Plans for a new storehouse to protect cultural relics from the Ming Tombs, the mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), have been approved in Beijing.

The construction, to cost 26 million yuan (US$3.25 million), was approved by the State Cultural Relics Administration, said Li Dezhong, deputy director of the Office for Ming Tombs Area Administration.

The storehouse will be built in the third chamber of the Dingling Tomb. The three-story facility, with 3,000 square meters of floor space, will feature modern security and fire equipment, plus temperature and humidity controls.

Automated exit and entry monitors will be on the floor above ground. The two-story underground will be used for storing relics and for administrative offices, said Li.

Li said the current two ground-level exhibition halls, where precious cultural relics unearthed from Dingling and other Ming Tombs are kept, failed to control temperature and humidity.

"Moreover, the halls are small, and the layout is disorganized, so the relics are heaped together instead of being sorted and placed in different racks, and hidden safety dangers also exist," said Li.

The new warehouse would better protect and hold more relics.

Lying 44 kilometers northwest of downtown Beijing, the Ming Tombs have been perfectly preserved. Because of its long history, and palatial and integrated architecture, the site of the tombs has a high cultural and historic value.

They are known as the 13 Ming Tombs in Chinese (Shisanling) as 13 out of the 16 Ming emperors as well as 23 empresses, one highest-ranking concubines and a dozen immolated imperial concubines were buried in the valley.

The Dingling Tomb, also known as the Underground Palace, was the first imperial tomb to have been excavated in China. Emperor Wanli and two of his wives were buried there in 1620 in a deep marble vault four stories underground, which remains cool even on the hottest of summer days.
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(CRI.com December 13, 2006)