On July 25, seven experts led by Zhang Zhiping, senior engineer of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage and former director of the Chinese Cultural Heritage Research and Protection Center of Historic Buildings and Monuments visited the "Hundred-mile Dong Culture Gallery", Pingtan Village and Hengling Village in Tongdao, to survey the comprehensive treatment in the Shuangjiang River area.
The villages of Dong ethnic group were officially included on China's World Cultural Heritage Tentative List in 2012. The treatment project involves three townships (Longcheng, Pingtan, and Huangtu), eight administrative villages, 8.2 thousand citizens,15,000 mu (1,000 hectares) cultivated land, 8.71-kilometer river channel, and a total investment of 16.1388 million yuan.
The experts pinpointed the ecological effects of river improvement and highlighted its planning and preservation. In the choice of revetment material, consideration should be given to the protection of the cultural heritage, the geological condition and the flood impact. Consequently, to protect the ecology along the river bank, it was recommended to use traditional dry masonry block stones.
Translator: Hao Jingru
Source: Hunan Official Web Portal