Site of 'Marquis of Haihun' tomb to become national park

A hoof-shaped ingot, gold cakes, a jade seal and a jade pendant are unearthed from the Haihunhou tomb. (Photo/Xinhua)

Plans are being made to turn China's most complete Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 25 A.D.) cemetery into a national park.

The tomb of the "Marquis of Haihun" near Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, is one of the few imperial tombs that have not been looted.

The remains of the marquis were found in a coffin in an interior chamber and hoisted out in January, 2016, for lab research. More than 10,000 artifacts have been unearthed so far.

The administration bureau of the cemetery said the design of the national park by the China Architecture Design Group has been completed.

The site, over 20 square km, will preserve the tomb in its original form by the side of Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake.

The construction, landscaping and preservation is expected to cost 1.2 billion yuan (172 million U.S. dollars). A tourist center in the park is set for opening in 2019.

The marquis, Liu He, was grandson of Emperor Wu, whose reign began one of the most prosperous periods in China's history.

The excavation of Haihunhou Tomb began in 2011. It has been recognized as a model archeological research and relic protection project. Preservation was carried out alongside the archeological excavation and an application for it to be inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list is in the pipeline.

Jiangxi's cultural department has cataloged each find. Several labs and research teams have been working separately on archaeobotany, zooarchaeology and studies of textiles, metals and historical records.