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A girl holds a candle during a candlelight vigil to commemorate earthquake victims at Hongshan Park of Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, May 17, 2008.
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Bodies wrapped with zipped white bags, people grieved with eyes rimmed red and heritage damaged with irreparable harm.
While the earthquake that struck Sichuan Province on May 12th has so far claimed more than 19,000 lives, priceless artworks and buildings of the country's cultural heritage were also seriously affected; prompting thousands of people to not only shed their tears for the innocent victims but also pray for their sympathetic cultural prides.
Shifang cigar: Cigar base's Buddhist heritage
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Shifang is one of the cities seriously damaged.
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More than 60 km to the northwest of Chengdu, the city of Shifang - called "a shining pearl in West Sichuan" - became the latest dim casualty of the deadly earthquake.
Hundreds in the Shifang area are reported buried among the rubble of two collapsed chemical plants, a middle school and numerous residential complexes.
But, before the quake, Shifang was more widely popular to locals as home to some of the finest Chinese cigars.
According to local records, the city has been a hub for cigar production for the past 400 years.
Its top-quality cigars were on the list of royal tributes to the Qing Court during the reign of Emperor Guangxu.
In the mid-1950s, the Shifang Cigar Factory also provided specially made cigars for late Chinese leaders including Mao Zedong, He Long and Deng Xiaoping.
The largest natural wonder in Shifang is Yinghua Mountain, sacred to Buddhists. Over the past centuries, around 50 temples have been built on the mountains.
The cultural heritage of Shifang that draws thousands of visitors from home and abroad includes the 1,400-year-old Grand Arahats Monastery, the Hidden Dragon Monastery and the Mausoleum for Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) hydraulic engineer Li Bing.
The monastery is well known among Buddhist believers in China, for this is the very place where the Eighth Generation of Buddhist Zen Patriach Dao Yi, a Shifang native surnamed Ma, took the tonsure (the head-shaving ceremony) and began practicing Buddhism.
The Hidden Dragon Monastery, some 20 km north of the city of Shifang, is believed to have been a key summer resort for ancient kings based in Chengdu.
Many people know about Li Bing and his ingenious Dujiangyan irrigation project in Guanxian county of Sichuan. However, few know that Li's mausoleum is in Shifang.
Li is believed to have died while working at the Luoshui River, a tributary of the Yangtze River that flows through Shifang.
Li, believed to be of ancient Qiang ethnic origin, was born and laid to rest in Shifang.
It is unclear when exactly the mausoleum was first built. But, it has been rebuilt many times in history and was frequently visited by grateful locals and officials.
Sanxingdui ruins: Faces from 5,000 years ago
Guanghan county, located some 40 km northeast of Sichuan capital Chengdu, is known as the very place where the puzzling prehistoric Sanxingdui ruins were excavated in the 1980s.
The age-old heritage site became one of the victims of the fatal earthquake that struck western China. The walls of the world-renowned Sanxingdui Ruins museum were damaged in the disaster that has claimed the lives of thousands and counting.
On the second and third floors of the museum, some 20 sets of 3,000- to 4,000-year-old ceramic utensils that were featured on display fell to the ground, shattering to pieces. Immediate reports after the quake, however, indicated the museum's bronzeware remained intact.
Founded by local farmers in 1929, the prehistoric Sanxingdui remnants first stunned the world in the 1980s. Since then, further excavations have led to other considerable archaeological findings.
Since 1929, more than 10,000 relics from 3,000- to 5,000-year-ago have been discovered from the site.
Archaeologists around the world were excited by the unearthing of large palatial remains in 1980, the remnants of eastern, western and southern walls in 1984, and the findings of two large sacrificial pits in 1986.
These discoveries prove that Sanxingdui contains the ruins of an ancient city, previously the political, economic and cultural center of the ancient Shu Kingdom.
A metropolis of its time, Sanxingdui boasted highly developed mining and agricultural systems, and produced ceramics and sacrificial tools.
