The Chinese Ministry of Finance starts to allocate 250 million yuan (US$30 million) every year from 2005, in an effort to protect the country's large-scale historical heritage.

The information was released from an on-going forum on relics survey and relics database construction held in capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Large-scale historical relics refer to those immovable heritage with high historical and cultural value, which occupy large areas.

Shan Qixiang, head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said that protection efforts will first go to those well-known relics sites, such as A'fang Palace of Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC), imposing Chang'an city of Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), Hanyang Mausoleum of Han Dynasty and Daming Palace of Tang Dynasty(618-907).

The Chinese government has invests more into cultural heritage protection in recent years, with the central budgetary allocating some 80 million yuan (about US$9.65 million) for the state and provincial heritage database construction.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2005)