Hainan, the southernmost resort island of China, is a haven for beach lovers, but not for cultural heritage -at least for now.
Hidden deep in a grove of casuarinas trees in Sanya, the island's biggest city, a collection of scattered stone tablets is often overlooked as visitors head for the city's shining sands.
But the gravestones mark the site of an ancient cemetery that was placed under state-level protection in 2006.
As the country marks annual Cultural Heritage Day on Saturday, local archaeological workers have called for urgent attention to the valuable relics such as the cemetery on the island and surrounding waters which have suffered from negligence, financial constraints and rampant looting.
Hainan is a major stop on the Maritime Silk Road, providing abundant materials for efforts to study the 2,000-year-old trade route, said Chen Wenbao, head of the provincial cultural and sports department of Hainan.X
ON THE BRINK
Discovered in 1983, the 1,000-year-old cemetery, covering about 1.3 hectares, was identified as the oldest public graveyard for Muslim immigrants ever found in south China, said Mai Duyi, director of the cultural and sports bureau of Sanya.
The tombs are crucial to research on the history of Islam and its culture entering the remote island, according to Mai.
The second nationwide archeological survey in the 1980s showed the graveyard contained 49 preserved tombs. However, a third survey several years ago found the number dropped to 28 due to poor protection, Mai said.
More sadly, a larger-scale public graveyard of Muslim immigrants located in Sanya's Lingshui County was destroyed several years ago by a Hong Kong real estate developer, according to Chen.
The outlook is equally grim for archeological sites in the seas of Xisha archipelago, where many underwater shipwrecks have been ransacked over the past few years, said Li Jilong, a researcher with the provincial cultural heritage bureau. "Now, it's difficult to find an intact shipwreck in the water of Xisha."
As of last year, more than 120 shipwrecks had been discovered around the Xisha, Nansha and Zhongsha islands in the South China Sea.
However, focus has been more on land-based relics than those underwater, according to Chai Xiaoming, head of the protection center of underwater cultural heritage under the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH).
ACTION EXPECTED
Local archaeologists have called for protection plans for neglected relics, as well as for more underwater excavations and efforts against looting.
Some progress has been made.
Since 2007, SACH has organized at least one underwater survey annually in the South China Sea and the country's first professional archeological vessel was put into use last year.
In late May, archeological workers wrapped up the excavation of the shipwreck "Shanhu Island number one", which was the second notable underwater excavation in the South China Sea following the Huangguang reef number one shipwreck in 2008.
SACH has also considered building a monitoring system in the seas to detect theft of underwater relics via satellites.
Local archaeologists have vigorously pushed for the Maritime Silk Road to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage list, as they believe the status could bring more attention and financial support for the protection of the relics.
Chen Wenbao said the State Council had approved the opening of a forum on which 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are expected to share insights on the protection of the Maritime Silk Road relics this year.
As China has been working on the building of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, it is important to understand the practice of our ancestors, Chen said.
