Protection of cultural heritage in China

　　Legal system building has been constantly improved and a system of laws and regulations on cultural relics protection has been basically developed. In 1982, China issued the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics, the country's first law in the field of cultural relics. The law was revised in October, 2002. Within the framework of the law, the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage have drawn up some 30 regulatory documents and administration regulations, and a number of local regulations have been released. In addition, China has joined the four international conventions concerning the protection of cultural heritage, including the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970).

　　Local governments at all levels put high value on cultural heritage undertakings. In accordance with the planning of the central government, local governments at all levels have integrated cultural relics protection into their economic and social development plans and constantly upgraded social status and overall levels of cultural heritage undertakings. As a result, expenditures on cultural relics protection have been substantially increased; the special fund for cultural relics protection earmarked from the centrally controlled state revenue increased from 129 million RMB in 1994 to 534 million RMB in 2005. Since 2005, the Government of Beijing Municipality has invested 120 million RMB annually in the protection of cultural relics. Moreover, some provinces and cities have reinforced the building of administration authorities and law enforcement personnel involved with cultural heritage.

　　Remarkable achievements have been scored in the surveying and inventory building of cultural relics resources in China. Key projects such as the building of inventories for key state-level protection sites and first-class museum collections of cultural relics have been launched. The country's cultural relics resources have been initially ascertained and information on quantity, quality, distribution and protection of state-owned unmovable cultural relics and museum collections of moveable cultural relics have been basically acquired.

　　Basic work on the protection of cultural relics has been further sped up. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage has conducted surveys on basic conditions of the country's protection organizations and museums. Priorities have been given to projects for the restoration and protection of key state-level protection sites such as the Potala Palace in Tibet and the Forbidden City in Beijing and a large number of other key state-level protection sites. As a result, key state-level protection sites have been protected from threats of serious accidents.

　　A protection and planning system for large-scale remains has been initially established. The state has earmarked a special fund for the protection of large-scale remains, which has remarkably facilitated the establishment of regulations on and protection projects, facilities and display areas of large-scale remain sites. Protection facilities for the Emperor Qin's Mausoleum Remains and the Daming Palace Remains in Shaanxi and Koguryo Remains in Jilin and Liaoning have taken shape, which have provided examples for large-scale rescue, protection and utilization of other large-scale remains.

　　Construction of museums has increased. A total of some 2,300 museums have been set up nationwide, which present nearly 10,000 displays and exhibitions and receive about 150 million visitors from home and abroad annually. The renovation and expansion project for the National Museum of China has been launched and a number of large-scale museums have been completed and opened to the public. Large-scale museums such as the Shanghai Museum, Capital Museum and the China Science Museum have undergone rapid upgrades in infrastructure, research and display, management and operation, and service for the general public, thus reaching or approaching levels of museums abroad.