A well-preserved ancient village of 636-year history was discovered in the central part of Southwest China's Guizhou Province recently.

The village, named Baojiatun, was located in Anshun city, 75 kilometers away from the provincial capital Guiyang and 60 kilometers away from China's largest Huangguoshu waterfall.

Bao Shixing, a noted Chinese expert specific on urban planning, told Xinhua Friday that the village has been proved a legacy of the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and it still preserves ancient architectures and dresses of that period.

According to Bao, the village was older than the two ancient villages discovered in the southern part of east China's Anhui province, the Xidi village and Hong village.

Bao said the forefather of the village was taken down as Bao Fubao, a general of Ming's first emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Today, 88 percent of the village's 2,200-residents are surnamed Bao.

As the village was first built for military purpose in 1369, its residential buildings were distributed in line with the Chinese ancient philosophic picture -- the Eight Diagrams -- an octagon formed of eight combinations of three whole or broken lines.

According to Bao, the village also preserved an irrigation system built in the Ming Dynasty, which was noted as "small Dujiangyan" and the irrigation system is still operational in the village today.
 
Bao said as an important heritage, women in the village still wear ancient-style dresses in the same design with the dresses of Empress Ma, wife of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.

In addition, an ancient martial art with a history even longer than the famous Shaolin Martial Art in Henan province is also popular today in the village.

The village also preserved a traditional military-oriented local opera-Nuo opera, and the opera has also been listed a key part of Guizhou local operas, said Bao.

According to Bao, discovery of the village has aroused attention of the Ministry of Construction and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and a group of experts have drafted a protection outline to the ancient village for better preservation of the ancient heritage.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2006)