Shanghai's Huangpu District government suspended the planned demolition of some old residential buildings today after hundreds of bricks dating to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties were found.

The district's cultural relics authority found more than 200 such bricks at Lane 60 Zizhong Road. Some of the bricks were inscribed with the Chinese characters "Fifth Year of Xianfeng" (1855) and "Shanghai City Wall."

Demolition work was suspended to allow cultural relics experts time to teach the workers how to spot ancient bricks in case they found more, the Huangpu publicity department told Shanghai Daily.

The district government asked the demolition company to collect and hand in all ancient bricks found at the site.

A resident in the community surnamed Dong said that once word had spread people were coming to the site to steal the bricks.

"Many people on motorcycles came and picked up some bricks and drove away," Dong said.

An authentic Qing Dynasty brick can be sold for about 1,000 yuan (US$162) on the local cultural relics market, said Xiang, an amateur collector living nearby. He said he called the district's cultural relics authority about the ancient bricks.