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Shanghai plans to build a museum on the remains of a Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) flood-control system for a river that once acted as a major path to the East China Sea. The museum, expected to open in 2010, would rival the terracotta warriors museum in Shaanxi Province.

The site was uncovered by construction workers in May 2001 at the Zhidan Road and Yanchang Road crossroads in Shanghai.

With a total area of 1,600 square meters, the ruins are the largest example of a Yuan Dynasty flood-control system ever found and should be preserved, officials said.

"It is the most important archaeological discovery in the city's downtown area," said Zhai Yang, an official with the Shanghai Cultural Relics Management Commission, yesterday.

"It will be the downtown's first museum sprung from original archaeological discovery, similar to the famed museum of the terracotta warriors," he said.

Since the site was discovered, archaeologists have worked on excavating the structure and artifacts in the ruins.

So far they have found over 10,000 wooden pegs, 400 stone boards and some wooden pillars inscribed with ancient Chinese characters describing the river-control works.

The centerpiece of the site is a stone gate almost seven meters wide. It is borne by two grooved stone pillars.

The ruins are close to the former course of the Wusong River, which used to be a major waterway to the East China Sea. Over the years, silting changed the course of the river now known as Suzhou Creek.

According to historical records dating from the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), central and local governments spent huge sums of money on dredging the Wusong River and building water-control systems such as sluice-gates.

This makes the ruins of great significance for studying changes in riverbeds, construction of water-control facilities and the development of shipping in Shanghai.

(Shanghai Daily November 24, 2006)