(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-06 23:12

One of the most pressing tasks for now was to save and put in order some cultural relics. Many of their components were buried under the collapsed buildings. The speed in repairing endangered cultural relic structures and warehouses that had large stocks of precious pieces also need to get quicker, he said.

The official said the warehouses played a critical role in preserving and saving the precious cultural relics during the quake.

In Mianyang, a city hardest-hit by the quake, only one out of 5,000 stocked pieces was ruined due to the protection of a warehouse.

The warehouse held the collected pieces from seven cities and counties within its jurisdiction. These included those from the epicenter of Wenchuan and Beichuan counties. Only one was ruined during the tremor, according to the administration.

Nearly all the relics left in their original places, most of ordinary importance, were destroyed by the quake, said the administration official.

China now has 300 cultural relics stock houses, and plans to add another 100 by 2010.

So far, local authorities have transferred more than 200 boxes of rare relic pieces from the Mianyang warehouse in case the quake lake Tangjiashan upstream may break its banks and flood the place.

Damages of cultural relics were also reported in Yunnan and Hubei provinces.

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