China has put another 1,081 cultural heritage sites onto the state-level protection list taking the total number to 2,352.

This is the sixth time the Chinese government has selected the most precious cultural heritage sites across the country including archaeological locations, ancient tombs and buildings, grottos and stone inscriptions, according to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH).

Previously the Chinese government has announced five batches of state-level cultural heritage sites in 1961, 1982, 1988, 1996 and 2001 with a total number of 1,271 locations being identified. 

The selection of the sixth group of sites started in 2004. The SACH called upon more than 60 experts in the fields of cultural relics, archaeology, construction 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 but Shan Jixiang, head of the SACH, said on Thursday that it was still not enough.

"Compared with the long history of China and the large quantity of cultural heritage which remains there are still too few sites under state-level protection," Shan said.

More than 400,000 ancient relic sites across China have been registered in surveys so the 1,271 currently under state-level protection is regarded as small.  

In Egypt over 20,000 heritage sites are protected by government. And around 5,000 sites in India and over 2,800 sites in Vietnam are under state-level protection, Shan said.

With the rapid economic development of China, the contradiction between economic construction and cultural heritage protection is becoming more acute. A number of cultural heritage sites have been damaged by illegal construction. There's also been many reports of thefts from ancient tombs in country locations. .

It was a serious situation, Shan said. Putting more cultural heritage sites under state-level protection would help prevent the further destruction and provide for their appropriate conservation, he pointed out. 
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2006)