The Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage will take good care of the cultural relics found in the construction sites of Olympic venues, said officials with the relics' preservation and protection team on Friday.

The officials were addressing a press conference at the reconstruction site for two temples, one next to the National Aquatic Center and the other near the Olympic Village.

Kong Fanzhi, the administration's director, said it would ensure cultural relics found buried near Olympic venues would remain in place, while artifacts unavoidably unearthed would be given to museums for research and exhibition.

"As most of the city's cultural relics rest inside the city wall of Beijing, a fortification built around 1435 in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and now replaced by the city's second ring road, and the city wall of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), which is located a little further north to the north of the Third Ring Road, none of the Olympic venues were built inside or nearby these relics-rich city walls to ensure minimum damage to those treasures buried underground," said Kong, who has dealt with Beijing's cultural relics for more than 30 years.

The Water Cube, the National Aquatics Center, was moved 100 meters further north to avoid damaging a 500-year-old temple next to it, used to worship the goddess of childbirth.

About 700 ancient tombs containing 1,100 ancient relics have been unearthed in 17 projects operating at the construction sites of 10 Olympic venues.

"Most of the artifacts were from civilian tombs, and we have left the group tombs of some illustrious families in their original state," Kong told China Daily.

Kong's team is also helping to recover ancient structures that were once taken over by local residents a few decades ago for other purposes, such as shelter or storage.

The remains of tombs are providing insight into the burial customs of ancient Beijing.

Urns were widely used in civilian tombs, while similar containers made from blue and white porcelain were commonly used for monks.

According to Song Dachuan, head of the Beijing Historical Relics Institute, the most valuable of the unearthed treasures were 10 jade belts, some with intricate engravings of dragons and floral patterns.

(China Daily 01/27/2007 page3)