Luoyang has a grand plan to restore architecture along the ancient axis line, including ramparts, gates, bridges, and 103 residential complexes where renowned politicians and poets once lived.
“We will build the park step by step as the investment required is huge,” says Li, adding that “President Xi Jinping told us to have pride in our culture and people need something tangible to reach consensus on.”
The recreated Tang-style architecture acts as a “protective shed” in archeological terms, built above the original foundations to avoid damage to relics.
At the same time the buildings serve as tourist facilities, says Wang Ge, from the municipal cultural heritage bureau.
The park received 850,000 visitors last year and expects to see over 1 million this year, according to Wang.
Heritage protection is often in conflict with city development, especially as the relics area occupies a quarter of the city center.
It is no easy job to maintain balance as Luoyang strives to become one of Henan’s two economic engines amid rapid urbanization.
“City planning and construction are intertwined with cultural relic protection. If we can handle them well, it will be a win-win situation,” says Li.
“But if we mess it up, the relics will either constrain development or they will be damaged,” he says.
As early as the 1950s, when the central government planned to turn Luoyang into a major industrial base, the local government avoided building factories in the city area, instead setting up a new industrial district in the suburbs.
Currently, 42,000 residents live in the Sui and Tang cultural relics protection area.
“Some of them will be relocated and some will be allowed to stay. It depends on the threats posed to the relics,” says Li.
Qian Binggen’s family was one of the 800 households relocated in 2009 due to the reconstruction of Tian Tang or Heavenly Hall, where Empress Wu attended Buddhist rituals, and Ming Tang or Hall of Enlightenment, where she handled government affairs. The relocation project cost 1.35 billion yuan (US$210 billion).
Since 1955, Qian, 82, has lived in a compact apartment provided by his employer, a machinery construction company. His family was relocated to a residential complex two kilometers away.
At first, Qian was reluctant to move out, but now he accepts the changes.
The protection of cultural relics should also benefit local residents, said Du Jinpeng, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Archeology.
Providing free entrance for locals or building an archeological theme park can give something back to those who made sacrifices for the protection of the relics, he said.
Song Gaoxiang, 53, a villager who has been working at the excavation site for several years, has high hopes for when the Erlitou Relic Museum opens to the public.
“I’m planning to open a restaurant nearby when the museum is completed,” he says.
