The State Administration of Cultural Heritage has decided to invest 18 million yuan (about US$2.2 million) in the renovation of structures in the Eastern Qing Tombs, a move experts said would help better introduce the imperial graveyard to world.

Located in Zunhua City of China's northern Hebei Province, the Eastern Qing Tombs was the grandest and most intact imperial graveyard.

Covering 2,500 square kilometers, the grave group took about 150 years to construct, and was finished in 1908. Five emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) together with 15 empresses were buried here, among whom the most well-known ones are emperors Kangxi and Qianlong, who pushed forward the economy of Qing Dynasty to its peak.

The Eastern Qing Tombs was built alongside Changrui Mountain after long-term inspections and studies. Archaeologists said the group of graves was an integration of imperial tombs, palaces and gardens, combining natural beauty with human elegance, which was a good example of architecture and aesthetics.

Regarded as the reflection of Qing's history, the Eastern Qing Tombs enjoyed a fine reputation home and abroad.

It was listed for state-level preservation in 1961 and was listed by UNESCO as a World Culture Heritage Site in 2000, together with the Western Qing Tombs.

Located in Yixian County, 120 kilometers southwest of Beijing, the Western Qing Tombs witnessed the ending of the Qing Dynasty, and also the end of feudalism, said archaeologists.

Finished in 1915, the graveyard included the tomb of the last emperor in Chinese history.

Archaeologists said that Chinese ancient architecture reached its highest splendor in the Qing Dynasty, and the wooden structure, stone and wood sculptures and the advanced drainage system of Western Qing Tombs were good incarnations of the highest standards of the architecture.

The Qing government invested a lot in the forestation of the graveyard every year, said archaeologists, and actually the Chinese government kept spending money on the Western Qing Tombs. The over 200,000 pines and cypresses in the graveyard now made it the biggest ancient pine forest in northern China.

Officials of the World Cultural Heritage Commission said both groups of graves indicated the traditional Chinese ideas of architecture and adornment.

The geomantic theory together with the delicate layout of structures in the graveyards were the inflection of the feudal views on the world and the power, which had been inherited for thousands of years in China.

They said the imperial tombs of the Qing Dynasty were the most creative masterpiece with human genius and they were the best proofs of the architecture style and even cultural forms of that age.

The harmonious integration of man-made buildings and natural environment made the Qing tombs a unique sight in the world.

As the witness of the social religious belief at that time, the imperial tombs, more than the burial lands of eminent people, served as the recorders of Chinese history, said archaeologists.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2004)