The Liangzhu relic site, Neolithic ruins in Zhejiang province, was officially recommended on Friday by the National Commission of China for UNESCO as a candidate for World Heritage status in 2019.

The site on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang's capital, dates to 3300-2300 BC, roughly contemporaneous with the Old Kingdom period in ancient Egypt and the Sumer civilization in Mesopotamia. It is a complex with various types of relics, including an ancient city, tombs and a dam.

"The Liangzhu relic is a holy place of 5,000 years of Chinese civilization," President Xi Jinping, once commented. "It's a rare treasure - we must protect it well."

Archaeological work began in Liangzhu in the 1930s, and over the past eight decades understanding of the site has grown from being merely a complex of tombs to a comprehensive large-scale heritage site, said Wang Ningyuan, a researcher at the Zhejiang Provincial Research Institute for Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

"The tombs represent the different social levels," Wang said. "The layout of the ancient city is complete, and the remaining cultural relics are of abundant varieties."

Cong, a type of jade cylinder used in religious rituals, are particularly abundant in Liangzhu.

"Liangzhu is thus solid evidence of China's five millennia of civilization," he said.