Wenzhou’s Shuomen ancient port site selected among China’s top 10 in 2023

On the morning of June 8, the 2024 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, a series of events were held in the host city of Shenyang in Liaoning Province. The National Cultural Heritage Administration announced the top 10 cases for the high-quality development of national cultural relics in 2023. Our city’s project,“Urban main roads make way for the protection of cultural relics, reproducing the grand scene of the millennium ancient port”, was successfully selected as one of the top 10 cases.

The Shuomen Ancient Port site is located in Lucheng District, adjacent to the ancient city in the south and the Oujiang River in the north, facing across the river the twin towers on Jiangxin Islet, one of the world’s top 100 ancient navigational beacons. Over the past two years, with strong support from the National Cultural Heritage Administration, Cultural Heritage Administration of Zhejiang Province, and Wenzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, significant progress has been made in the archaeological excavation, as well as in the protection and utilization of cultural relics at the ancient port.

It’s reported that the archaeological work of the ancient port has been on since 2021. With an excavation area of 7,000 square meters, it has discovered many important relics such as architectural relics related to the water and land gates of the ancient Wenzhou, river embankments in the Song(960 - 1279), Yuan(1271 - 1368) and Qing(1636 - 1912) Dynasties, 9 wharfs, 3 shipwrecks, 1 wooden plank road, and multiple groups of stilt architecture and brick buildings, as well as various porcelain specimens and lacquered woodware totaling 10 tons. The main relics are from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the excavation area is mainly composed of three parts: Shuimentou District at the eastern end, Linjiang Port District in the middle, and Wengcheng District on the south side of the western end.

CCTV’s“Focus Report” special report and China Cultural Relics Newspaper commented on the archaeological work of the relics site as“a typical case of China’s urban main roads giving way to cultural relics”, and the National Cultural Heritage Administration called it“a vivid case practiced by a local party committee and government, after the CPC Central Committee put forward new requirements for cultural relics work”. In addition, the relics site was selected as one of China’s top 10 new archaeological discoveries of 2022, and an important archaeological discovery in Zhejiang of 2022 - 2023. It has become an irreplaceable classic sample and supporting site for China’s Maritime Silk Road application for world cultural heritage.

The relevant person in charge of Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism said that next, with its focus on four major positioning, including the core exhibition area of the world cultural heritage, the new cultural landmarks of Wenzhou facing both rivers and the sea, the cases of the protection of cultural relics coordinated by the local party committee and government, and the popular cultural tourism sites with excellent traditional culture loved by young people, Wenzhou is going to build a national archaeological site park in a high-level, help the application of Maritime Silk Road for world cultural heritage, and deepen the exploration of Wenzhou’s path for the high-quality development of cultural relics, thus write a new chapter of Chinese-style modernization of cultural relics with Wenzhou experience.

It is reported that the Cultural and Natural Heritage Day is set on the second Saturday of June every year. It is not only an important festival in the national cultural and museum system, but also an important festival that focuses on displaying the achievements of China’s cultural relics protection and utilization, cultural heritage protection and inheritance, enhancing such awareness from the public, and creating an atmosphere for cultural relics protection.（ZhongXin）