A total of 31 county-level cultural relics authorities from across the country were commended on Thursday in Beijing for their paramount efforts in protecting historical treasures.

Among the award recipients were Ji'an in northeast China's Jilin Province, which boasts a great deal of cultural relics from the ancient Gaogouli ruins.

The Gaogouli (or Kocoryo), also called the Gaoli (or Koryo), was an influential ethnic group in China's border areas in northeastern China between the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) and the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

The group's origins, its political system and the administrative annals of successive ancient Chinese dynasties were testimony to its being a political power in northeastern China.

Liquan County in northwest China's Shaanxi Province also won the award. It is the site where the mausoleum of Li Shimin (known as Tang Taizong), the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty in Chinese history, is located.

Sun Jiazheng, Minister of Culture, said it is the first time that his ministry has joined hands with the State Bureau of Cultural Relics to issue such awards.

To encourage the society to allocate more attention to cultural relics protection, Sun said the ceremony would continue as an annual tradition.

(China Daily December 27, 2003)