Archaeologists said that the palace city discovered last spring at the Erlitou site in Yanshi City, central China's Henan Province, may be the earliest palace city ever discovered in China.

"The design of the city had erected a model for later dynasties in designing their capital," said Dr. Xu Hong, who leads the archaeological investigation team at the Erlitou site of the Institute of Archaeology, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The rectangular city is 300 meters wide from the east to the west, and 360 to 370 meters long from the north to the south.

Four roads, each 10 to 20 meters wide, are on each side of the palace area, forming a transportation network in the central region. The city wall was just built along the inner sides of the four roads.

According to Xu, so far, two groups of palaces were unearthed in the palace city.

"Either palace group has a clear central line as all large constructions and roads are distributed evenly at either side of the line," said Xu.

Before the discovery of the palace city at the Erlitou site, the earliest city site can be identified in China is the Yanshi Shang Town, which was built about 3,600 years ago.

The new discovery shows that many city construction rules in the later dynasties can be dated back to the time of the Erlitou site. This includes the crisscrossing roads, the rectangular palace city, construction distributed around a central line and constructions facing south, said Xu.

"So the Erlitou palace city can be regarded as the ancestors of China's ancient palace cities," said Xu.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2004)