The Chinese government has decided to invest 50 million yuan (US$6.2 million) to protect cultural relics along the routes of the gigantic south-to-north water diversion project, the office in charge of the project said on Monday.

A total of 45 cultural relic sites will be protected along the eastern and middle routes, including seven in Beijing, six in northern Hebei Province, 11 in central Henan Province, four in central Hubei Province, seven in eastern Shandong Province, and 10 in eastern Jiangsu Province, said Yuan Songling, an official from the office.

Two of the sites are under national level protection such as the Great Wall remains of the Yan State in the Warring States Period (BC 475-BC 221), and four are under provincial level protection, according to Yuan.

The office has formulated principles to govern the investigation, implementation, examination, filing of reports, and the publication of those reports, Yuan said.

It will also promulgate detailed provisions on the protection of cultural relics along the route, he said.

The south-north water diversion project consists of three canals, each running more than 1,200 kilometers across the eastern, central and western parts of the country. Two canals will affect a large number of precious cultural relics as they pass through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage says that at least 788 cultural heritage sites will be affected by the project; and many experts are concerned about the inevitable damage to the relics during construction.

"From now on, protection efforts of other ancient sites dotted along the two routes will be pushed forward," Yuan disclosed.

The plans for the two routes and their sub-projects have been repeatedly revised, he said.

Work on the water diversion project officially began at the end of 2002, consisting of three south-to-north canals to divert water from the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in southern China to the northern parts of the country.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2005)