China plans to invest a huge sum of money into the preservation project for an ancient city in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the next five years.
A total of 17.5 million yuan (about US$2.1 million) will be poured into repairs of the Jiaohe Ruins, the world's biggest and best-protected relics of a clay-built city.
Located some 20 km east of Turpan, the ruins of Jiaohe, meaning "old city between two rivers", is an ancient frontier army citadel of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 24 A.D.).
As the capital of Turpan's earliest residents of the Cheshi State, the 220,000-square-meter city is also the most intact capital relics of the country.
Yue Feng, president of the Cultural Heritage Administration of Xinjiang, said that repair work will be done to the temples, eastern city gate, ancient houses, pagodas and the thousand Buddhas cave.
In the past two years, the administration has spent some 3.3 million yuan on the protection of the city, a religious and cultural center of the region.
As a key link of the ancient Silk Road, the Jiaohe City had both geographical and strategical significance. It was totally destroyed in wars and has remained an eerie but beautiful sight in the desert.
(people's Daily)
