The picture published on Friday, March 19, 2010 shows a well with six mouths recently discovered in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. [Photo: qzwb.com]

A well with an unusual design was recently discovered in Quanzhou, a city in southeast China's Fujian Province, the website Quanzhou Evening News reports.

The well, which has six mouths and measures 3.4 meters in diameter, was built during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), according to archeologist Liu Zhicheng, who also found some porcelain shards from the period at a nearby construction site.

Liu said a well with six mouths was unusual and reflected a dense population in this area at the time, which to a certain degree indicated the prosperity of ancient Quanzhou. The city used to be one of the world's largest seaports during the Song Dynasty and hosted a large community of foreign-born inhabitants from across Eurasian.

"Six people could fetch water at the same time through pulley equipment that was installed on the top of the well, which saved time and energy," Liu was quoted as saying.

The archeologist added "Dividing a big well mouth into six smaller ones could also prevent children from falling into the well and reduce daily pollution by domestic refuse, which means that people in the Northern Song Dynasty had begun to pay attention to the sanitation of drinking water."