Millennium-old town to restore memorial gates

CHINA -- An ancient town in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province has planned to restore its over 100 stone memorial gates, some of which will be completed this year, local authorities have said. The town of Meicheng aims to “bring back to life” the 1,200-year-old city of Yanzhou, as the town was called in ancient times, in five years by preserving and renovating its historical streets and buildings, according to the town government. An integral part of the revival plan would be piecing together more than 3,000 relic parts of the city’s stone memorial gates, erected to record battle victories and praise local heroes, scholars and other celebrities.

In the town, workers were seen brushing and cleaning the unearthed relics, revealing their embossment of dragons, lions and other animals, as well as geometric patterns and inscriptions.

“The town’s large number of stone relics and their exquisite patterns are very rare findings,” said Zhou Xuebin, an archaeologist with Hangzhou Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute. “Their embossment and patterns are of great value to the study of southern China’s cultural history.” Meicheng is among the few “living old towns” in China with intact street-and-alley structures and abundant historical relics. It is now a tourist boomtown, which recorded a tourism revenue of nearly 8 million yuan ($1.2 million) in 2018.

(Xinhua)