Ancient Chinese Tombs Allegedly Destroyed by Developers
By Lucas on Nov 04, 2013
By Penny Munoz
Ancient tombs are presenting somewhat of an obstacle for real estate development in China. The long-lasting boom and continuing land development has come into conflict with the even longer 5000-year history of ceremonial burial traditions.
For projects that end up being located on ancient tomb sites, the government has set out laws outlining how developers should proceed with construction, but an historian in the field of tombs and grave objects, Ni Fangliu says that “very few private developers have shown respect for the law.”
The laws set out by the central government state that any project on a suspected tomb sites requires archeological assessments prior to construction. If an ancient site is stumbled upon during construction, the law states that all activity should be halted and the developer is obligated to report it to the local government immediately. If the site is deemed highly significant, then construction must be permanently stopped and the local government is responsible for providing developers with compensation for any lost revenue. In the scenario where construction is merely postponed, the government is responsible to pay developers compensation, covering any losses, unless the site is of “minor importance” (most commonly the case), in which case the developers eat up the cost.
Fangliu alleges that most developers who have come across ancient sites have tried to evade the law by keeping the discovery a secret, carrying on with construction and destroying potential culturally valuable sites.
"Discoveries are usually made in the very early stages of construction, when the groundwork is being done. In that event, the developers' strategy is to finish that part of the job as quickly as possible: Earthmovers will be put to work around the clock and any sign of an ancient tomb will be erased in the blink of an eye, as if it had never existed," says Fangliu.
Placing the blame on poor law enforcement strategies, Fangliu says that government officials are more likely to disregard these actions because of the revenue generated from land sales to real estate developers.
In a culture that has historically placed so much value on respecting these sites, going as far as enforcing the death penalty for stealing from them (recently repealed), do you think the government should do more to prevent developers from supposedly disposing of these ancient tombs?Feature image by Base64 and CarolSpears
