More than 2,000 valuable historical relics have been unearthed from eight ancient ruins along the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in the past year, the Beijing News reported.

The historical relics, which include ceramics, bronze, stone and iron, have great value in the study of the economic and cultural developments and lifestyles of ancient dynasties, archaeologist Guo Jingning said.

The historical relics were unearthed mainly from 120 ancient tombs along the gigantic project.

The path of the underground project, which runs along Hubei, Henan and Hebei provinces and Beijing municipality, has plenty of historical relics, as the Chu, Qilu and Yanzhao cultures used to be important parts of ancient Chinese culture.

Also, Henan province used to be an important location of the Shang and Zhou dynasties in ancient China.