Several local residents are urging the city government not to demolish what could be the country's earliest Western-style "Yamen" or court after it was included in a relocation project.

　　Tan yufeng, head of the ground relics department of the Shanghai Commission of Cultural Relics Management, said, "We have already sent officials to examine the site, to see if it is worth preserving as a historic heritage site."

　　Located at 191 Zhejiang Road N., the court has been used by the Shanghai No 9 Medical Instruments Factory as its office building for more than three decades.

　　"The court building is a precious construction," Zhao Guangbi, a section chief of the instruments factory, insisted yesterday.

　　However, the weather-beaten building could be reduced to a rubble in months after the Zhabei District government announced late last year that it would reconstruct a big piece of land - including the court - into a modern residential area.

　　Surrounded by Haining Road, Qufu Road, Zhejiang Road N. and Xizang Road N., the area is now packed with old buildings, storage houses and free markets.

　　The deadline for the relocation is June 30, 2004, Zhao revealed.

　　"Our factory will surely be moved to a site in Yangpu District but we expect the city government to keep the court, or part of it," he said.

　　The factory's archives show the court was designed by Westerners, and opened in late 1899.

　　According to Zhao, the court was once used to try ordinary criminals during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). And before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, many communist-led activists and revolutionary leaders were temporarily jailed there by the then Kuomintang government.

　　Essentially, the court comprised of four buildings, two of which have been re-constructed into new office buildings. The two re-maining buildings, standing side by side, are now the factory's dining room and administrative office.

　　"Some of the interior decoration has eroded through the ages but we can still find the original floor and window frames," Zhao added.

　　Despite the city's existing 400-plus historic buildings that are being protected at different administrative levels, commission officials expect locals to report more undiscovered architectural heritage sites in the city.