Statues of Chinese warriors erected some 250 years ago to guard the entrance to the Eastern Qing Dynasty tombs, in the suburbs of Beijing
© AFP/File Goh Chai HinBEIJING (AFP) - The Eastern Tombs, about 125 kilometres (80 miles) east of Beijing, house the remains of more than 100 members of the Qing dynasty royal family, including five emperors.
But the future of the tombs is now under threat as rich iron ore mining reserves in the area have attracted illegal miners in a country desperate for raw materials, the China News Service said.
According to the service, illegal mining has destroyed part of the vegetation of the Shashan mountain, which is only 200 metres (220 yards) from one of the Eastern Tombs, which gained UNESCO recognition in 2000.
"Illegal mining started two years ago with mining reaching a depth of 50 to 80 metres," said a villager from nearby Huida village.
The night reverberates with explosions from within the mines and the iron ore is shipped out during the daytime, the villager added, according to the report.
China's cultural heritage protection law says explosions, mining and drilling are all banned from protected areas, China News Service said.
A worker who is responsible for safeguarding the tombs said that administrators responsible for the Eastern Tombs had no legal authority to prevent the illegal mining.
It also quoted a village head who said that the illegal mine owners had a wide network of connections, often a way of bypassing legal obstacles in China.
"Illegal mining stopped during an investigation and resumed after the inspection had been completed," the village head said.
China had 33 places on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) list of top historical sites at the end of 2006.
Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng said in December that many local governments were only interested in exploiting the sites for profit rather than protecting them, Xinhua news agency reported then.
©AFP