To commemorate the second Cultural Heritage Day in China on June 9, China Central Television (CCTV) will broadcast live three archeological digs across the country.

The programme will be aired on CCTV-10, the science and education focused channel of the CCTV Network.

In the four-hour programme, audiences will be shown three archeological sites - an ancient tomb in northwest Shaanxi Province, an old city in southwest Sichuan Province, and a former palace in south China's Guangdong Province.

After sleeping quietly ten meters underground for nearly 3,000 years, the ancient tomb from the Zhou dynasty was found accidentally in 2004.

Along with huge numbers of bronze, agate, gold and jade articles, the story of an ancient kingdom was gradually uncovered. However, many things remain unknown, including the owner of the tomb, located in Liangdai village of Hancheng city, in Shaanxi province.

The second site features a face mask made of gold is among relics of an ancient city that is possibly 3,000 years old in Jinsha village, a suburb of Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan province.

The mask will be transferred to the nearby Jinsha site museum after a grand ceremony. The ancient city, speculated as being the capital of the Shu kingdom in the late period of the Shang Dynasty, was found in 2001. It's been well known since then as the remains of a highly developed ancient civilization.

In the third part of the show, audiences will watch an ancient palace, which 2,000 years ago in the Han dynasty, was the home of the emperor of Nanyue kingdom. Found in 1995 in south China's Guangzhou city, the remains of the palace is now undergoing an application for inclusion in the World Culture Heritage list. The most astonishing part of the palace was its water supply and drainage system, which made water flow upwards.

(CRI.cn June 9, 2007)