An entrance to the Shangshan Archaeological Site Park. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

Pujiang county in Jinhua, Zhejiang province recently made a bidding announcement for the construction of the Shangshan Site Museum (World Rice Source Museum) and the Shangshan Cultural Research Center in the county to global applicants.

The Shangshan Site Museum will be built at the northeast corner of the Shangshan Archaeological Site Park, with a total land area of 37,351 square meters and an above-ground construction area of 10,000 square meters, including 6,000 square meters for the site museum and 4,000 square meters for the research center.

The museum will include a main entrance, a site museum, a parking lot and a waterfront landscape belt along the northern section of the Honggong River.

The project will cost an estimated 180 million yuan ($26.98 million), of which 140 million yuan will be invested into overall construction and 40 million yuan into supporting facilities. A total of 5.88 million yuan will be spent on the design, including the overall plan, preliminary work, conceptual drawings and supporting facilities, according to Feng Yangbiao, member of the Party committee of the Pujiang county culture, broadcasting, tourism and sports bureau.

Feng added that the project aims to build the Shangshan site into an important agricultural cultural heritage and a national archaeological site park to preserve and promote Shangshan culture.

An aerial photo of Shangshan Archaeological Site Park. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

With a history of around 11,000 years, Shangshan culture is the earliest Neolithic civilization ever discovered in Zhejiang. Its artifacts were initially excavated in Shangshan village in Huangzhai town, Pujiang county, in October 2000. Since then, 21 relic sites for Shangshan culture have been discovered in Jinhua, Quzhou, Shaoxing and Taizhou, with most of them located in basins near the Qiantang River within the administrative region of Jinhua.

The phytolith remains of rice recovered from these sites have been recognized as the earliest example of rice cultivation. Therefore, Shangshan culture is considered by archaeologists to be one of the oldest agricultural civilizations in China.