China Tries to Protect Cultural Heritage amid Fast Economic Growth

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 20, 2002

China Tries to Protect Cultural Heritage amid Fast Economic Growth

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China must rescue and protect its cultural heritage in a time of rapid infrastructure construction, and make use of the heritage under proper management, Chinese officials told a national conference on cultural heritage.

Speaking at the conference Thursday, Chinese Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng said the sustained and rapid growth of the Chinese economy provided a more solid base and better conditions for protecting cultural heritage, but the conflict between large-scale exploration and construction and cultural relics protection grew more serious.

"There are frequent incidences where cultural heritage is ignored and regional features destroyed," said Sun.

The previous conference of this kind was held in 1996.

Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said China had made unprecedented achievements in cultural heritage protection since 1996, and now was home to 28 World Heritage sites, among the countries with the most World Heritage sites.

China declared 770 places to be important cultural heritage sites in the past seven years, in addition to 499 places declared from 1949 to 1996, Shan said. China also repaired the Potala Palace in Tibet, the Forbidden City and other major cultural relics, and took substantial measures to protect cultural relics during the construction of the Three Gorges dam and other major projects.

According to the conference, China will focus on the conservation of important cultural heritage sites like the Forbidden City and on protecting cultural relics during major projects like the Three Gorges dam and the Qinghai-Tibet railway in the years ahead. All cultural heritage will be protected in line with the principle of "first rescue, then manage properly".

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