THE restoration of the ruins of Xuanquanzhi, a post office site built over 2,000 years ago along the Silk Road in Dunhuang City, Northwest China’s Gansu Province, began last week and is expected to open to the public in 2024. With an investment of 148 million yuan (US$ 21.5 million), the restoration project covers 25,000 square meters and integrates the functions of tourist services and site display, according to Sun Xiaoqiang, president of the Dunhuang Culture and Tourism Group. Xuanquanzhi, which was excavated in 1987, is now only accessible to researchers. The site of Xuanquanzhi, which dates back to the Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 8), was a comprehensive post office for mail and information deliveries, as well as the reception of messengers, officials and foreign guests. It is among the locations along the Routes Network of the Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor of the Silk Road, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014. “More than 32,000 cultural artifacts, including bamboo scripts, coins and pottery, were unearthed from the site in the early 1990s, providing primary materials for the study of cultural and economic communication between China and the West,” said He Shuangquan, who is leading the excavation of the site. (Xinhua) | 