attila.jpg (Photo : www.comicvine.com)
A national heritage park is set to rise at the site of the former Hun capital in an attempt to conserve cultural relics and drive more tourism in Shaanxi.
Chinese authorities revealed on Sunday their plans of building an infrastructure around the 1,600-year-old town of Tongwancheng, a place known to contain the only remnants of the ancient Huns, also known as the Chinese nomadic tribe Xiongnu.
According to the Provincial Bureau of Cultural Heritage's Deputy Head Guo Xianzeng, the nomadic Huns are known to have traveled and made their mark across central Asia, northern China and Europe.
In order to preserve what historic relics the tribe left in the area, the local government decided to build a heritage park which would include an underground museum.
Guo said that the move was aimed at enhancing public awareness of the cultural relics which will be put under the government's protection as well as to boost the province's tourism industry, explaining that once done, the park will be listed as a world cultural heritage park.
The construction of the heritage park is expected to last around five years and will follow strict building principles in order to maintain the town's historic value.
The Tongwancheng Town's national heritage park will rise about 500 kilometers from Xi'an in Jingbian County.
The Huns, also known as herdsmen and warlike people from the steppes of North Central Asia north of China (now known as Mongolia), are infamous for terrorizing Asia and Europe from the third through the fifth century.
The most famous of their leaders include Attila the Hun, also known as "Scourge of God," who killed his own brother in A.D. 445 in order to take control over the tribe for himself.
While Attila ruled the tribe, the Huns have further expanded their territory and later reached deeper into Europe.
Their rule ended when Attila died after he bled out on the night of his last wedding for unknown reasons, though some people believed that he was poisoned.
