They drew the attention of many passers-by in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. But locals became really interested when the workers cleared the area surrounding Beiling Park, also known as Zhaoling, which was the resting place of Huang Taiji (1592-1643), the founder of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

After clearing the ground, experts will be invited to help redesign the surrounding area and restore the park to its original royal flavor, according to Chen Zhenggao, mayor of Shenyang.

Wu Tianya, a 65-year-old man who takes his daily morning exercise in the park, said: "It's really good that all these inappropriate buildings will be removed and the original appearance of the park will be restored."

Restoring Beiling Park to its original look has been part of Shenyang's efforts to protect the city's cultural and historical relics, which have long been neglected in the drive for modernization.

According to Zhi Yunting, director of Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, a new storehouse is being built in a corner of the palace grounds to house and preserve the large number of ancient works of calligraphy, paintings, porcelains, sculptures, enamel ware, jewels and stone vessels from the palace.

The new three-story storehouse covers an area of 2,500 square meters and will need an investment of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) to refurbish.

A former residence of Zhang Xueliang (1901-) (better known as Chang Hsueh-liang), commander of the Northeastern Army and co-organizer of the 1936 Xi'an Incident, and his father Zhang Zuolin (1875-1928), a warlord in Northeast China, will also undergo repair, said Zhang Li, director of the Mansion's Exhibition Hall.

The mansion, consisting of several buildings and a garden, was built in 1914. Chang Hsueh-liang, now living in Hawaii, was one of the major figures behind the Xi'an Incident in December 1936.

Chang along with General Yang Hucheng (1893-1949) took Chiang Kai-shek hostage demanding he cease the civil war and unite with the Communist Party to fight against Japanese aggression.

The Liaoning Provincial Department of Culture is investing another 19 million yuan (US$2.3 million) to remove the surrounding houses and other inappropriate buildings around the mansion, according to Gu Yucai, vice-director of the department.

Shenyang people are proud of their city's thousands of years of history, even though it is not as famous as Beijing and Xi'an.

More than 1,200 historical relics have been found or unearthed in the city, which have given it Shenyang a reputation as a historical and cultural city. Among these relics, about 60 have been judged as being State, provincial or municipal-level heritage.

The Xinle Relics of Shenyang, a tribal residential site dating from the Neolithic Age, is located in the northern part of the city. The site consists of three layers from different ages.

The bottom layer from the earliest Xinle Culture more than 7,000 years ago is a typical representative of early settlers there.

The past dynasties have left the city a wealth of cultural relics, such as palaces, city walls, pagodas, temples and town sites.

The most famous is the Shenyang Imperial Palace. Built in 1625, it is the only existing integrated royal architectural complex in China besides the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Covering 67,000 square meters, it was the imperial palace used by Nurhachi (1559-1626), founder of Later Jin and predecessor of the Qing Dynasty and Huang Taiji.

The palace was named the "accompanying capital" after 1644 when the Qing ruler Shunzhi moved the capital to Beijing.

Scattered in the city's four corners are four Tibetan Buddhist pagodas built in 1643, which are rare in the country for their special layout.

With carved Sanskrit and animal designs on the surface, the four pagodas were once taken as the symbol for good weather and peace.

The stupa of Shenyang, a pagoda for Buddhist relics, was built in 1044 during the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) and is one of the city's oldest surviving buildings.

The stupa possesses great historical and artistic value as it shelters a gold-plating copper Buddhist sculpture of Sakyamuni, four gracefully-lined murals and a number of Buddha niches, porcelains, altars, silk fabrics and scripture books.

"However, many historical relics in the city are in bad shape," said Zheng Bingyang, director of Shenyang Municipal Historical Heritage Administrative Office.

Modern constructions pose the main threat to these historical treasures, he said.

"There is always a contradiction between the city's construction and the protection of relics," he explained.

According to the city Historical Relics Protection Law that took effect in 1992, construction around historical relics must be strictly examined to ensure that it will not damage any relics. The height, exterior and architectural-style of new buildings must also be harmonious with nearby relics.

However, the laws are frequently broken in the push to modernize the economy. Many buildings were built causing considerable damage to historical relics. In some cases, parts of the relics were simply torn down, said Zheng.

"We failed to get Shenyang Imperial Palace, the Beiling Park and Dongling Park (Fuling Tomb of Nurhachi), which are of great historical value, onto the World Heritage List because of illegal buildings surrounding them," Zheng added.

The shortage of funds poses another problem for the protection of historical relics, Zheng said.

For years, the city's historical relics protection work has had to manage with just 500,000 yuan (US$60,241) annually from the city's construction department.

"But relics need maintenance every five years and big renovations every 10 years, which generally requires a large amount of money," said Zheng.

The meager income from selling tickets to visitors is far from enough to meet the demands to protect relics and to improve the surrounding environment.

Consequently, many cultural relics museums offer poor displays. Tourists have also been dismayed to find low-quality housing and even garbage dumps surrounding some historic sites.

The Shenyang North Pagoda and Falun Temple, typical of the architecture of the early Qing Dynasty, only receive about 40,000 visitors annually.

The famous Shenyang Imperial Palace attracts the most tourists to the city, with the income from tickets exceeding 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) a year.

"But this is too small compared with its historical value," Zheng sighed.

At the annual sessions of Liaoning Provincial People's Congress and Political Consultative Conference held in February, deputies and members have put forward a number of proposals on the protection of the city's cultural heritage.

But as the city still faces arduous tasks to revitalize its economy, especially the many debt-ridden State-owned enterprises, it is unlikely to allocate a large sum of money to relic protection in the next few years, Zheng said.

The government has been asked to appropriate 5 percent of its city construction funds for the protection of historical relics.

Efforts are being made to improve the conditions of Shenyang Imperial Palace, the Zhaoling and Fuling Tomb to make it possible for these sites to be included on the World Heritage List, according to Xin Zhanshan, a research fellow from Liaoning Archaeology Institute.

"Historic relics are priceless treasures left by our ancestors, and we should hand them down," said Wu.

(China Daily 03/28/2001)