Before the excavation of Sanxingdui, it was believed that Sichuan had a history dating back only
3,000 years. Now, it is believed that civilized culture first appeared in the province 5,000 years ago.
Archaeologists further believe the Sanxingdui ruins dispel theories insisting the Yellow River was the sole starting point of Chinese civilization.
The prehistorical Sanxingdui civilization has puzzled historians. There are several theories surrounding the fall of the ancient civilization because it disappeared with little trace - except for trinkets left behind unlike those found in other periods of Chinese history.
Dujiangyan Waterworks: A heritage that barely escaped
A small city in Sichuan province - Dujiangyan - has caught the world's attention with Premier Wen Jiabao directing relief efforts from here in the wake of the devastating earthquake. It is also one of the rare survivors in the catastrophe that most of the parts of the ancient hydraulic wonder have been found intact.
According to the local cultural relics bureau, only the front gate at the Dujiangyan scenic region was damaged in this week's quake. But sadly, Erwangmiao - Temple of Two Kings - where people paid tribute to Li Bing and his son for 2,000 years near Dujiangyan city, is said to have totally collapsed after Monday's quake.
"Dujiangyan was built according to the natural flow of the river. I think it is not prone to damage. I'm rather sure of that," Luo Zhewen, director of China Cultural Relics Society who has visited Sichuan many times, told local media.
To the Chinese, Dujiangyan is a source of much pride, and was designated a World Cultural Heritage site in 2000.
In 256 BC, Li Bing, chief of the Shu Prefecture (roughly today's Sichuan) of the Qin Dukedom in the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), led the local people in building a massive water conservancy project that curbed floods and irrigated farmlands.
Known as Dujiangyan, the project has remained functional for the past 2,200 years and has irrigated some 670,000 hectares of fields by 1998. It is vital for turning the Sichuan Basin into one of the country's major grain producing areas.
Minjiang, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, originates from the northern mountains of Sichuan. Every spring and summer, heavy rains wash mud and rocks into the narrow river. Unlike the Nile River that brings fertile sand to the banks every year, Minjiang ravages the area with its annual floods, washing away farmlands.
According to legend, Li Bing and his son, who had strong enough magical powers to curb a vicious dragon, invited local farmers to study the geographical conditions before deciding a tunnel should be dug through a mountain to divert water for irrigation.
They burnt rocks until they exploded and finally managed to dig a tunnel 20 m wide, 40 m high and 80 m long through the Yulei Hill. The tunnel is named Baopingkou (Treasure Bottle Mouth) after its peculiar shape.
To direct water into the "bottleneck," a weir was built upstream. Pebble-filled bamboo cages were placed in the river, forming a narrow islet resembling a fish mouth. The surging river is thus divided into two: The inner part flows toward the "bottle" and irrigates farmlands; the outer part continues its journey south to meet the Yangtze River.
Another weir was built between the mouth of the "fish" and the "bottle". During floods, the muddy water would flow over the low weir, bringing sand and rock into the main river, thus reducing sediment that could block the bottle mouth easily.
In the late 13th century, Italian traveler Marco Polo visited Dujiangyan. He said, "Water in the drainage area of Dujiang is rather turbulent and bountiful in fish.
"There are many boats coming and going, carrying cargo and passengers."
Some six centuries later, German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen also visited the area during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). He praised it as an irrigation project unparalleled in the world. He was the first Westerner to introduce Dujiangyan to the rest of the world.
In its 2,000-year history, Dujiangyan has withstood many natural disasters. On Aug 25, 1933, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale shook Diexi of Maoxian county, which was also seriously affected by Monday's quake.
Minjiang and its tributaries were blocked by landslides for 45 days. On Oct 10, floods broke through the blockage and rushed into Dujiangyan city, causing some 5,000 deaths. Several parts of the ancient water conservancy project were destroyed. Miraculously, though, the main parts remained functional.