What difficulties have Jiaxing encountered in the protection of cultural relics?

Dig out a silver bronze sword in the old house on Zhongji Road? Confirmed, temporarily uncertain.

Jx.zjol.com.cn May 2006 19 Zhejiang Online Jiaxing Channel

Readers call

I just came back from Beijing and went to the old house on Zhongji Road with some relatives. It is being demolished and rebuilt now. Workers told us that a bag of silver and a bronze sword were dug up downstairs in our house a few days ago, and a Jiangxi man ran away with these things. We are worried that cultural relics will be lost.

Reporter verification

The caller's surname is Yan. According to him, the old house used to belong to the old Yan family. Located in convenience street of Zhongji Road, it has a history of 100 years. The day before yesterday afternoon, the reporter came to the construction site of Yuehe plot and found this old house easily along Convenience Street. Although the house has been demolished with only one frame left, the momentum can still be seen in a two-story building with a construction scale of more than 300 square meters.

Asked about the treasure digging, a worker at the scene denied it, saying that he had just come for two days and was unclear. A staff member of the master company of the construction unit said that it was just nonsense and no one had seen it.

Mr. Yang, the last watchman of Zhongji Road, said that he had never heard of it and there was no trace of digging at the scene.

So is there really a treasure under the old house on Zhongji Road? Mr. Yang said positively: Yes.

Mr. Yang, 57, was born and raised here, and has lived here for generations 100 years. In his memory, this road used to be very busy, and some famous families lived there. It is said that the treasure was dug up a few years ago, and an altar of silver dollars was also dug up during the construction under the Yinqiao Bridge last year. When the silver dollar was found, several workers began to plunder it. Later, someone called the police and the police came to control the scene.

Mr. Yang said that it was precisely because treasures were dug under some old houses that the workers attached great importance to the construction, but there was no news of digging treasures since then.

The reporter then confirmed last year's treasure robbery at Jiaxing Cultural Relics Management Office. According to director Chen, most of the silver dollars were recovered due to the timely police, but a small part was still lost.

With the transformation of the old city, some underground cultural relics have been stolen and destroyed, making it more difficult to protect them. Director Chen said that looting of cultural relics occurred from time to time. In addition to this looting incident last year, a similar incident occurred during the renovation of Meiwan Street the year before last. At that time, when the forklift was digging the foundation, the shovel suddenly broke a jar, bringing a lot of silver dollars, and then migrant workers and people around them began to plunder. After the police and the cultural protection department rushed to the scene, there were many onlookers and the order was very chaotic. In the end, only more than 50 silver coins in the shovel were recovered. Director Chen analyzed that these silver dollars and valuables were generally buried before the war-torn residents fled. Although they have little cultural value, they have certain economic value.

According to the provisions of the National Cultural Relics Law, cultural relics left in the underground, internal waters and territorial waters belong to the state. In recent years, the pace of urban construction has been accelerated, but the awareness of cultural relics protection is not strong, and the construction unit is unwilling to report it after discovering it, because it may affect the construction period and increase investment. Because of this, cultural relics have been destroyed and lost.