China are preparing four historical sites and ruins to apply for the World Heritage list in 2003, said an official with China National Committee of UNESCO International Historical Sites and Ruins Council.

Guo Zhan, secretary-general of UNESCO International Historical Sites and Ruins Council, made an inspection tour recently to Anyang, Henan Province, where Yinxu, the 3,300-year-old capital ruins preserving bones and shells with ancient inscriptions, is located.

Anyang has preserved more than 150,000 pieces of bones and shells with ancient inscriptions, nearly 10,000 articles of bronze, 54 palace ruins and other historical sites.

The city of Anyang has set up a special group to handle the matter for the application.

In addition to Yinxu Ruins, three other sites are the historical architecture in Macao, the tulou(earth building) in east China's Fujian Province, diaolou (castle building for military use) in south China's Guangdong Province.

So far, 27 cultural and natural sites in China are included into the World Heritage list since 1986 when the country started to apply its historical and natural sites for the World Heritage list.

(Xinhua 05/29/2001)