China Focus: Residential development may threaten ancient imperial city site in E China

China Focus: Residential development may threaten ancientimperial city site in E China

HANGZHOU, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Controversial video clips aboutresidential construction work atop the allegedly imperial city ofthe Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) in east China's ZhejiangProvince have recently caused a stir on the Internet.

Located in Hangzhou's city center, the construction site on thebank of the famous West Lake covers an area of 2.1 hectares.

The videos show cultural relics, including ancient pieces offloor tiles and pillars, unearthed by the Luchengxizi Real EstateCompany on the construction site in Hangzhou, the capital ofZhejiang Province.

Since surfacing, the clips have sparked an outcry for thepreservation of historic sites.

"The West Lake in Hangzhou plans to apply for World Heritagestatus. Since the imperial city of the Southern Song Dynasty is asymbol of Hangzhou's historical culture, the destructive developmentwill destroy the city's image," said a netizen on Sohu, one ofChina's major web portals.

"Cultural heritage is a kind of unrenewable resource. I hope thegovernment will pay more attention to the preservation of threatenedhistorical relics during the process of urbanization," said anothernetizen named "Jing Huisheng" on www.ifeng.com.

Some local culture experts and researchers believe that theresidential building work is based on the hub of the imperial cityof the Southern Song Dynasty.

"The imperial city site is buried just 3 to 4 meters below groundsurface," said Zhou Fuduo, a professor with Zhejiang University."But the foundation of the construction work by the real estatecompany has gone more than 10 meters deep."

However, the company denied that they have planned newresidential buildings on historical sites.

"We have no idea about ancient imperial city sites. When webought the land for construction, nobody informed us that it wasbased on historical relics," said Wang Xiaochun, project manager ofthe Luchengxizi Real Estate Company.

Like the real estate company, not everyone is convinced that theconstruction site is atop the imperial city site.

It is still controversial whether this area is included in theancient imperial city sites, according to Tong Guoliang, deputydirector of the local landscape management committee.

"After more than two decades of archaeological work, it is clearthat the construction work is not located on the imperial city sitesof the Southern Song Dynasty," said Tang Junjie, a researcher fromthe Hangzhou Municipal Institute of Archaeology.

The municipal government suspended the real estate company'sconstruction work until confirming that there is a lack of evidenceto support the theory that the construction is based atop theancient imperial city sites.

Further research is underway to identify the true scale of theimperial city sites of the Southern Song Dynasty.

The imperial city site of the Southern Song Dynasty was selectedas an important heritage site under state protection by the StateCouncil in 2001.