China to turn Marquis of Haihun tomb into cultural relics park

NANCHANG -- Chinese authorities have approved a plan to turn the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun into a national-level archeological relics park, the management office of the site said Monday.

The tomb, dating back to Western Han Dynasty (206 BC- 25 AD), is located near Nanchang in East China's Jiangxi province. It is one of the few imperial tombs that have not been looted.

After an assessment initiated by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in March, the park construction plan was recently approved.

With a planned area of 12.46 square km, the park will preserve the tomb in its original form by the side of Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake.

The excavation of the tomb began in 2011. The remains of the Liu He, known as the Marquis of Haihun, were found in a coffin in an interior chamber and removed in January 2016, for further research. More than 10,000 artifacts have been unearthed from the tomb so far.