Construction Threatening China's Heritage

"[I]n China, archaeologists are often in a losing race against bulldozers. In late January, a work crew in the ancient capital city of Nanjing unearthed and destroyed the burial sites of 10 noblemen from six dynasties. By the time a team of local archaeologists arrived, bulldozers had crushed the burial crypts and looters had combed through the site."

"Such stories are common. Last year, local antiquities officials in the city of Luoyang described how unceasing urban development was steadily encroaching on a protected zone of ruins dating to the Tang dynasty, 618 to 906. Meanwhile, a local newspaper reported that a major redevelopment project, including an industrial park, was being planned atop the ruins of an ancient palace."

"Chinese law...requires that real estate developers receive approval from the local antiquity bureau before proceeding with work...But in reality developers and local officials often sidestep the rules, partly because surveys and excavations can be time-consuming and create costly construction delays. Chinese archaeologists, as a group considered well trained, are greatly outnumbered, and...many of the local antiquities bureaus try to perform a sort of archaeological triage by rescuing antiquities before they are stolen or destroyed."