Anytime subways pass under the Forbidden City, trains roar alongside the Great Wall and jet planes fly over the Dunhuang Grottos, the ancient structures suffer from vibrations caused by engines of modern industrial civilization.

But China is now to set a national standard aiming to address this problem.

Chinese scientists have drafted a regulation to ward off any unnecessary industrial harm to cultural relics and has already submitted it to legal authorities before the government pushes the standard with administrative power.

"Earthquakes can cause great damage to relics, but recent studies show that vibrations brought about by trains, automobiles, mining and large machinery can also lead to fatal deterioration," said Prof. Pan Fulan, a leading expert in the field of environmental vibration and director of the standard-setting project.

Given the banality of industrial vibrations, few scientists are dedicated to this worldwide problem.

In the last four years, Pan's group conducted a field survey in scores of historic sites, collecting samples and testing to what extent they can stand vibrations.

Pan said many historic sites, like the Dayan Pagoda, built in 652 A.D. in northwest China's Xi'an, Liuhe Pagoda built in 970 A.D. in east China's Hangzhou city and the over-1300-year-old Jietai Temple in Beijing have more or less been damaged by industrial vibrations, some quite seriously.

Based on the surveys, experts crafted the standard to control industrial vibrations on ancient wooden, brick and stone buildings and grottos, said Pan.

Gu Yucai, deputy director of the relics protection department under the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said that by setting up the standard, Chinese scientists are doing their part to protect the world's cultural heritage.

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2005)