Cultural Relics
(Hebei Online)
Updated: 2004-07-15 13:59

Cultural Relics　　
Hebei Province is one of the important birthplaces of Chinese civilization.

Over 1,000,000 years ago ape-men lived and multiplied on this land. They innovated glorious humane civilization and left rich historical and cultural heritages. According to the cultural relics census, there are 12,215 unmovable ancient sites, tombs and buildings in the province, of which, 542, have been determined as key cultural relics under provinciel protection, and 58 have been announced as key cultural relics under state protection by the State Council.

Both of them rank first in the country. There are 850,000 collected cultural relics in the province, of which over 50,000 are precious cultural relics at the state level. The Great Wall (Shanhaiguan) and the Imperial Mountain Resort including the temples around have been included into the list of "World Heritages" by UNESCO (UN Educational, scientific and Cultural Organization). The cities of Chengde, Baoding, Handan and Zhengding County were named as the famoushistorical and cultural cities at the state level. None of the cultural relics and ancient sites in the province, no matter it is as old as more than 1,000,000 years or young as of modern times, has an fault age or period.

They include the largest imperial garden-the Imperial Mountain Resort in Chengde; the highest brick-pagoda-Kaiyuan Pagoda in Dingzhou; the earliest arch-upon-arch bridge-Anji Bridge in Zhaozhou; the tallest standing bronze Buddha-Bronze Buddha in Longxing Temple, Zhengding; the biggest wooden Buddha-the Wooden Buddha in Puning Temple, Chengde; the earliest architectural planning draft-the drawing of the tomb of King Zhongshan in the Warring states Period; the biggest iron lion-the Iron Lion in Cangzhou; the highest Buddhist inscription preserving tower-Tuoluoni Inscription Tower in Zhaoxian; the largest royal tombs-Eastern and Western Royal Tombs of the Qing Dynasty; the best-preserved ancient site-Zhaowang City in Handan; and the earliest post station-Jiming Post Station in Huailai.

Key Cultural Relics under Protection
The numerous archaeological fruits have revealed the long and glorious history of Hebei Province.

The ancient site of age-man culture lying on the bend of Yangyuan River has a very clear geological age and rich cultural intension. It is an important area to study the origin of human beings. The ancient Yanxian City in Yixian and Zhaowang City in Handan are the ancient capitals of state Yan and state Zhao of the "Seven Kingdoms" in the Warring states Period (486-256 B.C.), where a large number of and elegant cultural relics were excarated.

The excavation of the ancient tombs of Prince Jing and his wife of the Western Han Dynasty (206B.C.-A.D.25), In Mancheng found two regular and complete jade suits sewn with gold threads. The discovery of the ancient site of Emperor Qinshihuang's temporary dwelling palace in Beidaihe has provided important evidence for his tour to eastern China in ancient times.

The historical monuments under protection in Hebei Province not only contain diversified objects and ancient sites revealing the activities of our ancestors, but also include many cultural relics of modern and contemporary times, which are all of very great cultural value.

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