Bureaus Exclusive

World's largest heritage site to open

By Lu Hongyan (China Daily Shaanxi Bureau)
Updated: 2010-01-25 15:18

The world's largest park of cultural heritage is set to open after workers completed restoring the relics from the ancient site.

Danfeng Gate

Work on Danfeng Gate, main gate of Daming Palace Site in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, was finished on January 20, marking the opening of the whole historical site is just around the corner.

Built in 634 AD, Daming Palace served as the imperial palace in Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), whose magnificence and importance could never been underestimated. This nearly 1,400-year-old palace, which has been under restoration since 2007, is busy preparing its public debut in October. Workers are now working on the final interior decoration.

Covering 37,000 square meters, Daming Palace will be the world's largest park of cultural heritage after completion.

A museum is also being built on the axis of the palace site to exhibit the unearthed cultural relics. With an area of over 10,000 square meters, this museum will serve as a venue to exhibit the cultural relics and civilization of Tang Dynasty in an intensive way.

"Daming Palace will definitely be the soul of Xi'an, for it has brought the Tang culture back to us. By simply taking a walk here, visitors will have a better understanding on the architecture, paintings, clothes and ceremonial customs in Tang Dynasty," said Zhao Rong, chief of Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics.

Theme halls such as "the Palaces' Palace," "the Sunrise," "Greetings from Neighboring Countries" and "Maintaining the Grandeur" have been designed in order to present audiences with a scenario of the heyday of Tang Dynasty.

The protection and restoration project of Daming Palace will also be exhibited in Shanghai's world Expo this year, which is the only demonstrative case to stand for China's endeavor in protecting cultural relics.

Dangfeng Gate, literally known as the "Red Phoenix Gate," served as the main entrance of Daming Palace. With a similar function of Tiananmen in Beijing, the gate used to be a ritual place in Tang Dynasty, where the emperor ascended the throne, declared an amnesty or met foreign ambassadors.

Boasting five doorways and stretching 74.5 meters from east to west, Danfeng Gate, acclaimed as "the most majestic gate in Tang Dynasty," is the largest ancient gate which still exists.

As the first building on the axis, the gate is also the largest in the whole historical site.

To strengthen the ancient gate without changing its original look is not easy. Architectures used steel bars as supporting skeletons, and light brown bricks to fill the cracks.

Over 130 million yuan has been put into the 10-month restoration project.

The gate is going to relive the scene on the amnesty day of Tang Dynasty, when the emperor set all the criminals in the nation free. The portrait of a golden roster will be posed at the top of an erected pole to show the royalty and holiness of the imperial family. Thousands of drums will be beaten when criminals are led at the foot of the gate. All the people in the town will be waiting for the emperor's declaration to give mercy and freedom to the guilty.

"The gate will be the landmark in the future blueprint of Xi'an," Zhao added.

A documentary named Flying over Daming Palace was also launched on January 20. Using a hot air balloon as its flying machine, the documentary, which would take 10 months in total, is going to focus mainly on the protecting process of the site and influences it may bring to society.