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E. China city to renovate 1,000 ancient buildings

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-27 15:03

HEFEI -- The scenic city of Huangshan in east China plans to renovate 1,000 ancient buildings, or relics of the country's late agricultural era, in the coming five years, according to the city's cultural preservation bureau Friday.

The city will renovate 200 buildings in each of the five years, with an average 1.2 million yuan (175,650 US dollars) for each residence, said Hu Rongsun, head of the city's bureau of cultural relics preservation, Friday.

A survey by local experts last year suggests that 5 percent of the ancient buildings, most of which are residences, in Huangshan would perish every year without necessary repairs.

Some buildings, including those dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), could collapse at any time as roof damage and rotten timber components are common in most buildings, said Wang Wei, who led the survey.

The city will renovate most of the residences at their original locations and move other buildings entirely to new places if necessary, Hu said.

The massive renovation project has begun in Xu Village, whose ancient residences have been put under state protection, he added.

There are 1,022 well-preserved ancient villages in the area formerly called Huizhou, with more than 5,000 ancient private residences, ancestral temples, memorial archways, pavilions and bridges, among other structures.

Among the local dwellings, two renowned villages in Huizhou, Xidi and Hongcun, have been listed as World Cultural Heritage Sites. Huangshan Mountain has been listed as one of the World Natural and Cultural Heritage Sites.

Huizhou culture, also called Hui culture, began to flourish more than 1,000 years ago during the later Northern Song Dynasty (960-1120) and reached its zenith in the Ming and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties.