The 28th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) started to discuss 48 proposed additions to the current World Heritage List in east China’s Suzhou City on Tuesday.

The 48 new candidate sites include 33 cultural sites and eight natural sites, which are proposed by 36 countries, said Zhang Xinsheng, chairman of the convention. Another seven are extension applications of the current world heritage sites.

China has put forward three historical sites for the UNESCO heritage list at this conference, which include the capital cities, mausoleum and tombs of the ancient Koguryo kingdom (about first through fifth centuries AD) in Ji'an City of Jilin Province, the three imperial mausoleums dedicated to first and second emperors and the two empresses of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), as well as to the ancestors of the emperors, all of which are in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, and the Shenyang Imperial Palace of the early Qing Dynasty.

The candidate sites will be assessed and approved by the WHC, which will announce its selections on July 2.

The current list comprises of 754 sites of "outstanding universal value" in 129 countries, including 582 cultural and 149 natural sites, and 23 mixed sites.

The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (CCPWCNH) was approved by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1972.Its 178 member countries elect 21 representatives to form the WHC, which designates sites around the world with outstanding cultural values or unique natural beauty and inscribes them on the World Heritage List.

Joining the CCPWCNH in 1985, China has had 29 sites inscribed on the World Cultural Heritage List, ranking third in number.

(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2004)