Olympics-Beijing's past lies under its future

BEIJING, Jan 26 (Reuters) Underneath the state of the art Olympic venues that will project a thoroughly modern image of China to the world in 2008 lies a 2,000-year-old reminder that Beijing also has a long and rich history.

Excavations on the land where the iconic ''Bird's Nest'' national stadium and ''Water Cube'' aquatic centre now dominate the city's skyline have unearthed a Han Dynasty graveyard.

After surveying more than a million square metres of land at all 31 venue sites in the city, archaeologists said they had discovered more than 700 tombs and 1,500 artefacts, from jade belts to Ming dynasty glassware.

''Now we have a much clearer picture of what existed underground, 2,000 years ago this was a concentration of tombs,'' Kong Fanzhi, head of China's Cultural Relic Protection Bureau, told reporters on Friday at a 500-year-old temple on the Olympic Green.

The temple, dedicated to a Taoist goddess, is a group of wood framed buildings with traditional Chinese tiled pavilion roofing and stands as a stark contrast to the ''Water Cube'' with its groundbreaking exterior of translucent cushions.

''The government attaches great importance to the preservation of the relics,'' Kong added. ''So we've had a lot to do in the building of the venues.'' PLANS CHANGE The site of the Olympic Green was chosen specifically because it was outside the walls of the Yuan and Ming Dynasty cities, Kong said, but the discovery of the temple had forced planners to site the aquatic centre 100 metres north of its original home.

Another temple of similar Ming vintage dedicated to the ''dragon god of rivers'' sits opposite what will be the athletes' village with a quartet of stone, obelisk-bearing ''ninth sons of dragons'' guarding the entrance.

Used as housing since the 1911 revolution ended imperial rule in China, both temples are having their wooden structures replaced and the roof tiles and fierce gargoyles restored.

Excavation of the graves at the site of the ''Bird's Nest'' had revealed bricks and mortar tombs for the ordinary people with special porcelain vessels containing the remains of monks, Kong said.

Kong's colleague Song Dachuan said the biggest surprise had been the discovery of a cluster of graves of eunuchs with ''exquisite artefacts'' at the shooting venue to the west of the city.

Reuters SSC RS1807