The ancient city wall of Pingyao in north China's Shanxi Province will be restored before the May Day holiday, a local cultural heritage official said here Friday.

Costing 870,000 yuan (about US$105,326), the repair project has been going smoothly for more than 20 days, said Dong Yangzhong, an official with the Cultural Heritage Bureau of Shanxi Province.

"We'll use traditional techniques to restore the original look of the ancient city wall before the tourist rush begins during the coming May Day holiday," Dong said.

The entire wall will also be examined using advanced technology to prevent possible collapse in the future, Dong said.

Part of the 630-year-old wall collapsed on Oct. 17, 2004. The collapse caused no casualties because no one was around when the 17-meter long, 10-meter tall, three-meter thick section near the southern city gate fell apart.

A preliminary investigation suggests the collapse was a result of structural defects in the wall itself, not human activities, said Li Shusheng, vice director of the cultural heritage administration of Pingyao.

The local government promised to restore the collapsed section before winter set in. It did not explain the reason for the project's delay.

The existing city wall of Pingyao was rebuilt in 1370 on top of an old one. The wall is around 10 meters tall and has a circumference of nearly 6,200 meters.

Pingyao was an ancient financial center. It has well-preserved streets, stores, temples and residential houses built in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, attracting numerous tourists from home and abroad each year.
 
The ancient city was listed as a World Cultural Heritage site in 1997 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2005)