Plans for a new storehouse to protect cultural relics from the Ming Tombs, the mausoleums of 13 Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) emperors have been approved by the State Cultural Relics Administration.

The construction, likely to cost 26 million yuan (US$3.25 million), was approved by the State Cultural Relics Administration, said Li Dezhong, deputy director of the Office for Ming Tombs Area Administration.

To be built in the third chamber of the Dingling tomb, the three-storey facility, with a total floor space of 3,000 square metres, will feature modern security and fire-fighting equipment, plus temperature and humidity controls.

One storey above ground will house automated exit and entry monitors. The two storeys underground will be used for storing relics and for administrative offices, said Li.

Li explained the current two ground-level exhibition halls, where precious cultural relics unearthed from Dingling and other Ming Tombs are kept, failed to control temperature and humidity.

"Moreover, the halls are small with a disorganized layout, so the relics are heaped together instead of being sorted and placed in different racks, and hidden safety dangers also exist," says Li.

The new warehouse would better protect newly unearthed relics.

Lying 44 km northwest of downtown Beijing, the Ming Tombs have been perfectly preserved. Because of its long history, and palatial integrated architecture, the site maintains high cultural and historic value.

They are known as the 13 Ming Tombs in Chinese (Shisanling) as 13 out of the 16 Ming emperors as well as 23 empresses, one favorite concubine and a dozen immolated imperial concubines were buried in the valley.

The Dingling Tomb, also known as the Underground Palace, was the first imperial tomb to have been excavated in China. Emperor Wan Li and two of his wives were buried there in 1620 in a deep marble vault four stories underground, which remains cool even on the hottest of summer days.

The entrance to the grounds is marked by a large red gate guarded by a magnificent bronze lion. Gigantic marble doors stand at the entrance to the first of the three burial chambers. Inside are three coffins, and many of the treasures can be viewed in the two exhibition halls constructed above ground.

The Ming Tombs were placed under protection of the Beijing municipal government in 1957.

To preserve the area, 170 million yuan has been poured into the site since 2000 to clear up the surroundings, dismantling buildings out of character with the environment and buildings within a radius of 50 meters of the mausoleums, and improving facilities.

In July 2003, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee added the Ming Tombs in Beijing on the World Heritage List along with the Qing Dynasty tombs.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2006)