The excavation work of Leifeng Pagoda's 1000-year-old basement was called to a stop March 12, but the beautiful legend of "White Snake Lady" hanging over it never departs. This year will see beginning of reconstruction of the pagoda, said Chen Wenjin, vice-director of Zhejiang Bureau of Cultural Relics.

Upon 3 am the excavation had yielded 59 pieces of valuables, including a large number of coins, a locked casket, two bronze mirrors, a statue pedestal and a 68-cm-tall bronze figure of the Buddha.

The biggest surprise took the form of some silk fabrics found from the ruins. After careful study Zhao Feng, a researcher with the National Silk Museum of China, affirmed that they were Yueluo produced in Shaoxing in Tang times (618-907), an equal in fame with Sichuan brocade and of great value in studies on Zhejiang Province and the Silk Road relations.

Detailed reconstruction plan is being pondered, said Chen. A steel-structured new tower will be erected on the original site and the "underground palace" is to be restored. A balance is to be achieved between "preservation" and "reconstruction", with ruins below and new tower above. A same five-storied tower, the new one may vary in size with the old one.

The reconstruction is to be kicked off this May at a cost of over 30m yuan. Designed by Tsinghua University and with construction bidding work under preparation, it will be finished in one and half or two years, then the sight of "Setting Sun over Leifeng Pagoda" will return to West Lake.

(People’s Daily 03/13/2001)