China has made remarkable progress in cultural relics conservation, witnessing an all-round achievement in management, research and personnel training, said a senior heritage official in Dunhuang on Monday.

Deputy Director Tong Mingkang of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage made the remark at the opening ceremony of the Second International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites, cosponsored by the Chinese Dunhuang Academy and the US Getty Conservation Institute in this city in northwest China, where the renowned Mogao Grottoes are located.

In recent decades, the Chinese government at all levels has done a lot to preserve its abundant historical relics and cultural heritages, and attracted various social groups to participate and support the work, Tong said.

With a focus on its law on preservation of cultural relics, China is now regularizing the cultural heritage protection work and increasing investment in this field, he said.

Special organizations and institutes have been set up at all levels, he said, noting the basic cultural relic situation in the country has been grasped through general investigations.

Although 29 Chinese cultural and natural heritage sites including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Mogao Grottoes have been inscribed on the World Heritage list, China's cultural relic preservation work is still facing some new challenges, he said, mentioning the conflict between tourism booming and heritage protection and the low-level of conservation technology.

"We have to enhance international exchanges and cooperation to solve these problems," he said, speaking highly of the role played by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the protection of the Longmen Grottoes and the role played by the Getty Conservation Institute in protecting the Mogao Grottoes.

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2004)