Ancient winery site discovered in China's Hebei

SHIJIAZHUANG, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- A large scale winery site dating back to the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) has been unearthed in north China's Hebei Province.

The Hebei provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology said Tuesday tanks for making wine were found in a construction site in Taocheng District, Hengshui City earlier in March. The institute launched an archaeological investigation and excavation between August and November.

Covering an area of about 3,000 square meters, pits, drying fields, underground distillation stoves and a large number of relics including ceramic pieces, metals, glass and shells were unearthed at the site, according to Hu Qiang, who leads the archaeological team.

Archaeologists said the winery site dates back to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties to the 1950s. It is the only winery site dating after the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) to be excavated in north China.

The layout, structure and scale of the site are rare in China, giving it high historical and cultural research value, according to the archaeologists.