Xi'an's First Subway Line Opens 

In an ancient city riddled with historical sites and invaluable artifacts, where the Terracotta Army was discovered by farmers while digging a water well, it was never an easy task to tunnel metro lines without harming cultural relics.

Being one of China's oldest cities with more than 3,000 years of history, Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province in the country's less developed west, opens its first subway line on Sept. 16.

Known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty about 400 years ago, Xi'an has served as the capital for 13 dynasties spanning a total of 1,100 years.

In order to minimize harm to numerous ancient cultural sites both above and below the ground, construction of the metro system is designed to avoid major historical sites, said Zheng Yulin, director of the city's cultural relics bureau.

Top metro designers, scientists and construction personnel from across the country were invited to work out a plan to minimize the harm that could be caused to cultural relics during construction of the metro lines, said Xiang De, deputy director of the bureau.

About 26 million yuan (about 4 million U.S dollars) has been invested for the protection of cultural relics during construction, said Luo Jifeng, chief engineer of the Xi'an Subway Co. Ltd.

However, in order to make way for the 21 train stations, archaeologists have had to excavated about 150 ancient tombs which contained over 200 cultural relics, according to the city's cultural relics bureau.

Altogether six subway lines with a length of 251 km are scheduled to be built in Xi'an by 2020, which is part of the city's ambitious plan to become one of China's biggest cities.

Source: Xinhua