Rail bypass protected Ming tomb

The Beijing-Shanghai high speed railway project spent more than 23 million yuan ($3.77 million) on extensions as part of a bypass plan to protect an imperial tomb from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Bengbu, Anhui province, said a chief engineer involved in the project, the Changjiang Daily reported.

Wang Yuze, a chief engineer of China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group, who is responsible for the design of the section from Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, to Shanghai, released the information at a seminar held at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei province.

The imperial tomb is located seven kilometers away from suburban areas of Fengyang, Anhui province. It is where the remains of the parents of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty, rest. Wang said that in order to protect the tomb, the bypass modified the route of the world's longest high speed railway - completed in 2011 at 1,318 kilometers - with the modifications increasing a bridge section by 5,931 meters, and a tunnel section by 285 meters.