Archeological Parks Help Protect Ancient Ruins

With its 2,000 year history, China has a huge number of large-scale, archeological sites. But the country’s rapid development in the last 30 years has left some of them threatened with destruction or neglect.

However, one solution was recently proposed at an archeological forum held in June near Hangzhou, Zhejiang province: turning them into archeological parks, which offer the public a glimpse of the past.

On June 11th and 12th, more than 200 of China’s archeological officials and experts gathered in Liangzhu Town, the location of the Liangzhu archeological site that dates from the Neolithic Age northwest of Hangzhou, to discuss how to protect and make good use of the large-scale archeological ruins.

Often, local residents prefer more immediate, tangible benefits like new houses, stores, and restaurants to preserving archeological ruins nearby. But the ruins “are not only the physical evidence of a city’s history, but also function as time machines connecting a city’s past and present,” Lu Zhou, an architecture professor from Tsinghua University attending the conference said.

But the consensus at the forum was that economic development and protection are not mutually exclusive. Lu Zhou, argued that in fact protecting archeological sites helps residents identify with the city they live in, which he argues helps accelerate a city’s economic development.

The forum concluded that turning ruins into parks would provide an effective way of protecting them without sacrificing development.

In fact, one day before the forum began, construction began on the Liangzhu National Archeological Site Park. The local government said it will provide job opportunities ranging from tourist guides, sanitation staff, and other tourism and travel related positions.

“Building ruins parks will slow the pace of ruins being encroached by urbanization, beautify the ruins surroundings, and protect the relics much better,” said Shan Jixiang, Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. Still, Shan noted, “Building ruins parks [may] prove to be an effective way to protect ruins in China, but it’s far from the only one.”

By Dong Jirong