Anhui has two archaeological site parks listed by the State as national heritage projects. The parks were announced recently by the State Administration of Cultural Relics in its second list of national archaeological site parks.

They include the Lingjiatan archaeological site park in the province’s Hanshan county and the imperial palace archaeological site in Fengyang county. The Fengyang county site is a remnant from the early stage of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

“This is the first time Anhui has projects on the State shortlist,” said a source with the Anhui Cultural Relics Bureau.

The source said Anhui has placed high value on this significant breakthrough, deciding to inject a large amount of capital to refurbish these two parks.

Hanshan will relocate local residents within three years to create space to launch the Lingjiatan cultural village project, which is expected to cost 150 million yuan ($24.7 million).

Meanwhile, Fengyang is also outlining a project to refurbish the imperial palace archaeological site by moving out local residents. The whole project is expected to cost about 560 million yuan.

A source said 90 percent of the relocation project has been completed, and the rest will be finished by the end of this year.

Efforts will be made to put at least one archeological site park into use in 2016, the source said.

Edited by Michael Thai, Huang Pei