ABSTRACT
Foreigners have been attracted to China’s archaeological remains for many years, some bent on legitimate archaeological studies, but many with more-reprehensible motives, and as a result there was undisguised pillaging of archaeological sites to meet the demands of an international collecting market. The People’s Republic of China was founded on 1 October 1949. The Provisional Measures on Excavation are aimed at protecting the research into China’s archaeological heritage. In 1952 China entered the first five-year period of planned economic construction. The protection of historical relics from the impact of capital construction became a major development in New China’s archaeology. The People’s Republic of China has made remarkable progress in the protection and administration of its archaeological heritage over the past 30 years.
