China’s Jian City Launches City Plan

Jian City in Jilin, China, recently made an overall modification in its city plan in order to protect Goguryeo remains that are designated as world cultural heritage artifacts, local media reported on Monday.

It has decided to move its downtown area, including its municipal government.

Concerning this, Korean scholars displayed cautious responses, saying that it is necessary to find out why China has been excavating Goguryeo remains so quickly since last year, while they agreed with China’s effort to protect Goguryeo relics.

According to local media, Jian City is prohibiting any extension or remodeling of buildings for the next 50 years in the downtown area where the Gungnaeseong Fortress of Goguryeo used to be located, and has decided to move all modern buildings somewhere else.

The city also plans to transfer its industrial complex near the tomb of King Gwanggaeto the Great to other places.

Earlier in March last year, the city created a Goguryeo historical park after evacuating 43 government affiliated organizations from city buildings. It also moved 1,150 households and 4,145 employees working for 51 organizations, factories, schools, and stores to other places. The city made cultural heritage regulations to protect historic places and designated an area of 700,000 square meters (about 210,000 pyong), where historic relics are concentrated, as a protection zone. Jilin Province and Jian City held a Goguryeo history festival for tourists on July 27 and published four reports on the excavation of Goguryeo sites, including Gungnaeseong Fortress, Hwandosanseong Fortress, Goguryeo royal tombs in Jian, and Onyeosanseong Fortress. The provincial governments of Jilin and Liaoning participated in this project. Goguryeo Research Group chairman Seo Gil-soo, a professor at Seogyong University who recently visited China, pointed out, “China started to excavate Goguryeo sites in Jian and moved about 1,000 households in six months. There is clearly a purpose when we see that China has unearthed more historical relics during the last six months than it has during the last 50 years.”

Yoo-Seong Hwang yshwang@donga.com