People responsible for the damage done to priceless Confucian sites in the famous sage's hometown of Qufu, in East China's Shandong Province, have been punished, Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday.

In December last year, the Confucian Temple, Confucius Family Mansion and Confucian Cemetery, all on the list of world cultural heritage sites, were washed with water and rubbed with tools by workers of the Qufu Tourism Center.

Confucius (BC 551-BC 479) was a famous thinker and educator whose philosophies are highly regarded in China today.

Damage was caused in 22 places at the three relics, said Jin Hongkui, vice-director of the cultural relic protection division of the State Bureau of Cultural Relics, on Wednesday.

Liu Wenqi, director of the Qufu Cultural Relic Tourism Center and vice-manager of the International Confucian Tourism Co Ltd, was sacked and three other officials were sacked or demoted.

In Qufu, the government ordered the Qufu cultural relics management commission to take over the responsibility of protecting and managing the three sites and the International Confucian Tourism Co Ltd was immediately stopped from doing any more of the work, according to the report.

Earlier this year, various newspapers carried reports about the damage, but local authorities in Qufu denied that the relics had been washed.

(China Daily 05/18/2001)