Beijing, Feb 16 (IANS): Chinese authorities on Thursday announced that a museum and park will be built on the ruins of an ancient capital city.

"Construction of the project will start in the first half of this year near the city of Luoyang, where over 40,000 sq metres of ruins belonging to the Xia Dynasty (2100-1600 BC) have been excavated since 1959," said Yu Jie, head of the city's cultural heritage bureau.

Yu said the museum, with a planned building area of 30,000 sq metres, will showcase around 40,000 items, such as excavated antiques, text and graphic documents .

The most famous piece unearthed is a 70cm-long turquoise dragon, formed from more than 2,000 pieces of turquoise. 

Chinese archaeologists dubbed the artefact the "Dragon of China", saying it was the earliest evidence of the country's infatuation with dragons.

A cultural ruins park will also be built. It will protect and display the sites of the ancient city walls, palace, roads, as well as handcraft workshops of bronze casting and turquoise, and the sacrifice venue of the ruins.

"The park will also simulate scenes from over 3,000 years ago by landscaping and building workshops based on the discoveries," Yu said.