Looting archaeological sites and stealing artworks from museums have become increasingly frequent occurrences in China.

Such crimes are among the three critical threats to Chinese cultural heritage, the other two being construction projects and environmental pollution, said Shan Jixiang, chief of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, yesterday at a meeting of conservationists in Chengdu.

"Chinese conservationists are engaged in a dangerous fight against criminals with insufficient tools, little funds, and bad working conditions," he noted.

"Tomb raiders, museum thieves, smugglers and international art dealers have formed a complete and efficient network that allow Chinese cultural relics to appear within one week at markets in Europe or the United States," said He Shuzhong, head of the law and policy office of the administration.

"In markets of Hong Kong, Europe, and the United States there are all kinds of Chinese cultural relics that have been newly excavated, and no one can give proof of their legal origin. They range from dinosaur egg fossils, to bronzes and terracotta pieces, and really anything that can be exchanged for money.

Shaanxi Province in northwest China, where more than 80 emperors were buried, remains the greatest attraction for tomb raiders, said He.

Holes with a diameter of about half a metre, through which a raider could enter the tomb, can be found almost every three square metres in an area of a suburb of Xianyang, where emperors and aristocrats of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) are buried, according to Hu Jingyue, official at the cultural heritage administration of the Weicheng District of Xianyang.

Officials at the local cultural heritage administration this January found one such hole that was dug 17 metres deep into the ground with a tunnel at the bottom that ran for more than 30 metres. Inside they caught four tomb raiders who were living there.

"The tomb owner had a layer of drifting sand that is more than 20 metres thick covering his chambers, and anyone who attempted to enter the tomb without sophisticated equipment would have been buried by the quicksand," Hu said.

Meanwhile museums, especially small ones at township levels, are having their collections stolen without even noticing sometimes because of poor management, said a source with the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Museum, who declined to give his name. "After being looted, relics can be taken out of China through 100 routes but primarily via Hong Kong," He said.

They flow mainly to Europe and the United States, but the latest trend is that many drop into the hands of art collectors in major Chinese cities.

Besides the threat from criminals, bulldozers and pollution, poor conservation techniques and the lack of talent have also hampered efforts to protect ancient relics.

(China Daily December 20, 2005)