Photo: Courtesy of the organizer of the 2024 Competition for the Transmission and Promotion of Beijing Central Axis

The 2024 Competition for the Transmission and Promotion of Beijing Central Axis was launched at the Capital Museum on Sunday. The event aims to inject fresh vitality, create new scenes, and achieve innovative outcomes for the protection, inheritance, and utilization of cultural heritage along the Beijing Central Axis.

Over the past three years, the competition has attracted over 400,000 direct participants from both domestic and international regions, with an indirect reach of over 100 million people, ac-cording to representatives at the opening ceremony.

"The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will continue to cooperate closely with China to expand new horizons and create more opportunities for ex-changes and mutual learning between civilizations," said Shahbaz Khan, UNESCO director of the Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, at the opening ceremony.

The organizing committee of the competition selected outstanding works from the 2023 compe-tition, including photography, painting, and short videos, for exhibition, and presented highlights from the previous three competitions through video compilations, capturing exciting moments.

The spectacular performances by contestants from both domestic and international regions fully demonstrate the active role the competition plays in promoting heritage protection through "public participation, public support, and public impetus."

This year's competition features multiple tracks. The Old City Renaissance track aims to find suitable paths and methods for improving and organically developing the core area of Beijing's old city. The "Creative Expression" track encourages the public to express the cultural heritage of the Central Axis through diverse creative means such as imagery, painting, and creative de-sign. The "Ambassador Enthusiast" track encourages community members and the public, espe-cially young people, to play a demonstrative role and strive to become Axis Cultural Ambassa-dors. The "Axis Pattern" track lays the groundwork for the forthcoming construction of the Axis Pattern Digital Gene Bank.

Global Times