A developer in central China's Henan Province is facing severe punishment after destroying a 4,000-year-old cultural heritage site for a construction project, ignoring warnings from local authorities, officials said yesterday.

Developer in trouble for destroying heritage site.[File photo]

A 1 meter deep ground level of the Longshan Cultural site of Shang and Zhou dynasties (c. 16th century-256 BC) in Zhengzhou City was damaged by bulldozers, said Xin Yingjun, director of the excavation department of the city's cultural heritage bureau.

Debris of ancient pottery jars, bowls and goblets have been found in the earth dug out by bulldozers and experts were evaluating the age of the cultural relics, Xin said.

"We have to launch a rescue excavation now on the deeper part of the site that has been submerged by groundwater because of the developer's illegal work," he said.

The Henan Lihao Real Estate Co planned to build an apartment building for senior citizens on 12,000 square meters of land in the city.

However, before construction was due to start, experts and officials with the bureau found a 93-meter-long, 26-meter-wide and 2.3-meter-deep cultural heritage site full of cultural relics and asked the developer to postpone the construction in September.

"The developer agreed to wait until the end of the excavation work, but launched the digging during the National Day holiday early this month," he added.

Zhengzhou is one of the eight Great Ancient Capitals of China. It was home to the capital of the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC) and is full of cultural relics in the earth, officals said.

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