Central China province starts construction on Erlitou Relic Museum

ZHENGZHOU, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Henan Province started construction on Sunday on a museum at the 3,700-year-old Erlitou relic site.

The Erlitou Relic Museum, covering about 14 hectares, will cost 6.3 billion yuan (92 million U.S. dollars) before its completion in October 2019, said Liu Wankang, mayor of Luoyang City, at the museum's ground-breaking ceremony.

Once completed, the relic museum will become a national research center to explore the history of the Xia Dynasty (c. 2070 BC-1600 BC), the first dynasty recorded in ancient China.

Discovered in 1959 in Luoyang, Erlitou was identified by Chinese archaeologists as the relics of the capital city of the middle and late Xia Dynasty.

The 40-hectare Erlitou Archaeological Park also began construction in order to protect the palace buildings and bronze smelting workshops at the site.

The museum and archaeological park will help people learn about ancient Chinese culture, said Gu Yu, deputy director of China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage.