China has added another 1,081 cultural heritage sites into the
state-level protection list, making the total number on the list to
2,352.
This is the sixth time the Chinese government has selected the
most precious cultural heritage sites across the country, including
archaeological sites, ancient tombs, ancient buildings, grottos and
stone inscriptions, according to the State Administration of
Cultural Heritage (SACH).
Previously, Chinese government had announced five batches of
state-level cultural heritage sites in 1961, 1982, 1988, 1996 and
2001, respectively, with a total number of 1,271.
The selection of the sixth batch of the most precious heritage
sites started in 2004. The SACH organized more than 60 experts in
the fields of cultural relics, archaeology, construction history
and modern history to select the sites from the candidates
submitted by local governments.
The number of cultural heritage sites under state-level
protection has greatly increased this time. However, Shan Jixiang,
head of the SACH, said on Thursday that the total number is still
not enough.
"Compared with the long history of China and the large quantity
of existing cultural heritages in the country, there are still too
few heritage sites put under state-level protection," Shan
said.
More than 400,000 ancient relic sites across China have been
registered by surveys. But only 1,271 were under state-level
protection previously.
In Egypt, over 20,000 heritage sites are protected by the
central government, and about 5,000 relic sites in India and 2,823
sites in Vietnam are under state-level protection, Shan said.
With the rapid economic development in China, the contradiction
between economic construction and cultural heritage protection is
becoming more acute. A lot of cultural heritage sites have been
damaged by illegal construction. There have also been many reports
of robbing and stealing of ancient tombs in the country.
Under the serious situation, putting more cultural heritage
sites under state-level protection will help prevent the
destruction to the heritage sites and provide better conservation
to the precious sites, Shan added.
(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2006)
