The Great Wall of China Photos: IC

 
A Chinese expert said UNESCO’s praise to the continued efforts in the conservation of the Great Wall is an acknowledgement to China’s increasingly important role in international heritage affairs.

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee adopted a decision on Friday announcing that it “takes note with satisfaction” of the measures adopted by China to mitigate the threats on the UNESCO-listed world heritage, according to the result of the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Fuzhou, capital of East China’s Fujian Province.

“China has developed a relatively mature work system on world heritage protection, and the decision has signified that China has begun to play an increasingly important role in international heritage affairs. China’s experience could offer some help to other countries,” Zhang Jianwei, a research fellow at the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University, told the Global Times.

He added that in the future, more attention will be paid to research, protection and sustainable development of heritage communities and sites, as well as to scientific and technical support and protection in the 5G era. 

The World Heritage Committee has reviewed a total of 255 World Heritage site protection reports. Only three of them, including the Great Wall in China, Comoé National Park and Taï National Park in Cote d’Ivoire won the honor.  

This is the second time that China’s world heritage protection and management work has won this honor after the Grand Canal, the longest canal in the world, in 2018.

Besides the Great Wall, the World Cultural Heritage Protection Status Reports of other five Chinese World Heritage sites passed successfully, including the Historical Ensemble of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, the Historic Centre of Macau, the Ancient Building Complex in Wudang Mountains, the Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape, and Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor.