China kicks off cultural relics survey
Chinanews, Beijing, May 17 – A nationwide survey of cultural relics was kicked off in China on Tuesday. This is the third time that an investigation of this kind was carried out throughout the country. During the event, archeologists will investigate the unmovable cultural relics existent on the ground, underground, and in water areas. Folk buildings, industrial heritages, cultural spots and routes, as well as traditional branded products will all be covered in the current cultural protection event.Earlier, the General Office of the State Council issued a notification on initiating a third cultural relics survey. Through the survey, it is hoped that archeologists can get basic knowledge about the unmovable cultural relics and their surrounding environment, especially the quantitative data about the relics, their preservation conditions and the environment in which they remain.
The survey will last until December 2011, and the whole activity will be divided into three stages. The first stage will last from April to September, 2007, when archeologists will start to set some technical standards, offer some trainings to the surveyors, and select a few places as trial bases for the survey work. The second stage will last from October 2007 to December, 2009. During this period, experts will come to the cultural relics sites and carry out on-the-spot surveys. The surveying work will be done from one county to another. From January 2010 to December 2011, experts will start the third stage of survey work, during which they will compile all the information and statistics gathered through the survey. They will set a data bank and publicize their survey results later.