Recently, along with my parents, I set     1    for Shangrila, a city in Yunan Province, which appeals     2     (mass) of tourists. We first went to the Potatso National Park, which stretched across vast forests, wetlands, lakes, meadows, and several remote villages. On top of its     3     (dramatic) amazing scenery, the park is also famous for its rich biological diversity. At Shudu Lake, we saw horses, cows, and yaks enjoying the sunlight and eating grass contentedly. As I have a passion for beautiful     4     (landscape), you can imagine how     5     (engage) I was in taking a look at the sight. For those who live in cities as we do, nothing is more rewarding than breathing the fresh air and     6     (hike) under this broad sky in nature.

URUMQI-After packing some naan bread and    1     dented water bottle, Shan Zhizheng and his wife start up their motorcycle and head off to a cultural relic site,     2     (break) the silence that envelops the valley.

It’s a round trip of around 150 kilometers and    3     (they) starting point is the pastoral and farming landscape of Wenquan county in Bortala,Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region(维吾尔自治区).

    4     (know) as “a museum without walls”, Wenquan county is home to nearly 260 cultural relic sites under    5     (variety) levels of protection, including tombs, cliff paintings and    6     (ruin),    7     provide materials for researching the history of ancient northern nomads and tribes, according to the county cultural relic protection bureau.

Shan and his wife, Yuan Qin, are responsible for protecting one particular relic site that    8     (cover) about eight square kilometers. Once a week, the couple patrols more than 200 ancient tombs dating back     9     between the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220).

Their relic protection routine usually includes walking around the site to look for footprints and motorcycle tracks, keeping records of the tombs,     10     updating the local cultural relic authorities in a timely manner.

Chinese archeologists have successfully unearthed an animal bronze statue at the Sanxingdui Ruins in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province.     1     (weigh) more than 300 grams, the mythical beast is about one meter tall and one meter long and it is also the largest animal bronze statue ever     2     (see).

The bronze statue looks like a mythical beast     3     a large mouth, slim waist and four feet. Of note, a human figure wearing a long coat stands     4     (exact) on the head of the beast. Researchers think that it may show that the person is riding or controlling the beast.

Zhao Hao, the researcher in charge, explains that since the excavation of the Sanxingdui Ruins first started in 1986, all the animal statues     5     (be) small, around 20-30 centimeters long, but the     6    (discover) of the new bronze statue sets a new record, and as of now, is     7     only large-sized animal statue.

The chest of the beast also sports the image of a tree. “This tree,     8     was directly cast on the beast, reflects a fact that indicates that the Sanxingdui people regarded     9     (tree) as a kind of remarkable thing,” Zhao said.

So far, nearly 14,000     10     (culture) relics have been extracted from the sacrificial pits at Sanxingdui.