Chinese archaeologists digging in Nanjing, capital of the coastal Jiangsu Province, recently found the remains of a structure built before the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the first of the kind ever found in eastern China.

Working in an area east of downtown Nanjing, archaeologists discovered fragments of a large stone carving and wall foundations, which were believed to belong to a temple of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The experts dated their findings to the pre-Tang era, saying patterns on the stone carving were similar to those common to wall paintings and buildings in grottoes like Dunhuang in the northwest, and in Buddhist pagodas before the Tang Dynasty.

(People's Daily 02/05/2001)