify local relic-protection units and guards that someone is attempting to rob a tomb."

Home to 72 emperor tombs, Shaanxi's remoter areas are difficult to patrol, making the security systems necessary.

Zhou said provincial authorities would gradually install the system at all the ancient tombs in order to better protect the relics and deter tomb-robbing.

Local authorities and police have been working to stop grave robberies and are dealing sternly with the culprits.

Early this month, police arrested seven suspects who had pillaged an ancient tomb in August in Hancheng in eastern Shaanxi.

The tomb dated back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (the 11th century - 771 BC), said Luo Xizhe, director of the Policy and Law Department of the Shaanxi Provincial Administration of Cultural Heritage.

The Regulations of Shaanxi Province Cultural Relics Protection, which came into force on October 1 this year, provides improved legal support for crack-downs on tomb-robbing.

(China Daily December 19, 2006)