To commemorate the second Cultural Heritage Day in China on June
9, China Central Television (CCTV) will broadcast live three
archeological digs across the country.
The programme will be aired on CCTV-10, the science and
education focused channel of the CCTV Network.
In the four-hour programme, audiences will be shown three
archeological sites - an ancient tomb in northwest Shaanxi
Province, an old city in southwest Sichuan Province, and a former
palace in south China's Guangdong Province.
After sleeping quietly ten meters underground for nearly 3,000
years, the ancient tomb from the Zhou dynasty was found
accidentally in 2004.
Along with huge numbers of bronze, agate, gold and jade
articles, the story of an ancient kingdom was gradually uncovered.
However, many things remain unknown, including the owner of the
tomb, located in Liangdai village of Hancheng city, in Shaanxi
province.
The second site features a face mask made of gold is among
relics of an ancient city that is possibly 3,000 years old in
Jinsha village, a suburb of Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan
province.
The mask will be transferred to the nearby Jinsha site museum
after a grand ceremony. The ancient city, speculated as being the
capital of the Shu kingdom in the late period of the Shang Dynasty,
was found in 2001. It's been well known since then as the remains
of a highly developed ancient civilization.
In the third part of the show, audiences will watch an ancient
palace, which 2,000 years ago in the Han dynasty, was the home of
the emperor of Nanyue kingdom. Found in 1995 in south China's
Guangzhou city, the remains of the palace is now undergoing an
application for inclusion in the World Culture Heritage list. The
most astonishing part of the palace was its water supply and
drainage system, which made water flow upwards.
(CRI.cn June 9, 2007)