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)