Spaklival a Távol-Keleten

By giving an outline of the Chinese cultural heritage protection system, thefirst part of this paper concentrates on the opportunities and limits of archaeological investigation conducted by foreigners in the People's Republic Abstracts 267of China. It not only presents the history of preserving archaeological recordsand describes its legal and institutional backgrounds, but also details howthe existing legal provisions limit the opportunities of on-site research forforeigners. Other problems of heritage protection are also listed. Despite increasing legal efforts, tourism, archaeological looting, large scale constructions, and many other destructive factors all result in significant damage ofarchaeological property, and call for improved protection. Additionally, ashortage of experienced professionals and some major weaknesses of Chinese academic writings (such as the relative absence of comprehensive theoretical works, reliable databases, objective and detailed descriptions, etc.) require further reforms. While the above situation makes the use of publisheddata more difficult, it also increases the number of interdisciplinary researchgroups in the context of Sino-foreign cooperations. However, for individualscholars, archaeological investigation in China can still present a significantchallenge. In this manner, the second part of the paper provides an example of thelimits and opportunities detailed above through summarizing the results ofthe author's own research conducted in China.