The local government of Fancheng in Xiangyang, central China’s Hubei province is spending 4 million yuan (US$ 626,000) on protecting a 323-year-old catalpa tree during an ongoing transformation project of an old city in Fancheng District, Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.

The 323-year-old catalpa tree is more than 20 meters high and stands in the middle of a road. “I used to play hide and seek with my friends under the tree when I was a little child,” said Du Shaoquan, who is an elderly resident in the community.

In order to protect the catalpa tree, the Fanchang District local government is spending more than 4 million yuan on it. According to the project manager, Zhang Lizhi, experts have been hired to evaluate the surrounding environment and produce a plan to prevent soil erosion.

Workers dug holes 20 meters deep and drove 91 piles into the ground around the tree which have been filled with cement, with grass then planted around the base of the tree. Meanwhile, the conservation area for the tree has been extended to nearly 3,000 square meters, with the extra condition that no parking lot can be built beneath.

Fancheng Disctrict official Deng Zhuohai stated that the protection of the ancient catalpa tree demonstrates the ecological considerations that the district government insisted upon in the construction work that is going into the redevelopment of the old city.