The ancient Koguryo Kingdom site, which was inscribed onto the World Heritage List Thursday, comprises Guonei City, Wandu City and over 100 ancient tombs bearing exquisite murals.

Koguryo was a regime established by ethnic groups in northern China some 2,000 years.

Koguryo has a pair of cities, named Guonei City and Wandu City, which are respectively located on a plain and the nearby mountain in Ji'an City in northeast China's Jilin Province.

Taking advantage of the local natural environment, the pair of imperial cities combines the defense works with unique ethnic features, setting a good example in China's architectural history.

A number of cultural relics have been unearthed from the ruins in Guonei City, which is 2,738 meters in perimeter. They included a pair of jade earrings, 20 gold-plated arrow heads and large amounts of tiles with different kinds of decorative patterns.

Wandu City, on the mountain top some 2.5 kilometers north of Guonei City, has seven city gates, forming the main defensive system in the region.

It was built in 198 and destroyed in 342. The city had served as a garrison city and twice as the provisional capital city.

Statistics showed murals in the Koguryo Kingdom have been found in 101 ancient tombs, of which 33 are scattered in Jilin Province of China and 68 in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The murals are rich in content including the family life of noble lords, feasting, dancing, drama-playing and outings. The murals were made on stone walls covered with lime.

Some murals made in early periods portrayed palace, water well, soldiers, maids, cattle and dogs, flower and grass and the sun and the moon.

When Buddhism was introduced into China, the designs of lotus, a symbol in Buddhism, appeared in the tomb murals.

To date, some murals have fallen off as a result of mildew and erosion. Chinese cultural relics protection workers have introduced the digital virtual technology into the tombs. Through a computer, visitors may see beautiful murals without going into the tombs.
 
(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2004)