Some 2,000 years ago, a man named Zhu Meng established a kingdom in northeast China. Today, remains of his kingdom have become a heritage of the whole world. This kingdom was called "Koguryo," which ruled over part of north China and the northern half of the Korean Peninsula from 227 B.C. to A.D. 668.

The 28th Session of the World Heritage Committee unanimously agreed on July 1 to inscribe the capital cities and tombs of the ancient Koguryo Kingdom of China onto the World Heritage list, adding another site to the country's 29 world heritage properties.

Ancient Kingdom

Although destroyed over 1,300 years ago, relics of the kingdom remain in good condition, including the capital city, fortifications, royal tombs and steles in what is nowadays called Ji'an City, Jilin Province and the neighboring Huanren County of Liaoning Province.

The site includes archaeological remains of three cities and 40 tombs: Wunu Mountain City, Guonei City and Wandu Mountain City, 14 tombs for imperial, and 26 for nobles. Wunu Mountain City has only been partly excavated. Guonei City, within the modern city of Ji'an, played the role of a secondary capital after the main Koguryo capital moved to the location of today's Pyongyang. Wandu Mountain City, one of the capitals of the Koguryo Kingdom, contains many vestiges including a large palace and 37 tombs. Some of the tombs have elaborate ceilings, designed for wide roofs without columns and carry the heavy load of a stone or earth tumulus (mound), which was placed above them.

When inscribing the relics on the World Heritage List, the World Heritage Center of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said that the tombs represent a masterpiece of the human creative genius in their wall paintings and structures.

The capitals of the Koguryo Kingdom are an early example of mountain cities, later imitated by neighboring cultures. The tombs, particularly the important steles and a long inscription in one of the tombs, show the impact of Chinese culture on the Koguryo (who did not develop their own writing). The paintings in the tombs, while showing artistic skills and specific style, are also examples of the strong impact this civilization had from other cultures.

The capital cities and tombs of the ancient Koguryo Kingdom represent exceptional testimony to the vanished Koguryo civilization.

The system of capitals represented by Guonei City and Wandu Mountain City also influenced the construction of later capitals built by the Koguryo regime; the Koguryo tombs provide outstanding examples of the evolution of piled-stone and earthen tomb construction.

The capital cities of the Koguryo Kingdom represent a perfect blending of human creation and nature, whether with the rocks or with forests and rivers.

Protection Stressed
 
The Chinese Government launched a plan to protect the capital cities, imperial tombs and tombs of nobility of the Koguryo Kingdom, in 2002. The protection plan covers 43 protection areas, including two capital cities of Guonei and Wandushan, 12 imperial mausoleums and Haotaiwang Stele, and 27 tombs of nobility.

Distribution of the historical and cultural heritage almost covers one third of Ji'an City's land inhabited by local people or used for production purposes. Thus, Ji'an, a county-level city with little arable land, faces a tough task to seek coordinated development between protection of the cultural heritage and development of the economy.

For better protection of the ruins of the Koguryo Kingdom inside the city, Ji'an has revised its urban development plan. Mayor Xu Caishan said that the present downtown area of his city, where Guonei City of the Koguryo Kingdom was located, would move eastward, and the modern architecture would be relocated and completely disappear in the next 50 years.

Mayor Xu provided that they would also turn down the plan to build an industrial park near the Taiwang Mausoleum of the Koguryo Kingdom, and instead build the industrial park in a new location some distance from the mausoleum. "We hope by doing so, modern civilization won't erode our precious historical relics," said the mayor.

In March 2003, civil servants with 43 departments of Ji'an Municipal Government moved out of its offices, which were built on the ruins of Guonei City, to work in 20 separate places. The original location of the city government building has now been turned into a Koguryo Kingdom Ruins Park, where archaeological workers discovered a large site of palace ruins.

In the meantime, 1,150 households and 51 government institutions, factories, schools and shops, involving 4,145 people, have moved out of the first-phase zone designated for environmental reconstruction, covering an area of 108,900 square meters, and resettled elsewhere, so that the ancient city wall of Guonei City will no longer be threatened by increased human activity.

Relocation

Jiang Yuhua, a 53-year-old farmer from Maxian Village in Ji'an, said he had never known that the stone heap -- Qianqiu Tomb, one of the tombs for nobles during the Koguryo Kingdom -- some 100 meters away from his home, was anything of significance until one day in early 2003, local cultural officials dropped in and told him the stone heap was a relic of over 1,000 years ago and he should be relocated so that the tomb could get proper protection.

"Having got to know what I face everyday is something significant in human history, I agree to get relocated," said Jiang. "I think it is worthwhile sacrificing a little for the benefit of the children of future generations."

Sun Haiqin, another Maxian villager, and his family has moved to a residential area from his former home in the Qianqiu Tomb protection area. "I never thought these 'stones' Ji'an people had lived with for generations are treasures," Sun said. Including Sun's family, all of the 46 households of the Maxian Village have moved out of the Qianqiu Tomb protection area, which is now turned into pastoral land. Sun is a professional pasture guard.

The government has subsidized relocated residents according to a standard of 960 yuan ($116) per square meter, and has financed the construction of two new villages and two buildings for relocated residents.

The Huanren Manchu Autonomous County in Liaoning Province, where Wunu Mountain City, or the ancient Koguryo regime's early capital was situated, has not only published a set of rules on the site, but also enlarged the protection area from 2.15 square km to 34 square km. The county also formulated detailed provisions on the cultural relics, natural landscape and biological environment inside the area.

According to Sun Xudong, head of Huanren County, they have dismantled a 75-meter-high TV relay station, a 200-meter-long cableway and two factories inside the protection area, where some 66 hectares of arable land have been reverted to pasture and 500 modern graves relocated elsewhere.

Sun Baocheng, 69, an urban resident of Ji'an City, is upbeat about the inclusion of the Koguryo ruins on the World Heritage List. The old man, who used to play a lot around the Taiwang Mausoleum when he was young, regretted what he did. "When I was a child, I liked to compete with others in climbing onto the top of the mausoleum, unaware that we were actually damaging the precious cultural relic," said the old man, adding that his greatest wish was to become a volunteer advocate for cultural relic protection.

(Beijing Review July 21, 2004)