Protection of cultural heritage in China

　　Ministry of Culture

　　May 25, 2006

　　China enjoys a world-acclaimed ancient civilization. Over the course of history, Chinese people of all ethnic groups have jointly created valuable cultural heritage resources with a multitude of types, diverse forms and rich contents that are exceptional in the world. China's cultural heritage reflects the unique spirit, values, ways of thinking, imagination, and vitality and creativity of the Chinese nation, and are thus cherished as treasures of human civilization. Cultural heritage has influenced the Chinese people's ideas and concepts and made special and important contributions to the continuation and evolution of the Chinese civilization.

　　The Chinese government has always attached great importance to the protection of cultural heritage and drawn up a series of major policies and plans. In the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics, a protection guideline is prescribed featuring "emphasis on protection, rescue first, reasonable utilization and reinforced administration." In December, 2005, the State Council issued the Circular on Strengthening the Protection of Cultural Heritage, stipulating that people's governments at all levels and relevant departments, with a strong sense of responsibility to the nation and history and from a perspective of safeguarding cultural safety of the nation, should fully recognize the importance of protecting cultural heritage, further enhance their sense of responsibility and urgency and work hard to better protect cultural heritage. It is also stipulated in the Circular that the second Saturday of June is designated as National Cultural Heritage Day, since 2006.

　　Ⅰ. Cultural heritage resources in China

　　China's cultural heritage consists of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Tangible cultural heritage refers to cultural relics with historical, artistic and scientific values, including movable and unmovable cultural relics.

　　1. Movable cultural relics include ancient cultural remains, ancient tombs, ancient architectures, grotto temples, stone carvings, murals, and important remains and representative buildings in the history of modern China.

　　There are nearly 400,000 registered sites of unmovable cultural relics in mainland China so far. Administration by levels is exercised on the protection of unmovable cultural relics in China. Important unmovable cultural relics are classified as sites under protection at the county and municipal, provincial or state levels. In China, there are so far 2,352 sites under the state-level protection, 9,396 sites under the provincial-level protection and 58,300 sites under the county or municipal-level protection. Moreover, 103 cities are designated as "Historically and Culturally Famous City."

　　Since 1985, when China joined the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage, 31 cultural and natural heritage sites in China have been added to the World Heritage List, among which there are four natural heritage sites, four cultural and natural heritage sites, one cultural landscape and 22 cultural heritage sites.

　　2. Movable cultural relics refer to important artifacts, artworks, documents, manuscripts, publication materials and representative artifacts of different historical periods, which are categorized into valuable cultural relics and common cultural relics. Valuable cultural relics are classified as first-class, second-class or third-class. So far, a total of some 20 million pieces or sets of movable cultural relics are collected in museums of mainland China.

　　Ⅱ. China's achievements in the protection of cultural relics

　　Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and especially since the policy of reform and opening up was launched in the 1970s, remarkable achievements have been made in the protection of cultural relics in China. Since the Ninth Five-Year Plan was implemented, as the country's economic power and comprehensive national strength has been substantially enhanced, and China's cultural relics undertaking has embraced a brand new era of development, and new accomplishments have been achieved as follows: