China to reconstruct graves of martyrs

The central government is to allocate 1.9 billion yuan ($300 million) to resettle and reconstruct 300,000 graves of revolutionary martyrs and 2,000 memorial facilities, which are scattered across 25 provinces this year, an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

The emergency repair work is expected to be finished in 2014, Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo said at a video conference about the project on Tuesday.

According to the minister, the central government will grant a subsidy of 5,000 yuan for each grave and 200,000 yuan for each memorial facility.

The resettlement and reconstruction work started last year, with the aim of establishing a long-term protection and management mechanism for the poorly-protected graves.

"A major campaign will be launched nationwide to check the situation such as work progress, quality of the project and uses of funds," Li said.

"Each memorial facility will be expected to be built as a fully-functional, reasonable-sized and environmentally friendly project."