BEIJING (AFP) - A 600-year-old palace located in a World Heritage site considered the capital of Taoism is at risk of being submerged by an ambitious water diversion project in China, state media said.

The Yuzhenggong Palace, located in the forests of Wudangshan Mountain in central Hubei province, sits on the path of the South-North Water Diversion Project -- a 136.5 billion yuan (16.5 billion dollar) scheme to divert water from China's rainy south to its parched north.


Hubei's cultural relics managers recently revealed the palace will likely be enveloped into an expanded reservoir after the water project is completed, the Beijing Times said.


Experts are proposing methods to save the palace, including elevating it, moving it to another location or building dikes around it, but all the proposals are problematic and a solution has not been found, the report said.


The palace is part of about 210 cultural heritage sites in China that could be affected by the project and is believed to be one of the most valuable.


Wudangshan Mountain's ancient architecture was put on the United Nations (news - web sites) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's prestigious World Heritage List in 1994.


The palace, which was one of the main attractions on the mountain, was damaged by a fire in January 2003. Its main hall only has a wall remaining.


Some officials believe flooding the palace would not be a great loss since it is fire-damaged, but others believe the ruins are still valuable for studies into cultural history.


The palace is an example of late Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and early Ming dynasty (1368-1644) architecture.


Wudangshan Mountain, in the northwest of Hubei, is one of the sacred mountains of Taoism. According to legend, the martial art of tai chi was created by a Taoist monk at Wudangshan, which is still a martial arts centre.


China ranks third after Spain and Italy in the number of sites it has on UNESCO (news - web sites)'s World Heritage List, but UN experts warned during a conference in China last month that rapid, unmanaged development threatened many of the country's sites.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...ge_040720142915

that's unfortunate. i know this isnt another massive dam project...

But the government of china obviously believes that development and industrialization is worth more than important historical sites. With industrialization comes sacrifice, which in this case is more than just untouched open green spaces.


This is happening all over china, alot of the attention going to the recently finished three gorges dam where the flooding is displacing millions and submerging historical places. This will be a growing trend for china as the demand for electricity constantly grows. unless the government does something about the destruction of land and environment, not only water diversions/dams, but desertification, smog/pollution, etc it will be a big pain for the country and espicially its people, as well be a burden on neighboring countries having to deal with problems china created, ie sandstorms, smog/wind patterns etc.

By the time the government invests in conservation there wont be much left. As every year passes the utilization of resources from over 1.3 billion people rises as well.

I saw a program on TV awhile ago about this huge dam project that China is undertaking and all the historical sites in the area will be submerged...so historians and scholars are scrambling to take photos and do whatever they have to before the place is flooded.

Do you think these sites would be preserved by the water?

thats the three gorges dam

preserved or not...they'll be lost forever.

China needs a LIBERAL wing in the government. This is why it needs a two-party system. One-party systems don't have the capacity to recognize their own flaws and shortcomings.

i don't think the chinese govenment quite knows what it is doing in this case.

oh no.........what can we do

it's probably too late in this case. the three gorges dam has already been in process. millions of people have already been moved from that area where their ancestors had lived for many generations. many cultural and natural sites along yangtze river, one of the cradles of chinese civilisation, has been gone forever. the damage to the enviornment is also unmeasurable.

sometimes i really wish china has democratic government. u would think with the intellence of the 1.3 billion people, china won't be doing things terriblly wrong.

show some pictures of the palace!!!!!!! :genius:

but.. it is for china's future benefit... china is a power hungry nation... we need more powers...

yeah, china is in need of power, so destroy the cultural heritages, destroy the natural scenes. move all the residents who are getting in the way, wait, how about the environmental damages? well, can't worry about that now. nowadays we need to get industralized fast! so, built the dam! ... ... u see what's the problems there, 福州市长? they want china to be industralized as soon as possible, at any cost. everything else is pushed aside. the chinese government is very short-sighted in this case. this rational style of industralization has basically resulted in what the current chinese society as it is today. and to be honest with u, the picture is not rosy at all. ... ...

i would rather china slow down a bit and develop in a more balanced manner, rather than in a rush. the chinese leaders mostly have engineering background. they are technocrats and their mind-set is more technicial than visional. in a word, they lack vision. china needs visonal leaders and a balanced development. to achieve that, one of the many things we need is more capable leaders than the current technocrats.

sigh...

They need to do a firesale open to the public and foreigners.
Ancient artifacts and relics- 99% off, cutrate prices galore.
Heck, at least they'd be saved and the world gets a real piece of ancient chinese culture.