China owns 47 World Heritage Sites

China’s Grand Canal and the ancient Silk Road jointly applied by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, were both inscribed on the World Heritage list on June 22 during the 38th session of the World Heritage Committee in Doha, Qatar. So far, China has 47 items listed on the UNESCO’s world heritage list, second only to Italy in the world. Successful biding for world heritage of the two sites is of great significance for China to promote and protect cultural construction, to preserve human civilization and to protect ancient culture.


“It’s worth mentioning that the two sites are both trans-provincial, trans-regional and one is trans-national, these two sites are good examples China making unprecedented efforts to protect cultural heritage, despite of the complexity, difficulty and large scale to do so,” says Tong Mingkang, vice director of State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
While applying the Grand Canal for the world heritage, the Chinese government has combined protection with expanding its function, with cities and towns development, environmental protection, historical culture demonstration, to promote local economic and social development. The ancient Silk Road is the first trans-national site bided by China and neighboring countries. The successful bidding has injected new vitality to this 2,000-year-old Silk Road, and is of great importance to promoting the economic belt development alongside the Silk Road, and to sustaining world peace and common prosperity.

 

In recent years, Chinese government has strengthened protection of cultural heritage, and made the best of protection, utilization, heritage and development. As a result, the excellent traditional culture has been inherited and promoted. The authorities at different levels have increased fund support to protect world cultural heritage. Meanwhile, Chinese government has established and improved related system and protection mechanism. According to the Protection Regulations for World Cultural Heritage released by the Ministry of Culture, China has adopted the patrol inspection system to protect the UNESCO listed sites in China. The one in case of being damaged in originality and integrity due to weak protection will be on the warning list.

(Source: www.cipnews.com.cn)