Chinese civilization has felt the pain that occurs when cultural treasures are lost on many occasions during its long history.

To save the nation's historical inheritance for future generations, historical sites across China are expected to receive more State investment for preservation and protection in the country's 11th Five-Year Plan starting in 2006.

In recent years, the country has spent more on the recovery of Chinese relics from abroad.

"We still have chances to recover relics in foreign collections in the future, but may have little opportunity to rescue historical sites if we don't take urgent measures," said Du Jinpeng, a researcher with the Archaeological Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The Chinese Government has been purchasing national treasures collected overseas in the past few years.

In 2002, it paid 29.99 million yuan (US$3.6 million) for a 39-character calligraphy piece from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), which was owned by a Japanese collector.

A special fund for such purchases was established in 2002 under the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH).

The goal of the fund was to buy back at least some of the most significant national treasures and return them to the motherland, said Fan Shiming, director of the China Cultural Heritage Consultation Center.

Today, however, researchers and experts believe the preservation of the important historical sites is much more important, as many still face the twin threats of bulldozers and robbery, for instance.

As a result, SACH has commissioned a team of experts, including Du, to draw up a list of important historical sites which must be urgently protected, said the researcher.

"Among various types of China's cultural heritage, historical sites have been the most fragile and often the worst protected in the face of the construction boom taking place around the country," said Li Xueqin, director of the Historical Studies Department of Tsinghua University.

Of the large number of historical sites around the country, Du said they will choose major ones from the 285 protected at the State level.

Experimental projects have been carried out on the protection of historical sites since 2000.

Du said that a project located in the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) capital in Yanshi, Central China's Henan Province, is a successful example of this.

Archaeologists and historians are celebrating the 3,600th anniversary of the founding of the Yanshi city and the 20th anniversary of the excavation of its ruins.

The ruins, discovered accidentally in 1983, were allegedly of the capital of the early Shang Dynasty, and their discovery is widely regarded as one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century.

"The founding of Yanshi city marked the fall of the Xia Dynasty (2100 - 1600 BC) and the start of the Shang Dynasty," said historian Li, who is running a State-sponsored project of historical studies on the Xia, Shang and Zhou (1046 - 256 BC) dynasties.

Ruins were found at the site of a city measuring 1,700 meters in length from north to the south, and 1,200 meters wide from east to the west.

In the southwestern part of the city lies a smaller city, 1,100 meters long and 750 meters wide, inside which was a square-shaped palatial city, each side measuring 200 meters.

In the palatial city remains, researchers found more than 10 palaces, a ritual site and a garden including a pond.

The pond was part of a complete water supply system consisting mainly of canals in and around the 3,600-year-old city.

In the northeastern part of the outer city there were remains of a bronze workshop, and a large number of pottery has been unearthed in the city.

"The Yanshi city is the best preserved among Shang Dynasty cities excavated," said Du.

Du and his colleagues are re-filling holes they dug out in a rectangular-shaped area in the northeast of the outer city.

In the protected area, 147 meters long and 82 meters wide, they are making marks representing ancient city walls, canals, roads, tombs and pottery kilns on the ground.

They are also building a 1-metre-tall terrace of earth on the surface of the whole palatial city, and making similar marks representing the ruins.

"A historical site should not be a forbidden zone. We expect to open the two areas to the public, hopefully as a park," said Du.

Heated debates have been going on since the discovery of the Yanshi city two decades ago, as to whether it is the earliest capital of the Shang Dynasty.

Some historians, including Zou Heng from Peking University, believe the ancient Zhengzhou City, the remains of which lie beneath the modern provincial capital of Henan, was the earliest capital of the dynasty.

Researchers determined that different ceramic objects discovered at the two sites lend support to claims that Yanshi city was founded earlier than Zhengzhou City, but the latter was several times bigger.

"However, it is almost impossible to protect ancient Zhengzhou City now," said Du.

"Since protective measures were not taken in time, the modern city of Zhengzhou has continued to be built over the historical site since the 1950s," he added.

(China Daily August 9, 2004)