An Jiayao

An Jiayao is a Chinese archaeologist and the director the Xi’an Research Program and the Han & Tang Research Program of the Archaeology Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). She is a specialist in the ancient glass of China, Central Asia, and the Near East and has additional interests in Sui and Tang dynasty Buddhist temples, the Taiye Lake ruins at the Tang dynasty Da Ming Palace, and the preservation and exhibition of archaeological sites. She received her MA in 1982 from Archaeology Department of CASS and has been involved in numerous excavations. From 2001 to 2005, she led an excavation at the imperial gardens at Daming Palace's Taiye Pond in a joint project between CASS's Institute of Archaeology and Japan's Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties. In 2014, she received a letter of appointment to membership in the Central Research Institute of Culture and History from Premier Li Keqiang. As deputy leader of the World Heritage Expert Group at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, she also helped submit applications to UNESCO for the Anyang Yin Ruins, the West Lake in Hangzhou, and the Site of Xanaduto to become World Heritage Sites.