Buddhist temples in NW China to be repaired

TAIYUAN - Five Buddhist temples on a mountain in north China's Shanxi Province will start to be repaired around the end of June,a local official said.

Five temples on Mount Wutai, which was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2009, will be repaired over the course of 180 days at a cost of 8.7 million yuan (about 1.41 million U.S. dollars).

Workers will restore faded artwork, repair the temples' structures and solve problems related to rainwater leakage, Liu Wenguang, head of the mountain's religious and cultural heritage bureau, said Thursday.

The restoration will be carried out safely and without changing the temples' original appearance, Liu added.

The sites will remain open to visitors during the repairs.

Located in Wutai County in northeast Shanxi, Mount Wutai is home to about 50 ancient Buddhist temples. The provincial government spent 70 million yuan to repair 14 temples last year.